Beta, it's not You, it's Me...

Well, in 24 hours I had around 300 downloads (though the developer console is very data sparse and doesn't update all too often).

So far I've had nothing but 5 star ratings and not a single complaint about crashes or instability so I pushed out an update a few minutes ago which brings NF: Envoy out of beta and up to v1.0 with an improved about screen.

Also, I considered dropping the price of the "tips" version to €0.50; I'm really going to need to think about the business model a lot more (0 downloads at the €1 price point is a little disappointing and won't exactly attract other writers).

Aside from that though, I'm really chuffed with the feedback, all of it is positive so far and to see all the downloads, even if they're just the free version, it kicks ass.

NF: Envoy Pro

NF: Envoy

Edit: clarified some details/typos

We Have Lift-Off!

My application is now on the market!

15 Seconds after hitting "Publish"

It's free and will stay that way, but a donation version should be going up tomorrow at some point.

The QR Code below links to it so just scan it from your phone!

This is a public beta (v0.9.1) until I see that there aren't any obvious bugs on other devices, though I wish that the Developer Console gave a more "Google Analytics-ish" breakdown of the devices your app is installed on.

I'll do a much more extensive post tomorrow, this is just a "Squee" of excitement post.

:)

     

Navigate Fate: Envoy

Edit: Added the "Just In" Market screenshot.

Navigate Fate: Envoy v0.8.4

Well, my app went into private beta moments before starting to write my last blog post and I got some great feedback. In this post I'll be walking through v0.8.4 which should be very close to the final launch version visually.

The slideshow above gives a fairly clear overview:

1. The main menu is the "cover" of the book. If there are no bookmarks, the only option here will be "New Adventure". (Thanks to Julien Dodokal for that suggestion!)
2. The options available from the main menu are to see the "About" page with info on the app. Also, there's the "Jump To" menu.
3. About simply gives the credits and a link to my site for the app along with a request for story submissions.
4. The "Jump To" menu provides the reader the option of jumping to a page without necessarily reading (or re-reading) the first few pages. This would allow people to re-read the story several times to try and find the alternative endings without forcing them to retrace their steps.
5. This is a typical page (Note the custom buttons, Julien's suggestion again, my own design)
6. The In-Story menu gives two options, a "Go back 1 page" option for those times when a user accidentally taps the wrong option (testing doesn't show this to be a common problem) or simply that they weren't happy with their choice!
7. Themes is the other option, allowing the reader to change the visual style of the pages depending on their preferences.

My plan is to release a free version and a donation version at €1. I'm not a professional programmer so it's not right to charge people but at the same time, I've easily put in about 500 hours work since starting all of this, on top of my day job so tips would be nice.

If anyone would like to give their comments regarding pricing strategies (freemium, ad supported, donation etc.) just pop 'em below, I'd love to get a feel for what others think about the different pricing strategies out there.