2015
Well, 2014 is in the books. First, I want to give a big THANK YOU to everyone that downloaded an app, liked or shared a post, favorited or retweeted a tweet, spread news word of mouth, or anything else positive for me. It was another busy all over the place year for me personally, but I was able to develop & release seven neat high quality apps that I’m proud of. My skills in app development and design continued to get better, I came up with some new app ideas, and some of the ideas I already had ended up transforming into something different.
I probably won’t release as many apps in 2015 as I did in the previous two years, but I have a schedule in my mind of a few apps I definitely want to finish and release this year. In 2014 I became more organized and focused in my app development. I narrowed down the kind of apps I wanted to work on to specific categories; education, entertainment, health, & arcade games. I’ll continue with those specific categories in the future but I’ll also be working on puzzle games & adventure games as well.
In 2014 I continued the Word Owl’s Word Search series I started in 2013 with a First Grade & Second Grade edition. I really enjoyed working on these apps. They’re educational and I really like the cartoon wooden block design I went with. My Word Owl apps continue to acquire downloads, especially on the Apple App Store for iPad which is what they were initially designed for. I decided to make a couple of sound effects apps and include Ultra in the title to make it kind of like a series with Ultra Soccer Match Soundboard & Ultra Big Celebration Soundboard in 2014. Based on download numbers people seem to like my soundboard apps which is great because I enjoy designing them and working on the audio in GarageBand.
I also developed a medication quiz app(Quiz of Medicine) which has received way more downloads than I thought it would. I initially developed it to help myself and a few others learn more about medicine, but download numbers indicate that I’ve helped A LOT of people instead, which is awesome. I decided to develop Zompy Jumpy because I realized the fact that I have never created a game with zombies which I think is a requirement in the indie game developer world…….not really, I actually just wanted to make a quick challenging arcade game with dancing zombies, because why not?
I also joined a couple of game jams in 2014 as well. I liked the challenge of creating a theme specific game in a short time span so I’ll probably continue joining them in the future if they interest me. I created 8-Bit Eagle Smash in the span of a weekend during the Flappy Jam earlier in the year, and I also developed two other games during separate game jams. For those games I was able to make slim versions that were complete enough for the jams, but not complete enough for me personally to release officially. I’ll be working to make complete versions of these games in 2015, especially the numerical education one I’ve been referring to on different posts.
2014 also consisted of a few updates to some of my apps to increase performance or fix a minor issue. When something’s not working or looking right I always try to fix it as soon as possible, but so far I don’t recall ever releasing a broken app that needed an immediate fix. In 2014 I also started writing monthly progress reports where I give an overview of what I’ve been working on and what I plan to work on. I liked writing these post for various reasons so I’ll continue that in 2015. For previous posts feel free to use the category drop down on the top right of the website, search bar above the category section, or the archive section on the bottom right.
Most people who download my apps never leave reviews, but I’ve made a little collage of a few reviews I received in 2014 that I’ll add below. First, here’s a few top 5 lists for my app downloads in 2014….
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Top 5 Countries That Downloaded My Apps
- United States
- Canada
- United Kingdom
- Australia
- Philippines
Top 5 Free Apps Downloaded
- Quiz of Medicine
- 8-Bit Eagle Smash
- Motivational Quotes to Inspire
- Ultra Fortune Ball – Free
- Saving Bunnies
Top 5 Paid Apps Downloaded
- Ultra Retro Game Soundboard
- Professor Piggy Bank
- Rest, Relax, & Reflect
- Ultra Soccer Match Soundboard
- Word Owl’s Word Search: Kindergarten
Top 5 Download Months
- September
- December
- March
- October
- May
“Awesome mobile apps, inspired by the past, from the future.”
8-Bit Avrin Apps | Avrin Ross
Until next time ∞
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Tags: 2014, 2014 mobile app overview, 2015, 8-Bit Avrin Apps review, app development, app development in 2014, app download history, app download statistics, indie app development insights, indie dev blog, minority app developers, mobile apps, review, top app store downloads, top indie developer blogs, year in review
