Where I get to pontificate about my side projects, coding in general and whatever else I come up with.
The update for My Animal Age is now out. Some minor improvements in some places but most notably the animals now make noises when an age is found, or when tapping the animal itself.
Come and get it!
Note, I have not received the notice to download the update, might take a day or two. But the new version is available on the marketplace and can be forced updated by using the above links.
Not that it means a lot, but whatever the algorithm that Microsoft uses for determining the popularity of apps for, I believe the last week, it has placed My Animal Age within the top 50 apps for the category Kids+Family. Actually, number 45. It's not exactly super high on the list, but the Web Marketplace shows in groups of 50 per page, so My Animal Age is on the front...once you scroll down some. :)
Still, pretty darn cool! Also, the link I have above may not have it at that spot anymore depending on when you clicked it. Things change week to week.
My Animal Age has officially broken the 50 downloads mark. Unfortunately, 90% of them are still trials. But hopefully with the coming update *cough*still-waiting-on-Microsoft*cough* those trials will start turning into more paid.
With that 50, however, came another review. 3 stars with the only comment being "Too few". This is great feedback but I was hoping that more detail could be given. How much is just right? How much is too many? Given that some of my competitor apps out currently have less than mine (somewhere in the 6-10 range) while mine has 12, including a mythical beast, how many more would be a better count of animals?
Continuing that train of thought, if I compared against the animal sounds apps which mine will now compete against since I've included that feature, My Animal Age will have either the same amount or a lot less. One of the top ten kids+family apps has 30+ animals and sounds, but that's the sole functionality of the app.
So my question to all who may actually read my blog: how many animals are just right for an app like My Animal Age?
Seriously, not trying to be facetious here. Give me some good feedback. Give me details. I would like this to be the best app it can be.
Thank you, whoever you are, for your feedback and if you happen to read this, drop a comment. Let's talk. I would definitely like to make this better.
Major update posted for My Animal Age!
Here are the changes, but note: ANIMAL SOUNDS!
v1.2
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.
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.
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!
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.