2009 in a blog post   6 May 2010

2009 then. Busy. It involved releasing 32×32, updating two apps, and almost getting Orbit One out the door. Compared to 2008, it wasn’t quite as exciting, but it was an enlightening year. Every project surprised me in some way, and taught me something valuable along the way.

32×32

2009 is when I gave up on trying to predict the app market. 32×32 is the reason why. If you had told me that my monochrome pixel-art editor for the iPhone (that I mostly just wrote for myself) would end up being my best selling app yet, I’d have thought you were crazy. And yet, that’s exactly how it turned out. This isn’t a crazy AppStore success story (my sales are currently just shy of five hundred copies) but hey, it’s progress!

Getting a preview up on CreativeApplications.net helped the pre-release buzz, but what developers often overlook is that you need to convert that into post-release sales. Having a simple “sign-up to be alerted on release” form on the 32×32 page did the trick. 40+ people signed up, which translated into great day one sales.

The 99c pricetag reflected my disbelief that anyone would be interested in 32×32. This was my biggest mistake, to underestimate the size and enthusiasm of my niche market. The best thing I did was to put a tonne of love into an app that I cared about. The Internet is this wonderful place that allows any idea, no matter how niche or silly to find a sizable market. All we (developers) have to do is write the best damn software we can.

A couple of updates

I updated both my iPhone apps last year: Geomex and 32×32. The intentions for updating were different, and as usual, things didn’t turn out quite like I expected.

Geomex was updated in the hope that it would spur sales on. The big new feature was Online Hiscores. Writing the code was time consuming, and ultimately, didn’t really have the effect I hoped it would. No regrets, but in the future I’ll be more selective about which apps I decide to update with new features.

32×32 was updated in response to its success. The big new feature was Share on Twitter. It was also time consuming to implement, but I think it had a positive influence overall. I have no data to prove this, but I suspect one of the factors contributing to 32×32’s continuing success is the word-of-mouth effect on Twitter.

In a creative jam

While developing the updates, I pondered over what to work on next. Ideas came and went, but nothing stuck. Prototypes didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped, but I think part of that had to do with me not having the patience and confidence to see them through. It is very rare for a prototype to just be brilliant after a few days, but that’s about how long I gave a prototype before declaring the idea awful. It is apparent to me now that I was just burned out, and couldn’t give these ideas the love they deserved.

Orbit One

I’ll have the full dev diary posted as we near the eventual release date, but the short version is: Orbit One was a blast to develop. A mad dash to write a game in a month was exactly what I needed after a couple of months of creative block. It was also great to work on a smaller, almost prototype-level, game where I was completely focused on getting to the fun as quickly as possible while trimming all the fat.

Polishing the game has taken a little longer than expected, but it should be ready in a month or two.

What’s next?

I’m not entirely positive at the moment. My top priority is getting Orbit One released. Beyond that I have two major projects: an app for the iPad, and (as hinted in an earlier post) a shoot-em-up of sorts for Windows/Mac. Both are still in the concept stage, with nothing set in stone. I’m taking an exploratory approach to design, where the plan is to allow the act of developing these projects to lead me in the right direction. It’s quite probable that they’ll turn out nothing like I’ve imagined today, or that they may never see the light of day at all. That’s exactly why I’m incredibly excited to get to work on these projects.

2009 was full of hard work, small successes, disappointment, pleasant surprises, and more hard work. That’s the life of an indie software developer, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.