10Up - Could This Be The Next Big Puzzle App?

With the rise and fall of apps, both big and small everyone starts to wonder what is the next big app? This year alone in 2014 we have had the likes of Flappy Birds and 2048 among all the big corporations but these cases are the ones that make many think about this next big app. Although there are many great apps being published daily, which of these will captivate the app user world?

Well, the wait may be over. There is a new app on the block.

It's available on Android - and it's FREE.
The game is called 10Up. It's a number puzzle game that was conceived from a popular game played on Sydney's Cityrail trains where you join 4 numbers (which is the ID of the train carriage/car) to make 10. Sounds simple enough? Well this is only one key factor in all good games and it doesn't end there.

Another key factor is to make it simple to play, but at the same time challenging enough to keep someone engaged and hopefully playing again. There is a points system to this game, where the closer to 10 you get, the more points you get. When you do get a 10, you get a 10Up. This gives you point boosts based on your streak. You must get as many 10Ups as possible before time runs out!

The app looks beautiful with a very simple UI with animations. The game is very addictive and there is an easy mode available to help you learn the game. It is designed to be suitable for children and can be used as an educational app. You can beat your score and share your results too. The developer is also updating the app constantly and quick to respond to user feedback.

With all these factors, it's no wonder that 10Up could be your next app and that of many others and it's free! So why wait any longer? Download 10Up right now - I'll provide you the link:
10Up Number Puzzle Game

And then post your high score! Mine is 620 points. Can you beat it?

A Browser that will make you productive in 2014! (New Concept)

Productivity just got easier. We've all used many tools that track and time our tasks to help our productivity, but the one flaw is that for it to truly be useful you need to set them up first to match you. 

So here's a new concept for you to consider, start with one area, say you open a link in a browser - you easily get stuck reading a comments section or article. Now you are presented with an option to limit your session to say, 5 minutes. Now you won't do this all the time but if at least once a day you limit one of your procrastination sessions to 5 minutes (instead of getting stuck for 20) you train yourself to be conscious about this time spent. Which is the first step. 
Enter this solution: IN 5 Browser.

It's an alternative browser (not a replacement) that has a timer in your face and kills your session after so you don't procrastinate!
-No history, no favorites, no tabs, no cache, no going back and wasting time. After 5 minutes (You have options for a few other time ranges), you simply get a "GG. Back to Work" message.
Try it for yourself. Once a day for just one week- stick to your intention of getting back to work "IN 5" and see the results!
It's a fast, lightweight browser, designed specifically for procrastinators to get in, read content, get out - and back to work!
Free Version:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sariodev.in5.app
Paid Version:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sariodev.in5pro.app

Adding Adbuddiz library in Android Studio

SarioDev, 2014

The Adbuddiz support page gives you 5 steps to add their SDK and start serving Ads in your app. Link here: http://publishers.adbuddiz.com/portal/support/java

There is a slight variation in step 2 (Add jar to your app) for developers using Android Studio. 

In Android Studio first you add AdBuddiz-2.0.1.jar to the libs folder and then instead of Project properties you open Project Structure

Then select the Dependencies Tab, press the green plus sign to add a File dependency. 

Select the jar file you just added and you're done. Move on to step 3 as normal.

IN 5 Browser for Android Published

IN 5 has JUST been published to the Play Store (28/2/2014). It will be a few hours before it is visible and I will post when that is the case.

In the mean time it's great to see and it means I can start working on the Pro version whilst taking user feedback and working on the original version (As is the nature of being an Android Developer).

This may be a small milestone, but for me it is very important and hopefully the start of something good.

Releasing an App in 2014

After reading some articles and trends and forecasts for the shape of app development in 2014 it can be quite daunting to think all your work could result in minimal success - financially that is. Forbes had average lifetime income last year at about 6k per developer. Obviously with that the Median would probably be a more meaningful value to consider.

Of course if you're building something for yourself you still have the functionality you wanted and hopefully learned some new tricks when developing for Android.

In any case even if the market may start to reach its peak this year I am still aiming to release at least 3 Android titles this year and I'll detail what I've learnt from the process.

Good luck to other aspiring developers

In 5: New Logo and functionality

Today the Logo is ready to go into the app and onto the Facebook page.

It's been changed and hopefully marks the time for the app to be put up to the test and submitted to the Play Store.

The Logo is the first point of contact with the user and is also the first clue to whether your App is good or not.
I don't believe that the Logo has the power to get users to click it more so than its ability to NOT deter potential interest to click the app.

In any case when designing a new app, or any product for that matter, it is worth your time considering the logo and the branding of your app. It's the first piece of marketing.

In 5 - ready for prime time.

Android development: Next App

It's been quite a while since SarioDev released 10 - Up.  Unfortunately no updates nor its coming to Android or iOS is being announced at this stage. I've decided instead to begin developing my next app and it will be on the Android platform. The name:

In 5

Tweaking

It has been about 5 weeks since 10-Up was listed in the Windows Store and now it's time to start the tweaking process. I recently read a blog from successful app developers, reminding me that I should be tweaking my app often. These tweaks aren't particularly major app updates with new features, but can also be changes to keywords, descriptions, screenshots and more.

With that said, this will be a part of my regular process to try and keep the app up-to-date. Not being able to dedicate full-time like hours to the app, it is difficult to keep up with the competition. These small tweaks will be important to keep up in some way.
So the focus is to TWEAK.

Top 100 !

After one week of being on the market, 10-Up has cracked the Top 100 Paid Apps in the Games category at 97th spot.

10-Up also has the top spot in New Releases for Games Category.

I look forward to continuing to make 10-Up a great app and improve the user experience.

Let's keep this thing going!

10-Up Released on the Windows Store!

As of the 11th of July, 2013, the 10-Up app was officially released on the Windows Store.

It took about 7 months of on and off work in my spare time, thought into functionality, gameplay, graphics, music and marketing and it finally was approved. 

If you follow this blog, download the app to see what I've been posting about most frequently as of late.

http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/app/10-up/a2800a17-ebac-4542-b2c4-c99d28f5d9db

10-Up on the Windows Store

Watch this space to hear more about the steps taken following the release of the app and a progress update.

Ro.

Third Time's a charm!

After cleaning up some minor issues and also adding in a feature my app is going in for certification for the third time. Version 1.0.3 of 10-Up will hopefully be the first release and I'm looking forward to any more feedback from the Microsoft Team in the Content Compliance.

If you're like me, the certification and marketing take almost as long as the development, spending extra time on graphic design for your promotional images as well as putting in time to consider your market and price point. Further to this, there are a bunch of privacy statements to consider and other certificates as well.

All in all, I've learned that when developing something like a game or app, you must consider the market side of things as well.

I'll post once I get the app certified. In the meantime here is one of the promotional images used!

Sprites

For the design of this game it was decided to create characters to represent numbers to give the game some life. All arithmetic buttons have a bubble like feel to give the game more of a flow to it. It is important that the game be identifiable to the audience when they see the game and to differentiate it from a standard number type game. A single puzzle in itself may or may not be difficult depending on what numbers are generated - it's random, but collectively the challenge is to beat the puzzle as many times as possible within the amount of time given.

All design has been created with vector based graphics, giving me the ability to adjust the image files for the game with ease.

Here is a look at the sprites for addition and multiplication:

 Characters

In the previous post I revealed the Logo Character designed for the game and this time, we will reveal other characters designed for particular numbers. 

Numbers between 0-9 have had characters created with different colors and different facial expressions to make them unique. The idea behind this is to also give a visual aid to the user as they play the game. Color matching can be quicker than reading the actual numbers. For example, combining two characters of the same color with a division will generally result in a 1 - or in the case of this game, an orange character.

By introducing these characters we add some personality to the game.

Now without further ado, here's a sample of some of the characters from 10-Up !

To see more of the characters, they will be made available on the games Facebook page - Remember to 'Like' the page to support the development of this game !

In the next post , look forward to some of the sound effects and music compositions made for the game.

A First Attempt: Developing a Windows 8 App

Having held off on jump into the app game the past few years, whether it be for Apple, or Android, I've finally got myself a new device that allows me to develop in the right environment with the right tools.

App ideas are currently in abundance, but there have been many factors delaying my attempt to enter the market. I can summarize these reasons to 1. Hardware/Tools - Apple requires a MAC and xcode, objective c and $$$. Whilst Android, there were too many different devices and versions to cater for that are all so different.
2. The market is so competitive and well established before I'd even started that I would need a really well made app to have a chance, with anything less risk not even getting seen.

Neither of these factors alone are enough to stop me learning to develop apps for these platforms, but together has always discouraged me enough that I wouldn't put any time towards learning it.

Now, when talking about developing windows 8 apps, it does have less sales and market opportunities right now, but it does also mean that the market is raw, and therefore the competition is raw too. What will and won't take off isn't set in stone at this stage and I for one am willing to jump into this space and see how things go. Supposing success, it may compel me enough to try bring these apps to the Apple scope or the Android scope. As mentioned previously in this post, I've just got my hands on the Dell XPS 12 Convertible and will be using this to (attempt to)develop apps.

Surely enough, the information and support supplied by Microsoft for development in their environment has been so inviting thus far that I've already got some apps lined up, with prices ratings etc ready to go.
Now all I need is the app. - Where to start?

Visual Studio 2012 interface

I've just gone through the first 3 tutorials of the classic "Hello World" application. The experience has actually been pleasing and it has been very clear how to support all the different devices that will be running windows 8 including when they are used in portrait view or snapped in/out.
I am so far impressed with the default types, blocks and text provided by Microsoft making it easy to work with.

The Hello World app after 3 tutorials

I've developed in C# in the past so there has been a small transition into the windows 8 space and visual studio 2012 is so easy to work with as well.

If your thinking about trying to develop some windows 8 Apps, you will be happy with what is available to you to help you develop as I've seen (so far) and if not feel free to share why not.


I will update my progress and how things go during development and hopefully, will be able to bring an app to Microsoft's App store.