How to make your App Store submission improve your chances of success

At last! I've submitted DarkFlow HD to the App Store. Now, sit back and wait. A cold beer perhaps.It should get reviewed in the next 5 working days, to go live just in time for the launch of iAd. Around this time next week, hopefully live ad impressions will start getting served up. We'll soon have some idea of how much money developers can really expect to see from Apple's advertising platform.The final stages of app submission can be a little fiddly. For one thing, there's the icons. For universal apps targeting iPhone 3G(S), iPhone4 and iPad, you need to provide optimised icons in 3 different sizes (57x57, 72x72 and 114x114 pixels). Getting that all working takes time, especially if you want your icon to look just right (which we all do, of course).On this occasion, I've set the...

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How to make your App Store submission improve your chances of success

At last! I've submitted DarkFlow HD to the App Store. Now, sit back and wait. A cold beer perhaps.It should get reviewed in the next 5 working days, to go live just in time for the launch of iAd. Around this time next week, hopefully live ad impressions will start getting served up. We'll soon have some idea of how much money developers can really expect to see from Apple's advertising platform.The final stages of app submission can be a little fiddly. For one thing, there's the icons. For universal apps targeting iPhone 3G(S), iPhone4 and iPad, you need to provide optimised icons in 3 different sizes (57x57, 72x72 and 114x114 pixels). Getting that all working takes time, especially if you want your icon to look just right (which we all do, of course).On this occasion, I've set the...

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DarkFlow HD entering final testing

We're very excited here at nugames (that's me and the kids). We've prepared the release candidate of DarkFlow HD and it's entering final testing. We hope to submit it to the App Store later today.Why is this significant? Well, hopefully this game will be our most popular so far. In total, TractorBeams and the original DarkFlow have notched up well in excess of 9,000 downloads (including updates). Not bad going as I basically did no marketing and the games cost nothing to develop (apart from quite a few evenings banging my head against xcode of course ;-).My target is 10,000 downloads for DarkFlow HD, which takes advantage of the iPhone4's high definition Retina display (of course, it's also iPad optimised and backwards compatible with early devices). I'm hoping this blog will help me get the...

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DarkFlow HD entering final testing

We're very excited here at nugames (that's me and the kids). We've prepared the release candidate of DarkFlow HD and it's entering final testing. We hope to submit it to the App Store later today.Why is this significant? Well, hopefully this game will be our most popular so far. In total, TractorBeams and the original DarkFlow have notched up well in excess of 9,000 downloads (including updates). Not bad going as I basically did no marketing and the games cost nothing to develop (apart from quite a few evenings banging my head against xcode of course ;-).My target is 10,000 downloads for DarkFlow HD, which takes advantage of the iPhone4's high definition Retina display (of course, it's also iPad optimised and backwards compatible with early devices). I'm hoping this blog will help me get the...

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iPhone4 - good; iOS4 - mediocre (at least on iPhone 3G)

Whilst iPhone4 is getting rave reviews, the iOS4 update for older devices, notably iPhone 3G, is not so good.The advice? If you are on iPhone 3G and haven't updated yet, you definitely want to read up on other people's experiences first and hope Apple release a patched version of iOS4 soon. I don't think we'll be seeing any feature enhancements though. That'll teach us for being 2 hardware versions behind...

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iPhone4 - good; iOS4 - mediocre (at least on iPhone 3G)

Whilst iPhone4 is getting rave reviews, the iOS4 update for older devices, notably iPhone 3G, is not so good.The advice? If you are on iPhone 3G and haven't updated yet, you definitely want to read up on other people's experiences first and hope Apple release a patched version of iOS4 soon. I don't think we'll be seeing any feature enhancements though. That'll teach us for being 2 hardware versions behind...

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iBooks for iPhone

iBooks is now available for iPhone. It can be downloaded now from the App Store, free of charge.It comes with a free copy of Winne the Pooh (a real classic with lovely colour illustrations). This should look absolutely gorgeous on the iPhone 4.The iBook interface is very nice, with page turn animations. I would personally like to see the option of autoscrolling text as on some other iPhone ebook readers (e.g. BeamItDown's iFlow). I've read books using this method and it is nice to not have to turn pages (ok I'm perhaps a little lazy ;-)It's nice that there's a large selection of free titles thanks to Project Gutenberg, integrated directly into the iBookstore.Interestingly, Apple have announced that authors can now self-publish to the iBookstore, foregoing the need for a traditional publishing...

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iBooks for iPhone

iBooks is now available for iPhone. It can be downloaded now from the App Store, free of charge.It comes with a free copy of Winne the Pooh (a real classic with lovely colour illustrations). This should look absolutely gorgeous on the iPhone 4.The iBook interface is very nice, with page turn animations. I would personally like to see the option of autoscrolling text as on some other iPhone ebook readers (e.g. BeamItDown's iFlow). I've read books using this method and it is nice to not have to turn pages (ok I'm perhaps a little lazy ;-)It's nice that there's a large selection of free titles thanks to Project Gutenberg, integrated directly into the iBookstore.Interestingly, Apple have announced that authors can now self-publish to the iBookstore, foregoing the need for a traditional publishing...

Read more »

iOS4 on iPhone 3G

After leaving the update process overnight, my iPhone 3G is now running iOS4 (the backup process only took over 3 hours - is this a bug? Many other people are experiencing the same problem).First impressions - underwhelming on the 3G device unfortunately. No multitasking obviously (not even fast app switching). Folders are great and I've already come up with a much more organised layout for my 50-60 apps. But no homescreen background for iPhone 3G? Why not? Can't help thinking I'm being nudged gently to get the new iPhone 4 by annoying lack of features (unfortunately I'm tied into a long contract so can't for over a year without great expense).Not only are homescreen backgrounds not an option, but some of the fine art lock screen wallpapers have been removed, presumably for gallery licensing...

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iOS4 on iPhone 3G

After leaving the update process overnight, my iPhone 3G is now running iOS4 (the backup process only took over 3 hours - is this a bug? Many other people are experiencing the same problem).First impressions - underwhelming on the 3G device unfortunately. No multitasking obviously (not even fast app switching). Folders are great and I've already come up with a much more organised layout for my 50-60 apps. But no homescreen background for iPhone 3G? Why not? Can't help thinking I'm being nudged gently to get the new iPhone 4 by annoying lack of features (unfortunately I'm tied into a long contract so can't for over a year without great expense).Not only are homescreen backgrounds not an option, but some of the fine art lock screen wallpapers have been removed, presumably for gallery licensing...

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iOS4 update - backup issues

Like many people today I was eager to get my hands on iOS4, and around 6pm UK time the update became available.Also like many people however the update hasn't gone as smoothly as one might wish. Basically, in order to install the new OS onto the device, iTunes first has to perform a backup. For me, this was getting stuck at around 10% complete and seemingly not progressing beyond that for a very long time (around an hour).Turns out plenty of other people are experiencing similar difficulties. I found this thread on the Apple forums which provides some comfort.Basically, by checking the size of this folder: /Users//Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup you can see that slowly but surely data is being backed up. Therefore I'm going to leave it running overnight - I will of course let...

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iOS4 update - backup issues

Like many people today I was eager to get my hands on iOS4, and around 6pm UK time the update became available.Also like many people however the update hasn't gone as smoothly as one might wish. Basically, in order to install the new OS onto the device, iTunes first has to perform a backup. For me, this was getting stuck at around 10% complete and seemingly not progressing beyond that for a very long time (around an hour).Turns out plenty of other people are experiencing similar difficulties. I found this thread on the Apple forums which provides some comfort.Basically, by checking the size of this folder: /Users//Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup you can see that slowly but surely data is being backed up. Therefore I'm going to leave it running overnight - I will of course let...

Read more »

iPhone 4 and iOS4 - what this means to developers

So, tomorrow at some point most iPhone and iPod Touch users will presumably be getting a notification about a new OS version for their devices (if they sync with iTunes that is).Of course, this won't be available to first generation iPhone users and people with older iPod Touches.iOS4 as the update is known as will introduce many new user oriented features such as multitasking (if your device has what it takes) and folders to organise your apps. Of most interest to me however is what it provides to developers.I'm talking in particular about iAd.Now, this could be interesting for users because all of a sudden, many of their favourite free apps (and quite possibly some paid for ones too) will start featuring advertising banners where once there was a bit of the app UI. Some people may even feel...

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iPhone 4 and iOS4 - what this means to developers

So, tomorrow at some point most iPhone and iPod Touch users will presumably be getting a notification about a new OS version for their devices (if they sync with iTunes that is).Of course, this won't be available to first generation iPhone users and people with older iPod Touches.iOS4 as the update is known as will introduce many new user oriented features such as multitasking (if your device has what it takes) and folders to organise your apps. Of most interest to me however is what it provides to developers.I'm talking in particular about iAd.Now, this could be interesting for users because all of a sudden, many of their favourite free apps (and quite possibly some paid for ones too) will start featuring advertising banners where once there was a bit of the app UI. Some people may even feel...

Read more »

Welcome to the iPhone Game Blog

Hey, thanks for visiting my new blog!Like the name suggests, this is going to be all about iPhone games (and maybe some non-game apps too).I'm going to share some of my experiences of writing and marketing my own apps, as well as providing a forum for people to tell me about games they are writing.I want this to be a 2 way thing, so I'm really open to comments.Firstly, a little bit about me (don't worry, I'm not going to turn this into some sort of weird psychotherapy for stressed out iPhone developers. At least, I'm not planning to). I've been working as a computer programmer for nearly 15 years. I'm been working mainly in C++, Java and Javascript, and now, of course, Objective-C.I have a real job for a large multinational software firm which has nothing to do with iPhone games, so this is...

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Welcome to the iPhone Game Blog

Hey, thanks for visiting my new blog!Like the name suggests, this is going to be all about iPhone games (and maybe some non-game apps too).I'm going to share some of my experiences of writing and marketing my own apps, as well as providing a forum for people to tell me about games they are writing.I want this to be a 2 way thing, so I'm really open to comments.Firstly, a little bit about me (don't worry, I'm not going to turn this into some sort of weird psychotherapy for stressed out iPhone developers. At least, I'm not planning to). I've been working as a computer programmer for nearly 15 years. I'm been working mainly in C++, Java and Javascript, and now, of course, Objective-C.I have a real job for a large multinational software firm which has nothing to do with iPhone games, so this is...

Read more »