"Sprouts - A Game of Maths!" was released very late Wednesday night; it is my third app to be released on the App Store.
Following my marketing monkey mantra, I hit Facebook, Twitter, forums, etc. and finish that night's work a little past midnight.
Thursday morning I login to check my app sales. Sprouts opened at 16 - for historical comparison Bakers Game had opened at 20. Bakers Game does it's average - only 3 sales, but it makes those sales consistently and every day. Since Sprouts has opened exactly to Bakers Game's levels, I make my notes in my spreadsheet and go back to work.
Friday morning I'm working on one of my hopefully more lucrative apps. It's going to be universal, so much of the day is spent trying to shoehorn my awesome iPad layouts into a 320x480 shoebox. With some success, some annoyance, and some cursing. But anyway, I don't check the sales until the night.
Thursday sales, for Sprouts, were 242.
242.
This calls for a check of the App Store! And there I learn I've broken the Top 200 on Puzzle Games.
242 sales, 196th ranked.
This I had not expected. It is amazing. It's a measure that I'm on the right track, that I can trust my instincts, and that I should keep going with this experiment. It also means I've got to get more apps out there!
So, many many thanks everyone who's downloaded any of my apps! The future will not disappoint!
25 March 2011
23 March 2011
Your Kung-Fu is weak, Young Monkey!
So the ghost of programmers past has paid me a visit.
I am replicating an analysis piece that I had written back in high school. I have some of the original outputs generated but none of the original code. And as we'd be talking Pascal on the Commodore 64 vs Objective C on the iOS platforms, I could care less about original code.
There is, however, a trick on the analysis. I distinctly remember completely glossing over the problem when I was a teenager - it was a complicated problem, it didn't lend itself to a quick answer, it was going to be icky code ... WHINE WHINE WHINE. I threw something in to approximate the correct answer and moved on. As the output was really only for myself and an immediate circle of friends I thought this was an acceptable answer.
Unfortunately, when code monkeys take shortcuts, real people end up becoming monkeys.
The whole point to a computer program running calculations is ensuring the end user doesn't have to. The computer SHOULD BE the monkey - it can run the numbers much faster, and to a greater precision, than any other primate. Worse, when the calculations might take a human tens of minutes, the human will "guess-timate" and apply emotion in place of logic.
How many computer programs can you think of where it's clear that the programmer decided to get a latte instead of spending some extra time to finish the job properly?
How many times have you done calculation tasks FOR the computer instead of ON the computer?
Want a banana?
So ... it took around 2 to 3 hours to write that tricky piece of code last night. About half that time was spent staring out the window trying to wrap my head around the next part of the problem. I think the end result is pretty cool - it appears as effortless and graceful as a samurai's kata and will be about as difficult as one to replicate.
Truly, some excellent kung-fu. Take that, young-code-monkey-me!
I am replicating an analysis piece that I had written back in high school. I have some of the original outputs generated but none of the original code. And as we'd be talking Pascal on the Commodore 64 vs Objective C on the iOS platforms, I could care less about original code.
There is, however, a trick on the analysis. I distinctly remember completely glossing over the problem when I was a teenager - it was a complicated problem, it didn't lend itself to a quick answer, it was going to be icky code ... WHINE WHINE WHINE. I threw something in to approximate the correct answer and moved on. As the output was really only for myself and an immediate circle of friends I thought this was an acceptable answer.
Unfortunately, when code monkeys take shortcuts, real people end up becoming monkeys.
The whole point to a computer program running calculations is ensuring the end user doesn't have to. The computer SHOULD BE the monkey - it can run the numbers much faster, and to a greater precision, than any other primate. Worse, when the calculations might take a human tens of minutes, the human will "guess-timate" and apply emotion in place of logic.
How many computer programs can you think of where it's clear that the programmer decided to get a latte instead of spending some extra time to finish the job properly?
How many times have you done calculation tasks FOR the computer instead of ON the computer?
Want a banana?
So ... it took around 2 to 3 hours to write that tricky piece of code last night. About half that time was spent staring out the window trying to wrap my head around the next part of the problem. I think the end result is pretty cool - it appears as effortless and graceful as a samurai's kata and will be about as difficult as one to replicate.
Truly, some excellent kung-fu. Take that, young-code-monkey-me!
22 March 2011
Marketing Monkey
There sure are a lot of alliterations that can be done with the letter M.
It was high time to begin focusing on the marketing side of the independent coding experience. My third app has gone into App Store "limbo" and is awaiting review. I've asked for licensing information for my next hopeful. And I've passed 600 downloads on "Bakers Game" - which is quite amazing since I've done no marketing yet! So ... market, monkey, market!
LinkedIn ... Facebook ... and Blogging - oh my!
There are two projects currently sitting in my hopper: an update to Bakers Game and a new project for BattleTech.
Bakers Game really needs a refresh. I still find myself playing it immensely on my iPod, which is good - if it becomes boring for me it certainly will be boring for everyone else. Unfortunately, it looks like monkey poo on the iPad. The user interface needs some cleanup, such as responding to touch & move events and perhaps animating the card moves (now that I've learned how to do it!). An update should also include more winnable boards. And I've also decided that the winnable boards should be solvable in realtime on the hardware - this way a button can be given to "hint" the user to the next move. So I'm thinking a few thousand more winnable boards, and for $0.99 a few MORE thousand winnable boards & a brain.
There's a refresh to the BattleTech rules being published in a few days. So I've certainly missed the initial boat on releasing an app here. On the other hand, there's no reason to despair. While monkeys don't float, they can wait for the next ferry. I completed a nice proof-of-concept last night and sent away this morning to inquire about licensing. Nothing to do now but wait.
Keep coding!
It was high time to begin focusing on the marketing side of the independent coding experience. My third app has gone into App Store "limbo" and is awaiting review. I've asked for licensing information for my next hopeful. And I've passed 600 downloads on "Bakers Game" - which is quite amazing since I've done no marketing yet! So ... market, monkey, market!
LinkedIn ... Facebook ... and Blogging - oh my!
There are two projects currently sitting in my hopper: an update to Bakers Game and a new project for BattleTech.
Bakers Game really needs a refresh. I still find myself playing it immensely on my iPod, which is good - if it becomes boring for me it certainly will be boring for everyone else. Unfortunately, it looks like monkey poo on the iPad. The user interface needs some cleanup, such as responding to touch & move events and perhaps animating the card moves (now that I've learned how to do it!). An update should also include more winnable boards. And I've also decided that the winnable boards should be solvable in realtime on the hardware - this way a button can be given to "hint" the user to the next move. So I'm thinking a few thousand more winnable boards, and for $0.99 a few MORE thousand winnable boards & a brain.
There's a refresh to the BattleTech rules being published in a few days. So I've certainly missed the initial boat on releasing an app here. On the other hand, there's no reason to despair. While monkeys don't float, they can wait for the next ferry. I completed a nice proof-of-concept last night and sent away this morning to inquire about licensing. Nothing to do now but wait.
Keep coding!
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