UPDATE 04.12.2013

OK, it's time to share some data from this promo.

The goal of this promotion was to complete a challenge on dvlup where a Finnish developer could get 12k XP points by creating 3 Windows 8.1 apps and getting 100 downloads each by 31st of Dec. When I first heard this I thought I'd never be able to build 3 quality apps in that time taking into consideration how small the userbase for Windows 8.1 is. So after giving it some thought I was certain I needed to build 3 apps fast and promote them as much as I could. Then a day later it suddenly hit me at the middle of the night; I need to arrange game giveaways so that only those who download could enter. That way I don't need to use a lot of money and still should be able to get the downloads fast. This forum was the perfect place to get those downloads.

So it took me a few hours of work to build all 3 apps in which I inserted the giveaway links and bought a few games. My goal was never to make the apps usable or anything as I knew the apps had nothing to do with the success when using this kind of promo. Still I was surprised how well it started to work out from day one. The first 2 days there were over 30 unique downloads/day for each app so I was at 60-70 downloads after only 2 days. The pace then slowed down to ~10-15 new downloads per day but all in all it only took 6 days from the beginning to reach 100 downloads for 2 of the apps and 8 days for the last. I'm absolutely positive I'd never have gotten 100 downloads in this time with THESE apps, or be able to build 3 quality apps in this time for that matter. I can't help but feel like an evil geniuos for coming up with this plan :p Oh, and I only used online promotion, none of the downloads came from my real world friends or relatives.

Now what do I actually get for completing this? This monday I got a confirmation from MS Finland that my apps were approved so everything was done within the rules of the challenge so I'll be getting a Lumia 2520 tablet which I'll be giving to my wife for Christmas :) I was actually the first one to complete the challenge :) Special mention to somethingcool for correctly guessing my hidden agenda :)

So around 20€ + random bundle keys and little time spend in this got me a device which costs ~650€ here. I couldn't be any happier! Thank you everyone for making this possible. I'm sure to use this method again if there will ever be challenges requiring downloads again. (BTW, what kind of advertising do you think 20€ will buy using traditional methods :p)

Thanks again and congrats once more for all the winners. Oh, there were 5 more giveaways after the last bonus but only a few realized my subtle hint. Winners for those are:

• SilentGuy / Saira
• GnsP / The Showdown Effect
• GnsP / Hammerfight
• GnsP / Sword of the Stars: Complete Collection
• GnsP / RAGE

OMG GnsP won 4 out of 5 giveaways!!!

Congrats again!

UPDATE 02.12.2013

The winner of Borderlands 2 is freaknenov. Thanks everyone!

So it's all over now. I'm a bit busy ATM so I will update the results a bit later, maybe tomorrow or Wednesday so stay tuned for a bit longer.

Also, now that it's all over, I still can't help but feel rage. I'm not going to rant over it publicly, if you're interested check the Borderlands 2 bonus giveaway. I posted my feelings there.

UPDATE 28.11.2013

All apps now have more than 100 downloads.

Days 'till new year = Borderlands 2 bonus giveaway is now live and will run until Monday. The final results and the story behind this promo will be posted after it end.

UPDATE 27.11.2013

Sorry I'm a bit late, the site has been acting up...

Days 'till new year
Just Cause 2 (runs for ~34h)

Bonus giveaways for cat and dog age calculators are now running and the regular giveaway links now point to my profile only so if you didn't download before this you're too late. The bonus giveaway for Dog Age Calculator is Terraria 4-pack and for Cat Age Calculator Total War: Shogun 2. These will run until Friday.

Days 'till new year is 3 downloads short of 100 downloads (stats until Monday). Sooo close but no cigar! If/when it hits 100 tomorrow, I will start the last bonus giveaway for

Borderlands 2 right after JC2 ends.

EDIT: The site doesn't even show the winners for yesterdays giveaways :(

UPDATE 26.11.2013 #2

Two apps have hit the 100 download mark. 2 bonus giveaways will start tomorrow! Full details posted at the end of this topic.

UPDATE 26.11.2013

Dog Age Calculator
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (runs for 24h)

Days 'till new year
English Country Tune (runs for 24h)

Cat Age Calculator
Slam Bolt Scrappers (runs for 24h)

One of tomorrows giveaways will be Just Cause 2. Other game(s) will be announced later assuming we don't hit 100 downloads yet.

One of the apps, maybe 2, will very likely cross 100 confirmed downloads today. BONUS giveaways for apps with over 100 downloads will start the day after the 100 was achieved. That would mean at least one bonus giveaway starts tomorrow! YOU CAN ONLY ENTER ALL BONUS GIVEAWAYS IF YOU DOWNLOADED ALL THE APPS before the bonus round start! The links to old giveaways will be removed before starting the bonus giveaway!

NOTE: If all the apps would by chance hit 100 today, Just Cause 2 would then be added as a 4th bonus game.

UPDATE 25.11.2013

Dog Age Calculator
Lucius (runs for 24h)

Days 'till new year
Two Worlds II + Two worlds - Pirates of the flying fortress DLC (runs for 24h)

Cat Age Calculator
Greed Corp (runs for 24h)

Next giveaway games will be announced later.

I'm closing on 100 downloads. Stay tuned, the bonus giveaways will start soon.

UPDATE 23.11.2013

Don't you just hate how the just respawn? Have no fear, CSharpest is here!

Dog Age Calculator
Organ Trail: Director's Cut (~38 hours)

Days 'till new year
Doom 3: BFG Edition (~38 hours left)

Cat Age Calculator
F.E.A.R 3 (~38 hours)

Next giveaway games will be announced later

UPDATE 22.11.2013

Say what? More?

Dog Age Calculator
AquaNox (24 hours)

Days 'till new year
Doom 3: BFG Edition (~60 hours)

Cat Age Calculator
Hard Reset Extended Edition (24 hours)

Next: F.E.A.R. 3 and Organ Trail: Director's Cut

UPDATE 21.11.2013

Even more new giveaways.

Dog Age Calculator
Plain sight

Days 'till new year
Tropico 3 Steam Special Edition

Cat Age Calculator
Judge Dredd: Dredd Vs Death

Tomorrow Doom 3 BFG, Hard Reset Extended Edition and Aquanox

And a small thanks for everyone this time: http://www.steamgifts.com/giveaway/1Egap/tropico-reloaded

UPDATE 20.11.2013

New giveaways up.

Cat Age Calculator
Giana Sisters: Twisted Bundle (runs for 36 hours)

Dog Age Calculator
Patrician IV Gold (runs for 36 hours)

Days 'till new year
Painkiller Redemption (runs for 36 hours)

Also Borderlands 2 will be the 3rd bonus giveaway

Hello all,

I have released 3 small test apps for Windows 8.1 and decided to arrange a small promo for them. For a limited time everyone who downloads any of them will get a chance to enter a private giveaway. The promo will run until there's at least 100 downloads on each app, maybe longer if we hit 100 fast.

Details

Each of my apps contain a special link to a private giveaway here on steamgifts.com Example image, see top right corner. Click it and it will take you to the most recent giveaway. There will be new giveaway after the old one expires but you only need to download each app once as the same link will update automatically and used again.

As a bonus there will be 2-3 special "thank you" -giveaways at the end of this promo. The amount of giveaways depends on what kind of success I will have with this experiment. These giveaways will only be open to those who downloaded the apps previously. A pre-determined links will be inserted to every regular giveaway, a different one for each app. You need to save this url somewhere and when the promo is over I will update the link with a additional giveaway. Any of these giveaways will not be previously bundled games.

Bonus giveaway games:

Terraria 4-pack (Steam gift)
Shogun 2: Total War (ROW key)
Borderlands 2 (Key)

Please do not share any of the links! If you want to share you need to share this topic. If I notice more entries than downloads the promo will be over!

The apps:

Cat age calculator

Cat Age Calculator

Dog age calculator

Dog Age Calculator

Days 'till new year

Days 'till new year

Oh, the downloading these apps is totally safe. The have been certified by Microsoft the same as all other apps available in the store. Also I will not be getting any money for the downloads, I'm just doing this as an experiment on how well this kind of marketing works.

Again, this is for Windows 8.1 users only! Windows 8 users can upgrade for free using Windows Store, others are out of luck unfortunately :)

Let's get this thing rolling :) Feel free to leave comments.

Winners so far:

• leander091 / Batman AA
• draxx / Painkiller: Recurring Evil
• dennyeff / Fairy Bloom Freesia + Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death + Two Worlds + DLC
• laymonade / Twisted bundle + Painkiller Redemption
• Andee / Patrician IV Gold
• Kherlon / Tropico 3
• Harnace / Plain Sight
• SquishedPotatoe / Hard Reset EE + Aquanox
• sikendestroy / Tropico Reloaded
• silvertongue00 / Doom 3 BFG
• JOKAZ / F.E.A.R 3
• GnsP / Organ Trail: Director's Cut
• aunderrednua / Greed Corp
• Mehar / Lucius
• VadoBG / English Country Tune
• bigloke / FEAR2
• morxd213 / Slam Bolt Scrappers
• repage / Just Cause 2
• richmondody / Total War: Shogun 2
• patrickmaher / Terraria 4-pack
• freaknenov / Borderlands 2

Congrats!

Thanks everyone for participating and good luck to upcoming giveaways.