Mooo! Oink! SSSSSSSssssss!

Major update posted for My Animal Age!

Here are the changes, but note: ANIMAL SOUNDS!

v1.2

• Now plays animal sounds when an age is calculated, or when the animal is tapped.
• Trial mode now shows animals that can be accessed in full version.
• Buy button (trial) or Rate/Review button (purchased) in Settings now available.
• Blog and Email in Settings are now tappable to view the blog or to send email feedback.

Really, the biggest items on that list are the animal sounds and the revamped trial mode.

I had been wondering why I wasn't having much of a trial to purchase conversation rate then a week or two ago I realized I had no button within the app itself to buy immediately, nor even any teasing of what is available in the full version. So that is a big change.

The animal sounds was always something I wanted to do in the original release, but due to time constraints and, well, I just wanted to get my app out, I held it back. Then, lo and behold, I get a 5 star review but it asks for animal noises. Well, they are on their way!

Thanks for everyone checking out the app and hopefully this will be a lot more fun and entertaining for you and your children.

Expect the update to be streamed to your phones by end of week (hopefully) or early next week. It's all up to Microsoft on when it gets pushed out at this point.

Highlighted on Metro Developer Show

There is a really good and genuinely funny podcast aimed at "Metro developers and enthusiasts" that I listen to every week. It's called The Metro Developer Show. They highlight news and info on anything Metro based, from Windows Phone to Windows 8 (actually, what is in-between?).

Anyways, great podcast and I try to contribute with info I find to share. Well, since I finally finished my app, My Animal Age, I decided to share and they were kind enough to plug the hell out of it. :)

That episode can be found here. Also, I shared an e-book over twitter to them and they discuss it briefly as well. I'll discuss that in a separate blog post.

Even before they gave me such an ego boost, I've always found their show to be sincerely wonderful to listen to and will continue to as this developer ecosystem gains more and more ground.

Downloads slowly climbing

I'm up to 33 downloads, with 2 purchases! It's obviously a very slow start but I never expected this to make any real money. more for fun and for experience. If I hit paydirt, then that's just icing on the cake!

I think it's also going to really help that I started advertising on a site called Windows Phone Parent on the side bar and I guess they get pretty good traffic. My downloads trickled away until I did the advertising and then it started up again. So I think it's helping.

No where to go but up from here!

My Animal Age catalog update

Wow that was nice and quick!

Got my catalog update already certified and published. This includes new marketplace iconography and a far better description. However, it hasn't migrated to the marketplace yet so it still looks terrible. That can't happen soon enough. So embarressed.

You can find it here.

Up to 22!

Hit 22 downloads sometime recently. Unfortunately, all trials. However, that's great that people are trying it out. Since there is a lag on the time downloaded to when reported, it's entirely possible that some of those have been converted to paying customers.

That said, I'm sending a metadata update to the marketplace to fix some description errors (and make it snappier. Thanks Wife!) and change the artwork so it does not have a transparent background.

Look for that update to come soon.

3 downloads!

So far, 3 other people have tried my app.  No reviews yet though.

 

Still, pretty exciting!

Posted from UpdateMyFeed for Windows Phone

Learning Experience

Once you submit an app update, you cannot make changes to the catalog text or image. Once you submit an app update, you cannot submit another.

While I knew the latter, I was unaware of the former. What does this mean? The most crushing item I want to fix right now is the marketplace icon. While the art itself is just fine, I want to add text to the bottom with the name of the app My Animal Age. Also? if the background is white, you won't see the art at all!

So in certain places that categorize and display new apps, my icon/tile is simply...white. It looks like nothing.

sigh...

This update cannot complete certification soon enough. But here is how it should look:

The beautiful wife, being the graphic designer she is, immediately had contention with the comic sans font. I'll change it once she comes up with something better. :)