Hard Lines downloads jump by more than 64,500% during free for a day promo

Spilt Milk's Andrew John Smith would be the first admit that his studio is still learning the ropes when it comes to the businesses of pushing its releases on the App Store.

As such, the decision to make the recently released Hard Lines free for a day came not as the result of a consumer survey or in depth research into the marketplace, but rather because it was Smith's 29th birthday.

What happened, however, was rather insightful, with downloads jumping to more than 12,000 during the festive free-for-all.

"It turns out it resonated with a lot of people, and we've seen a 64,542% percent increase in downloads on the day before," Smith told us in an email.

"Nicky [studio coder Nicoll Hunt] and I cannot quite believe it - we're totally blown away by the response. Hopefully it's because it's a damn good game, as well as simply being a freebie."

As impressive as the jump is – and Hard Lines is by no means the only game to see downloads surge during a free run – the challenge is to make the most of whatever tail results now the game is back at the 69p/99c mark.

First up, a major update.

"This has definitely reinforced some thinking we've been doing behind closed doors," added Smith.

"We'll have an exciting announcement soon, but what I can say for certain is that we're submitting a big update for Hard Lines tomorrow, including Game Centre support, making it a universal app, plus something rather cool we hope people really like."

Said update should hit the App Store within the next couple of weeks.

You can read the Spilt Milk Studio MD's exclusive thoughts on working conditions for developers in the industry in reply to analyst Michael Pachter's view by clicking here.