Cogitu

Not a lot to say this week - I spent a lot of time last week looking through the iPad screenshots, looking over the iPad app store before the iPad released. I got my iPad around noon on Saturday and I've been tinkering with it over the weekend, but I need to spend more time really looking through the apps to see what does and doesn't work. This week is probably going to be mostly revisiting the finance app's design and doing some iPad UX experiments. I'm still tentatively targeting the end of the month as the completion date for the app. That being said, I've looked over a lot of the apps already in the store and I'm definitely thinking the finance app will be released "when it's ready" and not on any artificial time table. I'm also going to start entertaining the idea of doing some consulting/contracting...it isn't something I had planned on doing from the start, but I know there is some local interest in it and it would definitely help pay the bills for the time being. That's all for now - nothing terribly exciting this week...just lots of research & testing.

iPad Dev

For the last week or so, I've been working as much as I could on the iPad finance app. Unfortunately, it wasn't ready in time for the launch submission deadline on Saturday, but it feels good to have a large portion of the code already written. I learned a ton about the new iPad controls and realized how big of a change the resolution increase is from iPhone to iPad. I'm really interested in seeing what other business apps do UI-wise - almost everything I've seen so far looks like a book...so I'm curious if *everyone* is going to be making a book/binder UI. In any case, it seems quite a bit harder to design a good UI for the iPad...having so many pixels available is just a bit overwhelming.

Pinball Mini 2.0 Update Live

Pinball Mini 2.0 was finally approved by Apple late in the evening on Friday. Starting on Saturday, I tried to do a little promotion for it. I'm still working on a trailer type video, but once I have that I'll be sending out some promo codes to review sites to see if we can get a few reviews. I did post on Touch Arcade Saturday and got a really good response from the community there. I really wish there were more games I could build right now so I would have more reason to interact with the community there - it seems like a really great place. I've been reading the site for a long time, I just haven't been venturing into the forums until now. I ended up giving away 15 promo codes...the first 10 were used up in 10 minutes and then the 5 extra I put up a little later were gone within 5 minutes. Since Friday, Pinball Mini has had a few more sales, but it's still selling less than 5 copies a day. I'm hopeful that a few review sites will pick it up once I send out the promo codes and hopefully that'll give it a little more visibility. If that doesn't work, then getting featured by Apple is about our only hope for Pinball Mini...but of course, that's not something under our control. I know we aren't the first to be disappointed with indie game sales on the App Store, but that doesn't make it any less disappointing.

This Week

The plan for this week is to get the Pinball Mini trailer video finished up and the review promo codes mailed out. After that, it's back to focusing on the iPad app...a little slower though. I stayed up way too late (and way too many times) last week, so I've got to get back to a manageable sleep schedule. I received my iPad shipment notification just a few hours ago, so hopefully I'll be here this weekend and I'll have a bit of code to test on it. I'm tentatively targeting April 30th as the submit date for v1.0 of the finance app. I really want to make sure everything in 1.0 is as solid as possible and the app is ready to grow with all of the functionality it needs to have.

Last week, I finally got Pinball Mini 2.0 fully updated and submitted. There were some last minute issues that took a lot longer to tweak than I would have liked, but I'm happy with the overall app now. There are still improvements to be made in future updates, but all of the features we wanted to add are in v2. The app is still in review, but the updated screenshots (including the new board pack) are online here. The plan is to get a gameplay video made, get some promo codes out to review sites & forums, and try a few ads...but all of that has been temporarily derailed somewhat by Apple.

If you're an App Store developer, you got the e-mail on Friday saying that iPad apps will be accepted up until the March 27th (this Saturday) - and only those apps will be *considered* for the grand opening. Well, the personal finance app I'm working on is initially going to target the iPad and it feels like I need to try to get v1.0 finish up in time for the grand opening. The problem is, I had been thinking that Apple would at least let us test on real devices first and I had been working under the assumption that iPad apps probably can't go into the store until the end of April (that wasn't based on anything, just a feeling and Apple's lack of announcements).

Since last Friday, I've been working non-stop to get the iPad app ready. I'm extremely happy with the progress so far, but realistically, I'm not sure if it's going to make the grand opening. I won't submit the app if I don't feel really good about it on Saturday. I don't believe it's the end of the world if it isn't in the grand opening (and there is no guarantee Apple would even put it in even if I submit it in time), but I do think being part of the initial wave would give it an extra boost.

So the plan this week is to get as much of the iPad app done as humanly possible. If it is ready to go Saturday, then that'll be fantastic. If it needs to wait, then that'll be ok too since it'll be ready shortly after launch. I'm really excited about this new app either way.

I resigned my full time job to focus on Cogitu exactly one month ago from today. Time sure does fly. I still have zero regrets about my decision - I believe it was absolutely the right thing to do...whether I can succeed as an indie or not. I'd like to do a lessons learned / observations post in the not too distant future - to share what I've figured out about life as an indie - but it'll have to wait until a different day. Lots to do this week, so I'm going to keep this one extra short.

The Story Thus Far

The first few weeks we spent getting Pinball Mini revved up for version 2.0. It took a little longer than I had planned, but I think the time was worth it. I finally got all of my business taxes and licenses all squared away and paid up which feels pretty great. The initial design work has started on the iPad personal finance application...but it's not nearly as far along as I'd like. It turns out, designing for a device you've never touched using interactions you've only glimpsed in a single video is - well - challenging. I think I've settled on a V1 design as of last Saturday...or at least a V1 to work with until April 3rd.

This Week

The final artwork for Pinball Mini 2.0 just arrived, so the first priority is to get it integrated, the new boards coded up/tested, and get the app off to Apple for approval. Shortly after submitting it, I'm going to try to work up a little marketing plan - just to try a couple of things. The big focus after PM 2.0 though is the iPad app. A skeleton of view controllers is already built, the database has been framed in, but everything else still needs to be done...it's going to be a *lot* of iPad work this week. My goal is to have the app in an alpha level state by April 3rd and finished no later than May 3rd.

As you may guess from the title, this wasn't a great week compared to Weeks 1, 2, and 3. It wasn't a bad week either - it was just "meh". Pinball Mini 2.0 is 95% done...but I'm still tinkering with the sounds. The board pack #1 for the store is also still a work in progress.

The New App

Around the middle of the week, I started losing my focus a bit. I'm was working on iPhone related stuff, but it's getting a bit harder to concentrate (at least compared to the last three weeks). I think the problem has been the lingering question - what do I do next? There are lots of apps I'd like to build, but I have to think long term. Either this whole going indie thing will work or it won't, but if I don't think long term, then it may work for a few months, but them I'm back to square one before too long. So I sat down and took a look my requirements for a long term idea:

1) Minimal graphic design needs after the initial design

Chris Echols does some excellent design work for me when I need it, but he's also pressed for time with all of his other responsibilities. I don't really have the money to pay for design up front, but luckily, Chris enjoying doing a lot of the stuff I need, so we've worked out a deal that will hopefully pay off for both of us. Given all of this, it's much easier to work on the idea, work with Chris to get the design nailed down, and then that design can last for quite a long time. With Pinball Mini, I can't really add anything without some major effort from Chris...so I want to avoid apps that are similar (at least until Cogitu is making enough to support two people full-time).

2) Long virtual shelf life

It seems like most game/entertainment apps have a pretty limited shelf life in the app store. It's not that they aren't fun to play anymore, it's just like anything else - newer, shinier apps catch people's attention and the older apps start to get lost in the sea of apps. I know this isn't true of all game/entertainment apps, but it sure seems like the productivity/utility apps hang around a bit longer.

3) Marketability

One of the things I'm most frustrated with in the game/entertainment area is the lack of marketability. Granted, I haven't promoted Pinball Mini 1.0 very much at all and I do intend to change that with Pinball Mini 2.0...but I just don't see a way to have a strong marketing message for this type of app. In the case of Pinball Mini, it's fun, it's easy to play, it has some gorgeous graphics, but I can't give a reason you *need* to play it. With productivity apps, I can focus on the benefits of using them...they make some aspect of your life better/easier.

4) Growth

I want to make sure whichever idea I go with next has the potential to grow to other platforms. I'm not talking just the Apple ecosystem, but I'm talking about the option to go bigger than that. I'm not expecting any of the apps to go that big right now, but if an idea does take off a bit, I'd like to be able to run with it and build a business around that app or a small suite of related apps. I feel like I won't be able to focus on any particular app if I build lots of little unrelated apps. I'd rather have one app or a small suite to continually work on and build into a sustainable company. As far as portability, games/entertainment apps are generally going to be easier to port to other platforms, so they win out on that front, but I don't think any game can keep growing the way I want/need.

5) I enjoy it

This isn't a problem with Pinball Mini, because I do play and enjoy it, but some of the ideas on my list are apps that I think would do pretty well in the store, but I wouldn't personally use them. I just don't like building things that I don't personally need/want to use. The reason I built Budgee in the beginning is because I needed something like it - I believe I could do a better job with it if I started over today, but it works the way it does because that's what I knew I needed...and there are quite a few users out there that have found it to be helpful as well.

With all of these requirements in mind, I looked over the list of applications. Since this is kinda my "indie or bust" shot, I decided I'm going to focus totally on one idea (with the exception of getting Pinball Mini 2.0 up and a couple of items in the storefront there). The idea is the evolution of Budgee. I'm not going to talk about the name or the details just yet, but it's something I've been working with on and off since I released Budgee 1.0. It's not going to be Budgee 2.0, although I have a short list of features I still want to add to Budgee...so part of this new idea may be integrated into Budgee 2.0 if I can make it work without taking away a lot of time from the new idea. The initial focus for the new app will be the iPad - I believe the iPad is a big deal and this new idea will be a perfect fit.

This Week

This week's main task is building out a list of things I need to do for this new idea. I've been looking over several code libraries, comparing similar apps already on the app store, sketching out the general idea of the app, and all of that good stuff. I expect I'll continue doing those types of things this week and hope to end up with a rough prototype running by the weekend. If I can get that done, then next week will hopefully be a good time to hit the design full force to start shaping up the real product.