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July Mobile App Development Report

8 Aug
2017

App development in July revolved around my new fantasy soundboard app. During the bulk of the month I worked on sound effects for the app. I made sounds with lettuce, cardboard, cards, coins, shoes, knives, my voice, water, nature, paper and other random items. I also edited various sounds from public domain resources. I used the Go Mic by Samson to record my sounds, and edited those and others in Garageband. I’ve used that mic for years to make sound effects and its been great, although I think I will be upgrading soon. I also used some resources within Garageband like musical instruments and sounds within other sections to make different finished sound effects for the app.

Making sound effects for the objects category

I researched and reminisced various fantasy board games and video games to gather sound effect ideas and make sure that most of the main types of sounds in those segments were included in my app in some form. Throughout development on this app I kept a spreadsheet with the sound categories and specific sounds listed underneath that I planned on being in the app. This spreadsheet along with the sound effects themselves were updated several times. After completing most of the sound effects towards the end of month some sounds were cut and some new ones were added after looking at the app as a well put together fantasy sounds effects collection. I wanted to make sure the app included a wide variety of sounds and not too many of the same ones that basically repeated themselves.

Making some sounds for the combat and people categories

Making some sound effects for the people and objects categories

During July I also worked on the visual aspects of the app. I looked around for a font that would fit in well with the app and add a lot to it visually. I narrowed the font choices down to a couple and then quickly decided on one that kept standing out to me. I liked this font the most because it was easy to read in regards to each of the letters being easy to decipher, and overall it had a great medieval fantasy style to it. After deciding on a font I made buttons with a focus on being minimal. I decided to add a slight reflection to the buttons to add a bit more style to them without making them stand out too much. The main focus of this app is to provide high quality sound effects quickly with an easy to use interface wrapped in a modern fantasy aesthetic. An easy to use interface to me isn’t just putting assets in the right areas but also making sure the graphical assets themselves fit in well and form a coherent visual display together.

Towards the end of the month I also made loading screens and the app icon. A day after finishing the app icon I thought it looked kind of dull so I decided to change some of the colors. There were too many neutral colors together which made the icon not stand out like it should. After changing some of the colors the icon looked more invigorating visually overall and the art inside the icon looked sharper.

Working on the app icon. End result is different than what’s shown in this photo

In August I plan on finishing the fantasy soundboard app and releasing it on Apple, Amazon, & Google Play. I’ve only got a few more things to complete on it and then testing, testing, testing. I’ll probably try to put together a simple trailer and have it ready in time for release as well. I didn’t do a trailer for my last app until after release which kind of made the release not as complete initially as it could and should have been. This soundboard app will be the last new app I plan on releasing this year. After finishing it I’ll be updating a couple of apps on iOS just so I can add some words to the title name. Yeap, it ridiculous, Apple is the only main app store that doesn’t let developers change app titles and metadata without an app/binary update. So in order to change the title of two of my main apps to help them hopefully move up in the search results I’ll have to release a new version of them. The apps themselves are complete in my mind so the updates will just be performance improvements that I can probably squeeze in to shave some time off the meager loading times. After finishing a few more things on my app marketing to-do list work will ramp up on my next startup, which is app related.

Until next time ∞

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June Mobile App Development Report

6 Jul
2017

June was a month that mostly consisted of finishing an app and then releasing it along with a bit of a positive distraction towards the end.

Quiz of Finance & Investing was released on June 22 but a lot of work went into the app before that in June. When I first started working on design for this app I thought about and worked on a few different dimensions to go for but I eventually firmly decided to go with a standard stock trading screen as the main design influence. Stock trading screens involve a lot of green and red to track gains and losses and moving parts so I incorporated some of that throughout the app without making it distracting from its main focus as an educational app. One of the first things I concerned myself with was finding a text font style that had a professional & computer related look. After looking at a lot and testing a few I ended up going with two different fonts. One mainly for the quiz section which was more standardized and then one for other sections of the app that had an LED dot style. I remember seeing a neat stock ticker banner outside in New York City the last time I was there a few years ago and it had the LED dots type of font to show the stock symbol, numbers & etc so I felt great going with that type of font for the non-quiz sections of the app as well as the promotional images to help drive the stock trading design goal.

Getting ready to do a mock-up of the main menu screen

End result of the main menu mock-up

After picking a font and deciding on the main colors to use throughout the app I made buttons and static text sections. After incorporating the buttons and other text areas I gave the main screen subtle animations to make it appear active and alive like stock trading is during the open hours because of the constant trades and reactions. So on the main menu screen I incorporated randomized movements to the bar buttons that the categories are placed on. The main menu was also the first place that I incorporated the moving ticker at the bottom. I did a lot of testing with the ticker to make sure it looped without overlapping but also somewhat recycled itself to prevent any bog down on the performance of the app.

Working on the main menu layout in Pixelmator

This app doesn’t need or require an internet connection so I didn’t want that to change at all for a cosmetic addition, so I just incorporated some historic data for that ticker to pull from for the main menu. Then on the results screen I added a ticker that gives the results. The results are shown as the focus on the center part of the screen so the ticker is just there to add to the overall design of the app. The last place I added a ticker was on the Statistics screen that repeats the results that are shown in the statistics table.

Which brings me to one of the main additions I added in June. The Statistics section that tracks how many questions you’ve answered in each category along with the correct amount answered and percentage correct. I also incorporated an erase option to wipe the slate if the user wants to. I used the same features in my RX Quiz of Pharmacy app so I was able to reuse a lot of code which was very helpful and efficient when working on this feature. I mainly had to pull the data from differently named sections that were loaded into the app and change around a few numbers since the question count options are a little different in this app. I also added a green/red delegation that depends on if the percentage correct is above or below 50%.

After implementing all the data and design within the app I worked on sound effects. This app isn’t audio heavy so it didn’t take long to finish this aspect. I knew I wanted computer related & breaking news style sound effects so I went into GarageBand with those intentions and created some audio to incorporate. The last aspect of finishing the app build for me was making an icon. I usually wait to make the app icon towards the end of the apps development because by that time I definitely know what the app is about and how I want it represented. I’ve written about the importance of a well represented app icon before and there are plenty of other articles about that as well. At this point of the app process I had the design of the app cemented freshly into my mind so thankfully it didn’t take long to create an app icon that I was happy with. After finishing the icon I tested the app on different devices like usual. I only ran into a couple of functionality bugs and they were easily fixed. I also tested the visibility conditions to ensure the text sizes were adequate for the different categories since they each had a variance in the lengths of the questions & answers. I ended up adjusting the text sizes so they are different but more fitting depending on the category chosen on the main menu and throughout the changes in an Assorted category quiz. After completing a release ready build I uploaded it and worked on descriptions, metadata, screenshots & etc.

Working on the app icon in Pixelmator

After my new app was approved and went live I spent a few days relaxing. It’s deserved! Then while I was on the Amazon developer portal a few days later to change some keywords I noticed an Alexa skill promotion that stated that developers who created a new skill that passed certification in June would receive an Echo dot. I remember seeing this briefly in an email before but this time I thought about it as a challenge. Voice recognition software is neat, I like Amazon as a company, the Echo devices are intriguing, I recently successfully completed a new app and I was up for the challenge of learning and trying something new. So I challenged myself to make a skill in one day. I went through a couple of skill ideas and then quickly decided upon making a Game of Thrones related skill because its my favorite TV show and season 7 is coming out in a few weeks!

I worked on the skill off & on through the day and stayed up late to finish it. The first thing I did was scour the internet for quotes as well as implementing some of my favorites on a spreadsheet. Throughout development I used a template provided by Amazon and a couple of different articles which were mostly helpful. After having a somewhat finished product I went back and forth with testing until it worked as intended. I got stuck on one part were Alexa would just keep responding with the phrase I gave her to say when she doesn’t understand a request. Eventually I found the error on my part, fixed it, and then the skill worked fine. The first certification review was rejected because my example phrases had an incorrect format which thankfully was an easy fix. After changing those and re-submitting it my Alexa skill passed certification and went live. Overall I made the skill within one day and it was approved within two. This is my first Alexa skill and it’s called Quotes of Game of Thrones. I recently received the email about receiving my Echo Dot too so I should be getting that sometime soon in July. Learned some new things, got a result I’m satisfied with, and I’m getting a neat item for free. Awesome! I may or may not make another Alexa skill down the road, not exactly sure either way right now.

Towards the end of June I decided that I wanted to make a simple to the point trailer for my new Quiz of Finance & Investing app. I probably should have done this before release but oh well. I used Reflector 2 to record the screen on my iPhone to capture different question scenarios from my app so I could pick and choose during final editing in iMovie. After I finished gathering different screen captures I worked on the music. While in GarageBand experimenting I believe I got influenced by a combination of Daft Punk and school marching bands because that’s what the end result of my trailer song reminded me of. I was really satisfied with how the song turned out. It makes me want to move and it has a nice orchestral feel to it.

Alright this post was longer than I initially intended it to be. In July I’ll mainly be working on and hopefully finishing my new soundboard app. I’ll probably post some peeks into it on my Twitter and/or Instagram before release. Until next time ∞

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May Mobile App Development Report

8 Jun
2017

The one and only app I worked on in May is the educational finance app, and the work that was done on it varied greatly in 30min-2hour increments throughout the month. The only aspect of the app I worked on in May was adding more information and also rewording some information. As I added more info I decided to change the wording in some of the questions so there wasn’t any hesitation of what the answer would be if you were sure of the answer. With my educational apps I’m not trying to trick anyone into thinking something false, but instead help people become knowledgable about something new to them and also refresh and/or retain the knowledge of those that are informed on the subject or have been in the past.

In May I finished the formulas & ratios section which turned out to be the second largest category in the app and probably my favorite to work on. One reason why I liked working on it is because you can ask more than one question about each ratio without repeating the same question or answer. You can ask about the definition of the ratio, what the ratio is used for, the formula of the ratio, and what different results exhibit about a company or stock. Ratios are a very informative area of finance and I think this category of my app will be very useful for a wide range of investors and students.

Working on the formulas & ratios category in my app. The visible data on the spreadsheet only shows about .05% of the informational data in this app!

Throughout May I also added a few more lines of data to the abbreviations section. One of the podcasts I listen to on a somewhat normal basis in the car is a finance & investing podcast so there were a couple of moments where I would hear something and notice that the issue or terminology used wasn’t incorporated in my app yet. So when this happened I would jot down a quick note in my phone(at a stop light 🙂 ) to remind myself to add information about that topic during one of my next app dev sessions.

In June I plan on finishing and releasing this finance app. I’m really looking forward to completing this app. This app is kind of a personal project for me because I have an interest in Finance and investing personally and professionally. I also have a degree in Business Administration Finance but I don’t use the knowledge I obtained throughout those college years on a daily basis and not even professionally so using this app will be a nice way to refresh and retain information. I think it will end up being very useful for others in a somewhat similar experience like me, newcomers to this subject matter, and people who work in finance and investing areas.

After finishing the Finance app, hopefully in June, I’ll be jumping back into a soundboard app I’ve been working on and I hope to finish and release it in July! It will probably be my last soundboard app for a while though. I like making soundboard apps and the ones I’ve created get downloads, some more than others of course, so those are two good reasons to continue with them. Anyways, back to work on this finance app. Until next time ∞

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March Mobile App Development Report

8 Apr
2017

During the first week of March I started working on an 8-bit retro makeover of my app Ultra Fortune Ball. For some reason I got in the mood to give a retro redesign to one of my previously released apps. Since I have a lot of work to do on other new apps I’ve been working on I wanted to do this redesign quickly so it had to be on an app that didn’t have a lot of art assets. The first app that popped into my head was Ultra Fortune Ball, which made perfect sense not only because of the small graphical size of the app but also because of the app itself and because it’s the first app I ever developed. A retro design really fit well into this app and it also gave me the opportunity to add some new nerdy & old school video game answers to the fortune ball.

The first thing I worked on for this retro redesign was the ball itself. After making a new fortune ball with a retro look I then worked on the other graphics and then incorporated the retro pixel block style text. After completing the look of the app I added several new answers for the ball to give. After that I thought I was done with the app but then when I tested it and the music started playing I realized that I totally forgot to give the audio some retro attention. So then I jumped into the audio. I used the same theme that I created for the original Ultra Fortune Ball but then I completely changed all of the sounds, loops, and keys to 8-bit and 16-bit effects to give the theme a retro video game sound. After editing and completing the new theme I then gave the sound effects the same treatment as the theme. The app turned out great so I decided to give it its own standalone release on the Amazon & Google Play app stores. However, the App was rejected from a reviewer in Apple which was the first time I’ve ever had an app rejected because of the app itself. They stated that the app had a lack of overall content which is ridiculous considering all the spam, copycat and junk apps on their app store. There’s also no other app like this on the app store. I’ve been in contact with Apple casually about the ridiculous rejection from one of their reviewers but as of now the app will remain an Android exclusive which is fine with me overall because I personally really like the app and it will still get thousands & thousands of downloads without it being on iOS. The main frustrating part about this release outcome is that before I was able to finish the iOS build to submit to Apple I ran into a very odd graphic glitch that only occurred on the iOS version. It took a lot of research, testing, and trail & error to finally find the cause and then to fix it, but then after all that work it ends up being rejected for a lame personal opinionated reason. Adding it to one of the many reasons why I’ll continue to focus more on Google Play. Not necessarily less focus on Apple, but definitely more towards Google Play.

Some of the screenshots from the graphics glitch I ran into on the iOS version that was eventually fixed. (App is not available on Apple. Read above for more info)

After finishing 8-Bit Ultra Fortune Ball I went back to working on my new educational finance quiz app. I then decided that instead of going back and forth between working on that app and my new soundboard app that I would focus on one at a time. So after I finish the finance app I’ll then pick up where I left off on the soundboard app and continue to work on it exclusively. I decided to add another category to the finance app which is of course going to involve more development time and a push back on its release, but it’s going to be worth it. I gave myself a deadline to release the soundboard app by the beginning of July, and since I plan on finishing the finance app first that means that it will be released sometime before July. No specific release date or month right now though.

I told myself if I finish this post at a certain time I could play some Mass Effect Andromeda…..that time has passed, but I still want to play. I’ve been really enjoying Andromeda but because of that it also took away a good bit of my app development time in March and into April as well. It’s a great game with fun gameplay and a lot of nice detail even with its odd bugs here and there. I’m going to try to limit my time with it soon though so I can finish these two apps I’ve been working on, but I’ve got a new planet to explore right now. Until next time ∞

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February Mobile App Development Report

9 Mar
2017

February is the shortest month, but it was filled with app development on two very different apps. The first part of the month was dedicated to more work on my educational finance app. I continued to research, gather, and organize information for the database. I’m more than halfway complete with the information portion of the app and it’s A LOT of data. I just looked at it to see how much I’ve done and what’s remaining, and its pretty daunting on both spectrums of complete & incomplete. One of the things I worked on in February for this app was gathering terms and dispersing those terms throughout the app for an Acronyms section. I initially thought it would be a quick thing to do, but with the mass amount of data in this app along with how varied I want it to be proved that to be an incorrect assumption. After I complete the Acronyms section I’m going to jump into another vast portion of data that’s been organized and finish the additional add-ins to make it more varied as well.

Working with financial terms across multiple spreadsheets for my finance app in OpenOffice

During the second half of February I decided to take a break from the finance app and work on a new soundboard app. I already had the idea of this soundboard app in my mind and on a list of app ideas that I have so the idea wasn’t new but this is the first time I’ve dedicated more than a few moments on it. The only part of this app that I had worked on before besides the overall concept was background graphics. So I picked up from where I left off before and finished the backgrounds for the app first. I then started making a list of what kind sound categories I wanted within the app, and then I went further by listing specific sounds within those categories.

Then after that I jumped into the main part of a soundboard app, the sounds! I gathered some sounds from public domain resources to edit and incorporate and I also recorded several new sounds. With some of the sounds I gathered I ended up doing so much editing to them that they turned out sounding like something completely different. This situation ended up happening often due to my audio experimentation and general curiosity, but it’s been neat to discover what sounds can evolve into after various editing, mixing, & etc. So far I’ve been working mainly in Garageband with the audio and that will continue to be the main program that I use for audio. It’s a great program overall, its included with Apple computers so I’ve been using it for years, and it’s been getting the job done for my main audio tool so I’ll continue with it. 

Using pedals to make fire sound effects in Garageband

During the first week of March I worked on giving one of my apps a retro 8-bit makeover. Since this is the February post I won’t go into much detail on this now, but this reskinned app will be getting a standalone release in March across all platforms that the original app is currently on. After finishing that app I’ll jump back in the soundboard app and/or the finance app I wrote about above. Until next time ∞

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January Mobile App Development Report

18 Feb
2017

Whoa, so I almost forgot to write a report on what I worked on in January. For the first half of January I mostly worked on writing the big App Development & Design in 2016 Overview post, and making a banner for it. I like to write those yearly posts to kind of wrap up the previous year in app development land, and look back on what happened and how it’s going to impact the new year. I also like to write it to give viewers a sense of how much work, time, and effort goes into my apps and also remind myself of that, which I can also use to better organize things for future endeavors. I also like looking at download numbers and seeing overall which apps received the most downloads & etc. It’s also nice to look to see which apps received customer reviews. The trend continues that most people who download my apps don’t leave reviews so I don’t look out for them much, but it is nice and a bit reassuring that the majority of reviews that I do get are positive. My goal is to continue to create unique great apps that I want to make that are within my skill realm, and try to make sure they provide a great experience for users, whether it be through education, entertainment, fun, or tranquility.

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Working on the promotional banner for my Development & Design in 2016 Overview post

Throughout the month I also continued to work on gathering, reviewing, and organizing information for my finance app. I’m trying to somehow condense the information but not take away too much from how vast the app is in regards to how much varied information it contains. When it’s complete it’s going to have thousands of lines of information within it without needing any sort of internet connection. I’m hoping to delve into the design of the app in March and publish it in April or May. After that I might jump into my next relaxation app. I’ve also been thinking about doing a different graphical design(aka reskinning) to one of my previous apps so I may mess around with that first. Until next time ∞

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App Development & Design in 2016 Overview | 8-Bit Avrin Apps

27 Jan
2017

updatesin2016bannerwithlines

2016 was the first year since releasing my first app in 2011 that I didn’t release a new app. Instead, most of my app development time was spent working on updates, some major and some minor. I began the year finishing the big update to Ultra Fortune Ball, which was the first app that I ever developed and released. The other major updates I worked on and released were for Ultra Soccer Match Soundboard, Professor Piggy Bank, Quiz of Medicine, Motivational Quotes to Inspire, Chinatown Fortune Cookie, and my suite of Word Owls Word Search apps. I also released somewhat minor updates for several other apps which included; Saving Bunnies, 8-Bit Eagle Smash, Zompy Jumpy, Detective Deep, Strike the Goal, & Jumbo Egg Hunt.

I really like working on new apps, but I also really like improving my older apps especially when the updates are voluntary. A few of the minor updates I did were mainly because of the new Apple App Store Review Guidelines but all of the other ones were updates that I wanted to work on and made exclusive time for. I like having the ability and authority of providing users with free improvements that can enhance their experience. Some of my most downloaded apps received great updates in 2016 so it feels good knowing that thousands and thousands of people out there are using better versions of my apps. As a creator, improving something that you’ve created is also just an overall great feeling too.

When I began developing apps it was just a hobby. However, as I started to get better and release more apps my download numbers increased which resulted in more income. Now I’m not rich and money still isn’t the main reason why I develop apps, but it is nice getting additional income from a creative endeavor. So this year with Apple iAds dissolving I decided to take a more serious look at monetization with my free apps and try different ad networks. After researching, implementing, testing, and viewing results I decided to go with Google Admob as my main ad provider and then Chartboost and Revmob as secondary ad providers. I had an issue were Admob wasn’t working well enough on my Amazon apps so I decided to use Chartboost as my main ad network with Revmob as secondary for those. Anyways that’s enough talk about monetization.

Below I’ll list my top downloaded apps and top countries that downloaded my apps. After that I’ll write a summary of what I worked on each month and what I plan on working on in 2017 and upload some images of some consumer app reviews I received in 2016.

 

Top 5 Free Downloads

  1. Quiz of Medicine
  2. Ultra Fortune Ball
  3. Motivational Quotes to Inspire
  4. Zompy Jumpy
  5. Chinatown Fortune Cookie

 

Top 5 Paid Downloads

  1. Professor Piggy Bank
  2. RX Quiz of Pharmacy
  3. Ultra Retro Game Soundboard
  4. Word Owl’s Word Search – First Grade
  5. Ultra Soccer Match Soundboard

 

Top 5 Countries for Downloads

  1. United States
  2. Mexico
  3. United Kingdom
  4. Canada
  5. Australia

 

Broad summaries of what I worked on each month….

January: Worked on and finished the big update for Ultra Fortune Ball.

February: Worked on screenshots and promo graphics for Ultra Fortune Ball. Worked on and finished an update for Quiz of Medicine. Tested and implemented new ad networks….this also continued off & on throughout the year with some of my other free apps.

March: Ported a free version of Ultra Fortune Ball to the Amazon App Store. Did a lot of work on the major Ultra Soccer Match Soundboard update. Started working on an Easter edition of Word Owl’s Word Search….haven’t worked on it since though….no sure I’m going to continue due to lack of time and other projects.

April: Finished the update to Ultra Soccer Match Soundboard and put together new screenshots for it. Worked on an update for Chinatown Fortune Cookie.

May: Continued working on the Chinatown Fortune Cookie update. Started working on the big Professor Piggy Bank update. Created a new main promo image for Ultra Soccer Match Soundboard.

June: Continued working on the updates for Professor Piggy Bank. Finished the update to Chinatown Fortune Cookie. Started working on an update for Motivational Quotes to Inspire.

July: Worked on and finished app updates for Motivational Quotes to Inspire & Saving Bunnies. Ported Savings Bunnies to the Google Play and Amazon app stores.

August: Worked on & finished updates for 8-Bit Eagle Smash, Professor Piggy Bank, Quiz of Medicine, Ultra Fortune Ball, & Zompy Jumpy. Started working on a new Finance app.

September: Worked on & finished updates for Word Owl’s Word Search Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd Grades, Christmas, & Halloween editions. Did a small increment of work on the Finance app.

October: Worked on gathering more data for the finance app. Updated some of my free apps on Amazon to change ad network providers. Continued working on the finance app.

November: Continued work on the finance app. Worked on and finished minor updates to Detective Deep & Strike the Goal on iOS because of Apple new review guidelines. Ported Word Owl’s Word Search 1st Grade & Christmas editions to Google Play.

December: Made a promo gameplay video for Word Owl’s Word Search Christmas Edition. Worked on and finished an update for Jumbo Egg Hunt on iOS due to the new Apple review guidelines. Continued researching and organizing data for my finance app.

In 2017 I plan on finishing and releasing two apps. One of them will be the finance app I’ve been working on and the I’m not exactly sure about the other one. There are a lot of app ideas in my head, but I’m not sure which one I’m going to pull out to start working on after the finance app. In 2017 I also plan on working on an awesome new start-up. It’s app related but it will be seperate from Avrin Ross/8-Bit Avrin Apps….more details on that later and eventually it will have its own site too for even more details. I’m very excited about this start-up and my goals for it. So far all my apps developed by Avrin Ross of 8-Bit Avrin Apps belong to a range of various genres, but my next company will be more focused and branded overall.

2016 was definitely the year of updates for me, and I’m glad I used the majority of my little app development time to work on them, but I’m also very much looking forward to working on new stuff. I plan on organizing my time better in 2017 so that I cut a bit down on my little leisure time and increase my app development time. Family is incredibly important to me so I’m still not going to take away much time from them for my apps no matter how hectic app dev lands may get.

Massive thank you to everyone who downloaded one of my apps! Every single one of them had a lot of work put into creating it. I hope you enjoyed them! If not, I’m sorry, but on the bright side you only wasted a little time and maybe like .99 cents if it wasn’t free, so not a big deal at all. Judging from the number of downloads in combination with only a few negative reviews though I’m guessing most users are satisfied overall so that’s awesome. Speaking of reviews, most people don’t leave reviews but below are some of the positive consumer reviews left in 2016 for some of my apps. Thank you to everyone who left a positive review and the people who helped spread the word about my apps too. Until next time ∞

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2016 reviews on Google Play

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2015 Overview – 2014 Overview – 2013 Overview – 2012 Overview

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December Mobile App Development Report

5 Jan
2017

Overall December was probably the month with the least amount of app development in 2016 for me. I spent more of my little app dev free time doing other things like playing video games and catching up on some TV shows. Also, Christmas is my favorite holiday so some of the month was spent doing things related to the holiday. This is the first year since my first release in 2011 that I didn’t release a new app. Something like 97% of the app dev work I did this year was devoted to updates. I like my older apps especially some of the ones I updated this year, but I did get a bit burned at times from not working on much new material. Regardless, in December I updated one of my most popular apps and continued to work a bit on my new app.

A few months ago Apple implemented stricter App Store Review Guidelines that involved probing the app store for old apps that haven’t been updated in a few years, apps with titles too long, and more. Once your app falls into at least one of those categories Apple sends you a nice notice that your app does not comply with one or more App Review Guidelines. Then for more details it advises the developer to go to the Resolution Center in iTunes Connect. Upon doing that you’ll find out why your app was targeted.

So far, the four of my apps that were targeted were because they haven’t been updated in years. Even if the app still works perfectly fine like mine did, Apple still wants you to update. So to resolve the issue and prevent Apple from removing the app from the App Store I had to submit updates. This actually happened to three of my apps last month and I decided to update two of them, and let one make its exit from the App Store. I actually forgot to write about it in last months progress post so I’ll write about on this post. Last month my apps Detective Deep, Strike the Goal, & Raven’s Hidden Hollows received a notice from Apple basically about not being updated in a while. All of these apps worked fine and as intended so the updates I submitted to keep them on the app store were mostly just time consuming. Instead of just giving a blank update though I made a few adjustments to Detective Deep & Strikes the Goal which resulted in faster load times, 64 bit support, & some image enhancements. These adjustments weren’t necessary or needed right now, but since I had to use some of my time to do an update in general I decided to add a bit more time to actually make some minor improvements. 64-bit isn’t a minor issue, but luckily the task of supporting it is currently a minor thing for me to update for.

I decided not to update Raven’s Hidden Hollows though because I no longer liked the presentation and gameplay of the app specifically. I also removed the app from other stores for the same reason. I should have added a story and maybe some puzzle elements to the app, but instead of adding those to an old app I decided to just remove it, and if I decide to make an app like it in the future I’ll add those features. The only hidden object games without a story that I want in my app portfolio right now are my Jumbo Egg Hunt games. Which brings me to the update I had to make in December. During this month Apple sent me the same notice mentioned earlier about my app Jumbo Egg Hunt. This app is one of my most downloaded older apps combined across all app stores and I like it a lot so updating it to avoid it being removed from the iOS App Store was imperative. Again, instead of submitting a blank update I decided to make a few improvements which included; 64 bit support, image enhancements, and faster load times. Since I was updating the iOS version with improvements I went ahead and updated the Android versions as well on Amazon & Google Play.

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An email from Apple

In December I also worked on gathering more data for my finance app. I thought I would be further along in development on this app, but the more research I do, the more I want to continue adding more & more data to the app. I graduated with a degree in Finance several years ago so some of the research has been like a refresher to me which causes me to dive into additional reading and researching. Some of it has basically been common knowledge to me too which is nice because it causes me to work quicker. Development takes odd turns sometimes in general, but it additionally happens for various intriguing reasons when I’m working on an app with a subject on something that I already had an interest in and am somewhat knowledgable about like finance, medicine, soccer & so on. So far I’ve created two soccer themed apps, and two medical educational apps, but this is my first finance related app and finance is a wide rating subject. To make development go smoother and make more progress I’ve finally determined which exact categories I’m going to focus on and the range of difficulty I want implemented. In January I’ll continue working on the finance app and hopefully make grand strides towards its completion. I’ll also be finishing writing and then posting my yearly overview progress report too. Until next time ∞

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