Maintaining my integrity as a developer VS catering to the mobile masses

So a few weeks ago I released my first game on iOS and Android. It was done in my spare time and the game is a free download. It's an endless arcade style game where you try to stay alive in a spinning ring of platforms.

I'm a big fan of old school video games and dislike how many video games these days seem to be developed with the goal of making sure that anyone can finish the game. It's a GAME! You're supposed to feel some sense of achievement if you finish it!

Anyways, 2 weeks after release I decided to look at the stats from the first 300 or so downloads. Not a particularly pretty sight for a gamer:

(Redacted)

*Note, only players who have played more than 20 games have been included in this analysis

90% of people score less than 500 points in 20 or more games! To put this into context, if you literally don't press anything and let the game do it's own thing you'll score ~150-200 points. At first I thought maybe my tutorial was flawed and people didn't grasp the goal of the game but after showing the game face to face to a few non-gamer fans and looking at how they play, I've realized that the game mechanics might just be too difficult for most casual gamers.

This puts me in a bit of a tricky spot! The game was made for people who enjoy video games and in my personal opinion, the quality of the game would be greatly reduced if I lower the difficulty. It might open the door to getting more players but ultimately the experience would be slower and less rewarding for those players that actually manage to conquer the game mechanics and play it properly.

So, do I cater to the mobile masses by lower the difficulty of the game or maintain my integrity as a developer and simply come to grips with the fact that my game has limited potential to significant success in the mobile gaming world?

PS. The game is called (Redacted) if you want to try it out:

Google Play - (Redacted)

Apple Store - (Redacted)

Not sure if it's a problem with the app store, but your link results in an error:

Your request produced an error.

[newNullResponse]

Thanks for the feedback! The links should work now!

No offence, but this kinda looks like an underhanded attempt at advertising/SEO when you put a direct link to the game. And when you post the same exact thing on the Gamespot forums.

Anyway, what exactly do you mean by "integrity"? What are you trying to achieve with making the game? I remember the Swing Copter guy having a similar problem with the game being too difficult, but he made it easier because he thinks people are happier when they play the easier game. If you think your players are not getting a sense of achievement as you want them to, then it is a failure in design IMHO (no offence intended here again).

Edit: more constructively, maybe you should consider adding some sort of better tutorialising? Maybe some sort of difficulty progression or even just having some sort of attract mode showing how you play the game skillfully. Sorry if I'm not being helpful, haven't played the game.

I'm treating this one as spam. It's one of the more clever attempts I've seen, but it's spam nonetheless.

How dare you try to sneak in free advertisement for your game under the guise of actually wanting to engage in a real discussion.