2012 was an extremely busy year for me. I only develop apps part-time, when I have time. So I usually end up giving up sleep and/or my little leisure time in order to develop apps. I somehow ended up releasing ten apps throughout the year. One of those ten apps was a Spanish spin-off of my fortune cookie app, and one was a free version of one of my apps. However that still leaves 8 original “IPs”(intellectual properties), so yea that’s a lot of work.

I came up with the ideas for some of the apps in 2011 and towards the beginning of 2012. Some of the apps I developed happened kind of sporadically when ideas popped into my head throughout the year. I started development on Chinatown Fortune Cookie and Lightspeed Bit Bit in 2011, but development on the other eight started throughout the year. 2012 was a year of some success and also a bit of failure. One of the things I look into as I reflect back on 2012 are the amount of downloads I’ve received. Amazon & Apple turned out being the more successful app stores for me in 2012. We’ll see what the future holds for my apps on Google Play. Here’s the conclusions from some of the data I’ve gathered.

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Top 5 Countries That Downloaded My Apps in 2012:

1. US

2. UK

3. Australia 

4. Canada

5. Mexico

(Countries that almost made # 5 – Germany & China)

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Top 3 Downloaded Paid Apps on Apple:

1. Jumbo Egg Hunt

2. Ultra Fortune Ball

3. Lightspeed Bit Bit

(Sidenote: My two free apps on the iOS Apple App Store have received a ton a downloads, but I’m just considering paid apps for this list.)

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Top 3 Downloaded Paid Apps on Amazon:

1. Jumbo Egg Hunt

2. Raven’s Hidden Hollows

3. Strike The Goal

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THANK YOU to everybody that’s downloaded any of my apps! It really brings a smile on my face and a warm feeling in my heart when my apps are downloaded. Developing apps isn’t easy, especially when you like to pay close attention to detail like I do. Also, thank you to the people who have helped spread the word about my apps in real life and on the Twitters with the retweets, mentions & etc. I’ve met several great people and fellow game devs through Twitter, so I’d like to give a little thanks to Twitter for being a neat tool for networking and marketing. I’ve learned how hard it is to market apps so every little bit counts. 

Also thank you to those of you that gave positive or constructive feedback. The majority of people who download my apps don’t leave reviews, but I’ll just take that as a compliment. People in general seem to be quicker to give negative reviews than positive ones, which is a shame, but oh well that’s the internet for you.

In 2013 I plan on releasing fewer apps, but they’ll be even higher in quality than some of my previous ones. I’m going to start concentrating more on my full-time career this year so I can do something I actually like at a company that I like and respect. It’s also important that I try to move my family to a better area, and it’s becoming increasingly important to me especially since I have a kiddo now. I want him to grow up and go to school in a better city than the one we currently live in and be surrounded by more opportunities. Also I really dislike this city, the cons outweigh the pros for me.

If developing apps becomes successful enough to become a full-time job than that’s great, but I’m not going to just automatically think that’s going to happen. When I first started developing apps it was just a hobby, but it eventually turned into a part-time adventure as well. I’m not ruling it becoming full-time out, but I’m not depending on that happening either. So I’ve got to dust off my degree, clean up my resume, and see what’s out there. However, I’m going to continue making time for app development. I’ve got several awesome ideas and I hope I’m able to bring some of them to life on phones & tablets throughout the world this year. If all goes well….. I’ll be releasing my first app of 2013 in a few weeks……..more details later……..OYE!