Hi Everyone, Hope your all keeping safe in these strange times…
First, Tons of praise:
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This platform is so much better / easier to work with than others I’ve experienced in the recent past - mostly Samsung. Thanks to the developers that created this for us watch creators. As for Tizen creator…
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Syncing is so easy to test a watch - seriously, the process I used to go through on GWD! Reboot, check the USB…, Permissions… jumping from a 3 monitor rig to a mobile tethered to the ‘box’ with a short USB cable… Thank you!
Tons of questions thou. Bumps, no doubt, please forgive me and re-direct if needed.
Watch building:
- Can you group layers - including elements with complications?
- Can you Colour code layers for ease of reference
- How do ‘themes’ work - I would like to *compile colour options to one ‘purchase’, but the UI escapes me, sorry.
- Is there any chance you can ‘headline’ the tags function, so I know which functional element (section) I looking at. HOURS… WEATHER… cheers.
Visibility:
(Please forgive me if I’m treading on any toes here)
- Submissions seem to have a dreadfully short half-life. Downloads are so small, and brief! - and on mobile, they’re mostly invisible!
(Yes, I’m aware that the propensity to download is based on differentiation, relevance, quality etc).
Don’t get me wrong, if the market thinks my work is rubbish, then so be it, all good… but I think I’m missing something.
CONTEXT
- The first (rubbish IMHO) design I made available on the Samsung GWS got 150 downloads in 24 hours - 1500 in 2 week. My next managed 950 in 48 hours! That was 5 weeks ago.
To date - in 4 days - on FACER, I’ve published about 12 faces with a dreadful 93 downloads in 5 days!
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I realise there’s a difference in being ‘featured’ and not (I’ve read notes kindly provided). I’m talking about the structure of how new watch designs (and designers) are made visible on mobile.
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Tags: If the above is immutable - given understandable interests - how important are ‘tags’ to attempt to provide Facer users access to new and more interesting designs?
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Surely the above 3 points should change. If not, ‘face’ buyers will - as I did - bore of facer with the 'same old, from the ‘same old’.
Thanks again for creating such a brilliant platform for designers - new and veteran - to share their ideas. I love it.
Go back to the vision, step away from the shrinking money pot.
Richie Mac
Hi Richie, I’m fairly new to Facer also, since the beginning of the year, but I’ve also been building faces on another platform (Watchmaker) for a couple of years. Haven’t tried GWD yet, but that does sound …inconvenient!
There’s a “feature request” section of this forum, most of the things you’ve asked about I think I’ve seen discussed there. Grouping layers and organizing the tag drop down menu are two I’d like to see.
As to downloads I think the biggest factor is type of design, probably a very large majority of smart watch users seem to be most interested in “Digital dashboard” type of designs. There’s a guy who joined Facer around the same time as me who does mostly that style and mentioned recently he’s had around 75,000 total syncs! Meanwhile, I do only mechanically realistic analog designs, my sync count in that same time period is only around 4000.
I think you have to do it for your own enjoyment first, and if you do something that catches on then that’s bonus. I’ve got no interest in digital designs so I don’t try to go there, those who like that style will design them better than I could fake it anyway. I believe in making the faces you want to wear yourself. If you are true to your own vision the results will be unique 
for myself I describe my designs as smart watch faces for people who love watches 
…and I focus on maximum realism.
For me the jury is still out, because I only came over to Facer to try it out as a better avenue to monetize my designs than the way I do now through Watchmaker via Google play. But I’m still not even able to crack that nut to even have a chance to evaluate that aspect. From a design and ease of publishing (for free use) perspective there’s not really any advantage between one or the other platform.
Anyway, welcome and have fun!
1 Like
Hey Kvans…,
Thanks for such a friendly reply.
It’s so refreshing to hear an informative (rather than defensive) response.
Like you, I’m ‘mechanically’ minded, so I’m very aware of my preferences, and perhaps like you, I work this understanding, and design with different audiences in mind - but I’ve not made these available yet.
Thanks again for being so helpful and informative. In respect to your thoughts, I’d suggest the following data:
So, here are the numbers on one (same) watch face: Proteus …48 hours, FYR.
GWS: 950
Facer: 14
No one sees new watch faces on Facer on mobile… the principle device for download…
Richie Mac
I think Facer’s business model is obviously to funnel people into the subscriptions of Premium and/or “Pro” creator. I won’t blame them for doing what they feel is best for their own income, but I think it does put those of us who elect not to “pay to play” at a little bit of a disadvantage in terms of visibility. I don’t subscribe to premium because I’m always designing and wearing my own faces. It’s a service I would never use. I also refuse to pay for “Pro” creator in order to have access to features I get for free on Watchmaker. To make it worse, faces that include those features automatically become “premium” faces only available to people who pay for that subscription. So the short of that is I would be paying to produce content Facer would be monetizing but I could not. Out of principle I’m not willing to do that. I’m sure you’ve read the info about the “Designer Partner” status. So for me that’s what I’m aiming for. I’ve invested enough time and high quality work into it at this point I’m going to continue to push towards that goal for now, but the threshold is pretty high. From what I’ve read the threshold for Designer Status used to be a lot lower, but they have their roster of designers now and maybe it’s not worth the administrative trouble to be adding more, I have no idea how they actually administer the monetizing aspect here, but I know that on the Watchmaker platform that’s how it is. Honestly I’m hoping more that the unique character and quality of my work will overcome what they probably would consider unimpressive sync numbers, and that they would instead just value the inclusion of my brand which I can objectively say is not like anything else to be found on Facer. We’ll see…
But as far as new faces showing up on the mobile app. If you click on the “explore” tab at the bottom, you’ll see a “fresh faces” section were a continuous stream of new uploads is always displayed. I’ve notices that as I get more followers that the syncs for each face has grown since they get notifications. So I do believe that slowly but surely a presence can be grown here.
Good luck!
Hey, thanks for the heads up on ‘Pro’ functionality limiting the reach of watch faces to only premium subscribers… I had no idea. I’ll avoid that where I can. I’ve ‘Pro’ at the moment - needed more than the 3 ‘free’ days to remake most of my GWD work.
Let’s hope it is a case of quality over quantity and you’re asked to join the ranks of Creator Partners. I liked the ‘sneak peak’ at your new piece without hands… nice 3d effect work - makes the traditional piece I’m working on look rather ‘flat’ - I hope it gets the visibility it deserves.
Anyway, thanks for the advice and good luck with the cause! Til next time. Cheers.