tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70822419175707535382024-02-19T01:06:55.893-08:00The DiceFeud tech blogJohn Hårdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17364481663076074340noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7082241917570753538.post-47249204541187013572013-01-15T13:57:00.000-08:002013-01-15T13:57:06.124-08:00New features in DiceFeud <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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DiceFeud version 1.5 is out, version 1.6 coming up</h2>
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New in version 1.5</h3>
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I forgot to write something here about version 1.5 when it was out a few weeks back. I was quite happy with that version since it brough a bit more life to the app. The dice are animated and the statistics for the paid version look a little better:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAtmYxBUk4xXm9FZ9om3u3DJfKN7S2EujjJEqSGkoX51m5MxnS3DKcREMWtzLPnY-sV0bx_ou9Ay0fwmn8DcZRlJDW6ZxKp0j0BuYoQkNibiP__YWr16DnlmrO7a-WPxZiimRmcY2LJRw/s1600/stats.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAtmYxBUk4xXm9FZ9om3u3DJfKN7S2EujjJEqSGkoX51m5MxnS3DKcREMWtzLPnY-sV0bx_ou9Ay0fwmn8DcZRlJDW6ZxKp0j0BuYoQkNibiP__YWr16DnlmrO7a-WPxZiimRmcY2LJRw/s320/stats.png" width="232" /></a></div>
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Peter Drougge created the animation for the Win8 version and I just took it from there. </div>
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One improvement in version 1.5 is that the rolling and randomizing is performed on the server instead of at the phone. I hade to implement this to prevent cheating when the game is out on more platforms. If I hadn't, then a player would have been able to roll three rolls on each platform and then submit the best score to the server. Big no-no.</div>
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I added sounds - one sound for rolling and a small applause when rolling Yatzy - and I added shake-to-roll functionality. Both sounds and shake-to-roll can be switched on/off in the Settings view.</div>
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I figured I should have those features to make it all a little more professional. One user has complained about the sounds muting the music player on the phone. He is right and I hadn't tested that. It shuts other running sounds down and I should come up with some better idea. I use mp3-files and the Xna.MediaPlayer object for the app-sounds and I suppose that's just how the MediaPlayer object works. I'll look around to see if there is another way. So far I haven't found any other way to play mp3-files and I am reluctant to ship the app with non-compressed sound files because of the size.</div>
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Coming in version 1.6</h3>
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I have now submitted a new version. It is not that much going on here. The main feature is a new icon which was created by a pro, Malin Strandli, who I worked with some ten years ago. I was really cool to catch up with her again and in one hour she whipped up what I could never do:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisHS6Z-B4Dsvbv-QhwQeuRoxNR89Di9ZVGI5KgsYAeQx_EqpuJ8XIjFfyomXB1ybqf09w5r50rhqoOPHDke7SvzJSv0WX0UyfgtGy8rjcn3fxRIYFC-EXLmEjptiXw3wHtQRjpXubetpY/s1600/teaser.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisHS6Z-B4Dsvbv-QhwQeuRoxNR89Di9ZVGI5KgsYAeQx_EqpuJ8XIjFfyomXB1ybqf09w5r50rhqoOPHDke7SvzJSv0WX0UyfgtGy8rjcn3fxRIYFC-EXLmEjptiXw3wHtQRjpXubetpY/s320/teaser.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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The left one is the default icon, and the right one is the tile icon when you have new unread chat messages. I am not sure if this is going to be the background color, but I really like the look of the actual icons.</div>
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Also, I added some more statistics for premium users. The current all-time-high top list is very static and I added daily and weekly toplists along with push notifications to players making it to one of the lists.<br />
Yes, it is a cheap shot in trying to make more people buy the app but it adds a little value which I would like to have if I paid for it.<br />
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The new version is not approved yet but I think it will be soon since it isn't that much new functionality in it.<br />
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Sleep tight!<br />
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/John</div>
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John Hårdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17364481663076074340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7082241917570753538.post-22897987075578965282013-01-15T13:51:00.000-08:002013-01-15T13:51:03.343-08:00Server problems today<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Two of five webservers stopped responding today. DiceFeud runs on a very cheap web hotel and there are loads of applications sharing servers so sometimes the servers act strange, but it is out of my hands. <div>
I must say that I'm pretty happy with what I get for the money though. There are five web servers in a cluster and my sites have separate app pools which I can control on each server.</div>
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Last night, two of my app pools stopped and didn't go up again. I don't know what caused them to go down but I didn't notice the problem until I got notified by about it from a dutch DiceFeud player.</div>
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A restart fixed the problem and it has been working since. I'll keep a closer eye on it over the next few days.</div>
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Thanks,</div>
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John</div>
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John Hårdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17364481663076074340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7082241917570753538.post-82785459680228165342012-10-24T14:03:00.003-07:002012-10-24T14:04:34.740-07:00DiceFeud for Windows 8 submitted to Windows Store<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Time flies when you're having fun. The last few weeks have been busy and I haven't been able to do much work on DiceFeud. However, Peter Drougge, has been hard at work on the Windows 8 (or Windows Store) version of DiceFeud and the app was submitted for approval five days ago.<br />
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Peter has done pretty much all of the development himself, with help from Dennis Skantz and me and DiceFeud now has three contributors.<br />
The API is of course the same for both the Windows Phone and Windows 8 version but the look and feel of the Windows 8 app is quite different from the Windows Phone version and it has been a blast to watch the progress.<br />
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We were hoping to have the app approved in time for the world wide launch of Windows 8, but it doesn't look like that's gonna happen. In a perfect world it will be out in the store on october 26, (normally the process takes seven days) but Microsoft said apps needed to be submitted on the first days of october to have a chance since these are busy days for them.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Where does DiceFeud go from here?</h3>
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When the Windows 8 version is out, we need to think about what to do next. Sadly, I haven't been very active promoting the app lately so the number of downloads has dropped radically even thought there are hundreds of games being played every day. Since this is my first app, I didn't know what to expect, but it is clear to me now that you have to be very active to keep the interest up. When the app disappear into abyss of apps on Marketplace, your only option is to market the app yourself. I think DiceFeud is a pretty decent app, but word of mouth only does so much and the Windows Phone community is still to small.</div>
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So, here is what lies ahead for DiceFeud:</div>
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<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Pick up marketing of DiceFeud again. Contact WP7- and Windows Store sites and blogs and try to make them notice the app. Use Facebook, Twitter and whatever to mention DiceFeud. If you like the game, please help out. A DiceFeuder will never walk alone!</li>
<li>Add missing functionality to the Windows 8 version. Most urgent is the chat functionality which we didn't have time to finish yet.</li>
<li>Put a little polish on the Windows Phone version. The Windows 8 version has animations when rolling the dice and a few other nice things which we will implement on the Windows Phone version as well. The statistics will be more extensive, with a monthly top list. Hopefully this will trigger people to play even more. There are a few tiny bugs to fix and people have asked for a shake-to-roll feature.</li>
<li>Start on an iOS version of DiceFeud. This is something I really look forward to and hope to get started on before year end.</li>
</ol>
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Tomorrow I will be at the grand nordic launch of Windows 8 in Stockholm. I hope there will be beer.</div>
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/John</div>
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John Hårdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17364481663076074340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7082241917570753538.post-16388050767399763302012-09-14T16:46:00.005-07:002012-09-14T16:47:02.932-07:00New version of DiceFeud out now<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Folks,<br />
<br />
The new version is out now and it looks great. Big thanks to Peter Drougge for layout improvements.<br />
In the new version. I had a few complaints about placing a score on the score board in the last version. If you accindentally pointed wrong you could end up setting your Yatzy on Chance instead. In the new version that won't happen since you need to confirm your move with a tap on the confirm-button in the application bar:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOhmlfPuDpf_psPr1355RVfd6LqMH0n1cAXYSeaCIKp8qqGR0EwEwFfCfkKtsVgm8ozzMANPgA4RDc3iQ33BnU-g9LAqH2JoYBl_pc8IhDpM00PjzrinnTcyK5Px9TEug8lEy-DMaCdxQ/s1600/GameboardConfirm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOhmlfPuDpf_psPr1355RVfd6LqMH0n1cAXYSeaCIKp8qqGR0EwEwFfCfkKtsVgm8ozzMANPgA4RDc3iQ33BnU-g9LAqH2JoYBl_pc8IhDpM00PjzrinnTcyK5Px9TEug8lEy-DMaCdxQ/s320/GameboardConfirm.png" width="192" /></a></div>
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There is also a high score list and your basic statistics, but only in the premium version. I have to try to add som value to DiceFeud Premium since the ad revenue from the free version is virtually nothing. Now that Marketplace has taken off, with more that 100 000 apps available, your app don't show as many ads as it did before since all apps using the Microsoft Advertising component seem to compete for showing ads, and the ad sales haven't increased as much as the number of apps have.<br />
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Exciting times for DiceFeud. The app is taking it's first baby steps towards a Windows 8 desktop version. More on that when we have something to show.<br />
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Now go download the new version.</div>
John Hårdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17364481663076074340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7082241917570753538.post-43093182199377899302012-09-09T16:53:00.000-07:002012-09-11T14:12:10.340-07:00New version submitted!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Two weeks after the first version was released, and updated version was posted today of both the free and premium versions of DiceFeud.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is what's new in version 1.1:</span></div>
<pre style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-Improved look and feel on main view.</span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-Added sorting on Last played on main view.</span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-Chat now scrolling to bottom.</span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-Chat message now stays in textbox when loosing focus.</span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-Chat bubbles in different colors for you and your opponent.</span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-Added confirmation before setting score.</span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-Finished games now removed after one day instead of two.</span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-Accent-colored tile and application icon.</span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-Added Statistics and Top list to paid version.</span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-Added refresh button in menu bar instead of in menu.</span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-Rematch-option added in context menu on Finished games list.</span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-Changed message when final scores are equal from "Tie! Noone won." to the friendlier "Tie! </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Everybody won!"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-Important messages may be shown in client on startup.</span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-"Rate this app" link added.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Minor changes, but the app looks better and the confirm button was an important improvement because people somtimes taps the wrong slot on the score board and in the first version, the score was instantly saved when doing so. Most annoying when you roll a Yatzy but accidentally tap Chance.</span>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The numbers</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Right now DiceFeud has been downloaded 927 times, but that number is one week old. Since then, DiceFeud was mentioned on a dutch Windows Phone site: </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.wp7.nl/20279/dicefeud-verslavende-yahtzee-variant-windows-phone/">http://www.wp7.nl/20279/dicefeud-verslavende-yahtzee-variant-windows-phone/</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I sent an email to them saying I was trying to promote my app and they were kind anough to write about it. <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=sv&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wp7.nl%2F20279%2Fdicefeud-verslavende-yahtzee-variant-windows-phone%2F&act=url" target="_blank">Here is a Google translated version</a>. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The very same day that article was published, over 100 new users signed up to play and now more people are playing DiceFeud in the Netherlands than in Sweden or any other country. It's all very sweet.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One thing that puzzles me is that from 927 downloads, only 386 users have actually created a user and tried the game. I guess most downloaders uninstall it straight away when they see they have to register to play. All that's needed is username, password and email address (which I will NEVER give out to anyone) and only 40% bother to sign up. Maybe it isn't clear enough what to do the first time you start the app? Or maybe it is because the app is only available in english? I don't know. Translating the app would be interesting but very time consuming and I don't really see that happening.</span>
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<pre style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also, out of 927 downloads, the premium version has been downloaded 16 times. That's 1,7%. I was aware that the vast majority go for the free version, and that's totally fine - I'd probably do the same thing. It is just something to think about if I ever do this again. I guess you need to add more value to a premium version if you want to push your users in that direction.</span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, the first two weeks haven't made me rich. DiceFeud brings in a daily average of 2 USD on sales from the premium version and about 0.5 USD on ads. It is very rewarding to see people actually playing though. And I still think it's fun to play myself.</span>
</pre>
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John Hårdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17364481663076074340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7082241917570753538.post-45747165784781788832012-08-29T15:26:00.000-07:002012-08-29T15:26:20.035-07:00The DiceFeud Facebook page<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I created a FaceBook page for DiceFeud a few days ago. You can find it here: <a href="http://facebook.com/dicefeud" target="_blank">http://facebook.com/dicefeud</a><br />
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Stuff about what features are going to be in the next version is there. A couple of good suggestions from DiceFeud players have been posted and if you think of any improvements, please post them on the FaceBook page and I'll consider them.<br />
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The next version looks very good and I hope to publish it sometime during next week. There are a few animations which brings more life to the app, the accent color is more present than before, and you have to confirm taps on the scoreboard when playing to aviud setting your score where you didn't want it. A full list of new features will be posted here when I am done.<br />
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There is no link to the Facebook page in the app yet but I think there will be in the next version. I am a little reluctant to add a link because you get redirected to the facebook mobile site, <a href="http://m.facebook.com/" target="_blank">http://m.facebook.com</a>, when facebook recognizes you are using a phone browser, and that site looks like absolute rubbish on Windows Phone.<br />
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There are now players in twelve countries playing DiceFeud.</div>
John Hårdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17364481663076074340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7082241917570753538.post-52893995537224206652012-08-26T16:32:00.002-07:002012-08-26T16:51:17.438-07:00Statistics, marketing and revenue<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
DiceFeud has now been public for three days. From now on, I thought I'd update the blog from time to time with statistics of downloads, played games and - most importantly - how the app is doing financially.<br />
Before I started writing DiceFeud, I was interrested to see if there were any money to be made on the Windows Phone platform. Either there was very little information to be found on the subject or I wasn't very good at finding it.<br />
So, if others are looking for that kind of information I'll try to write here about how the app is doing, and if I can figure out how to increase the revenue, I'll share that too.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Parameters</h3>
The current parameters are these:<br />
-DiceFeud is only available on Windows Phone.<br />
-Today is the third day DiceFeud has been available for download on Marketplace.<br />
-It is published in all available countries. That's about 60 countries right now.<br />
-It is available in a free version, with one ad in it, and a premium version priced at two dollars (15.90 SEK)<br />
-The ads are served from Microsoft PubCenter through the ad control which you just drag onto your project.<br />
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Here are som other facts of interest:<br />
-I have spent about 130 hours on development.<br />
-I have bought an SSL certificate for about 167 dollars.<br />
-The web hotel costs me 9 dollars a month.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Revenue</h3>
Over the last three days, 170 players have registered. That's more than I had hoped for.<br />
The Marketplace statistics on how the app is doing are trailing a few days so I can't really see how many people have bought the premium version, but four players (yes, three of them are friends of mine) have told me they did. That's 8 dollars. A qualified guess is that all other players are using the free version.<br />
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The most interesting part is of course how much ad revenue the free version brings in. This data is available in real-time on Microsoft pubCenter and here is the verdict:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgofCLA5i99JbUWVUyXfKmJ-zqTm3fnx8q4o4pUxNlxQzD27xxiIcRZPyqg3QOHwEUyTnBKs5-3mIXKK-IeErmFzOGf-xVasEKjJ6rryvKh9etM8Buiha13ZlgX9XI2QW36Ti1Dj7koA5g/s1600/Revenue20120826.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgofCLA5i99JbUWVUyXfKmJ-zqTm3fnx8q4o4pUxNlxQzD27xxiIcRZPyqg3QOHwEUyTnBKs5-3mIXKK-IeErmFzOGf-xVasEKjJ6rryvKh9etM8Buiha13ZlgX9XI2QW36Ti1Dj7koA5g/s1600/Revenue20120826.png" /></a></div>
In three days, I have made 12.27 SEK. That's 1.5 dollars.<br />
<br />
Now, when you set up your ads, you choose up to three categories and "<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: verdana, tahoma, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">These categories set the general guidelines for what types of ads appear in your ad unit."</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I don't really understand what this means. Should I categorize my app, or tell the system what ads I want in my app? I had only set up one category, and I added two more an hour ago. We'll see if that boosts the earnings.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Anyhow, the bottom line is that you seem to need one hell of a lot of users to make a living on ad revenue. On the other hand, you need a pretty good app to be able to sell it.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
It would be interesting to see what would happen if the game was available on iOS and Android as well. Since it is a game where you play againts your friends, the app would really benefit from being cross-platform. I'll start on an iOS version shortly and hope I can make time to finish it. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Marketing</h3>
The only marketing I have done is on a swedish Windows Phone group Facebook, where people have been very friendly and supportive, and on Twitter where I have 8 followers. (Yes, eight. HardConsulting is the worst twitterer ever). I would need to figure out a way to reach out to a wider audience but I am not sure how. Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
More to come on this subject...</div>
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John Hårdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17364481663076074340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7082241917570753538.post-24973148978550815462012-08-23T15:53:00.002-07:002012-08-26T15:50:05.534-07:00Libraries and components<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
Since I didn't know very much about phone development when starting on DiceFeud, I tried out quite a lot of open source components, both for smaller details and for infrastructure. Some of them were tossed out but other ones were kept has proven to be very good and has really helped me figure out how things are done right.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
If you are a Windows Phone developer and haven't checked this stuff out, you should. If you know of a good framework or component which I don't, please tell me about it.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Here is what I used:<br />
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<h3>
ServiceStack </h3>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://servicestack.net/">http://servicestack.net/</a></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">I can't even begin to say how impressed I am with this project. ServiceStack is a web services framework which does everything right where WCF and other frameworks fail. It is developed and maintained by Demis Bellot, and a community of contributors are pitching in.</span></div>
Whenever I have run into what I think may be a problem, ServiceStack has an elegant solution already in place.<br />
In short, you publish a service in a most convenient fashion by writing a request- and a response class and boom! - you get endpoints for all kinds of client-server communication. Json, XML, Soap, REST and more, without any configuration hassle what so ever.<br />
There is a whole lot more components in ServiceStack, but DiceFeud only uses the service-goodies and part of the authentication framwork. I can't see why I should ever use WCF again.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
RESTSharp</h3>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://restsharp.org/">http://restsharp.org/</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: SV; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
As much as I wanted to use ServiceStack on the client as well as the server, I ended up using RESTSharp on the client for serializing/deserializing JSON messages and sending requests to the server. ServiceStack didn't have a library suitable for WP7 when I began all this, and I figured it would take me too much time to make it work on my own. RESTSharp seems to do the job though.</div>
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<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
MVVM Light</h3>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://mvvmlight.codeplex.com/">http://mvvmlight.codeplex.com/</a></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">MVVM Light is a toolkit (not a framework) which essentially helps separating you UI from your businesslogic. It is written by Laurent Bugnion and he seems to have a pragmatic approach to application development which I find very compelling. DiceFeud is not a slave under MVVM - sometimes I had to cut corners in the codebehind files to make a detail work - but a lot of problems are solved for you by using this toolkit.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Windows Phone Assets</span></span></h3>
<div>
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://wpassets.codeplex.com/">http://wpassets.codeplex.com/</a></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<br />
<span style="line-height: 17px;">This package contains a few controls which are very useful. I used the Notification Tool to present message boxes in a very convenient way. The only problem with this control was that it didn't consider light/dark themes out of the box. Your app will fail certification if it doesn't look ok in both, so I had to tweak it a bit.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 17px;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 17px;">Phone7.Fx.Preview</span></h3>
</div>
<div>
<span style="line-height: 17px;"><a href="http://phone7.codeplex.com/">http://phone7.codeplex.com</a></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
This package contains an application bar which works very well with MVVM. The standard application bar doesn't because it doesn't support commands in a convenient way.</div>
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<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 17px;">Chat text block</span></h3>
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<span style="line-height: 17px;"><a href="http://ctb.codeplex.com/">http://ctb.codeplex.com</a></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This is a balloon message control used on the chat view in DiceFeud to get Metro looking messaing. (yes, Metro. Shame that name went down the drain)</div>
<div>
<span style="line-height: 17px;"><br /></span></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 17px;">WP7Contrib</span></h3>
<div>
<span style="line-height: 17px;"><a href="http://wp7contrib.codeplex.com/">http://wp7contrib.codeplex.com</a></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This is a very sweet community package which contains page transitions and other stuff to make the app look a little more alive.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
It really is a treat to see all the efforts of people sharing their work in libraries like these. Thank you so much. I wouldn't even want to think about the amount of time it would have taken me without them.</div>
<div>
<span style="line-height: 17px;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
John Hårdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17364481663076074340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7082241917570753538.post-678881057100970662012-08-23T15:13:00.001-07:002012-08-23T15:13:17.006-07:00DiceFeud is live!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It is finally out there! The free version was certified yesterday, and today you can find both the free and premium versions on Marketplace.<br />
The free version is here: <a href="http://www.windowsphone.com/sv-SE/apps/50edd6d8-db95-45f2-a268-30feb12d7c81">http://www.windowsphone.com/sv-SE/apps/50edd6d8-db95-45f2-a268-30feb12d7c81</a><br />
And the premium version is here: <a href="http://www.windowsphone.com/sv-SE/apps/a26e4cd2-2ef2-458c-95d2-3007486481c6">http://www.windowsphone.com/sv-SE/apps/a26e4cd2-2ef2-458c-95d2-3007486481c6</a><br />
<br />
Man, oh man, this is exciting!<br />
<br />
During beta testing I got quite a few hints that the app is ugly. I agree it is not all that pretty. However, in the last few days a friend of mine, Peter Drougge, has been kind enough to prettify it a little, and it really looks much better now. An updated version will be available shortly.<br />
<br />
I have a little roadmap for the app scribbled down and I will write about that in a separate post.<br />
Thanks for playing.</div>
John Hårdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17364481663076074340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7082241917570753538.post-40618939144018211152012-08-18T16:52:00.000-07:002012-08-18T16:52:47.964-07:00Acknowledgements<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Now that DiceFeud has passed certification, I would like to say thanks to the prominent people who helped out. I got great help in beta testing the app, even by people I don't even know. I turned to the Facebook group <a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/windowsphone7sweden/" target="_blank">Vi som gillar Windows Phone</a>, and just asked if someone would like to beta test the app. Within a few hours, thirteen people were willing to install the app from an XAP-file, play the game and give me suggestions and bug reports. It was really great. Some of them even went an extra mile and had their friends install it and test it.<br />
<br />
So, I know the Academy Award tone in all of this is a little silly, but I really would like to give credit these people, even if DiceFeud goes by completely unnoticed:<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<b>First of all:</b></h3>
Peter Drougge and Dennis Skantz.<br />
Peter is a friend, colleague since way back and a great developer who has given me hands-on tips when I needed them. He has some very good apps on Marketplace which you should <a href="http://www.windowsphone.com/sv-SE/search?q=peter+drougge" target="_blank">check out</a>.<br />
Dennis is also a top notch programmer and a friend who has taught me a lot.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<b>Beta testing:</b></h3>
Gustav Larsmark, Fabian Miiro, Jim Terneborg, Cristian Carlsson, Mathias Zetterfeldt, Mattias Andersson, Niclas Sprung, Oscar Andersson, Johan Falk, Mikael Dúi Bolinder, Fredrik Wolbe, Peter Drougge and Dennis Skantz.<br />
<br />
Thanks a million! I hope a can return the favor sometime.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<br /></h3>
</div>
John Hårdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17364481663076074340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7082241917570753538.post-38049766454176916892012-08-16T16:10:00.000-07:002012-08-16T16:10:03.347-07:00Certified!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Today, after twelve days of waiting, the premium version of DiceFeud finally passed certification. I was very happy to see that it passed on the first try since the process has been very slow and a resubmission with fixes of certification issues would really be painful.<br />
DiceFeud Premium is hidden from the public store because I didn't want to publish it before the free version was submitted, and the only thing missing in the free version was a link to the premium version. Now that I got this link I just submitted the free version for certification as well. Hopefully it'll be faster to get it out on Marketplace this time.<br />
<br />
I am really excited about this. The return of investment will surely be a nightmare but it is rewarding to see it finished. Can't wait to see if anyone actually downloads it when it gets out.<br />
<br />
Wah-wah!!<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
John Hårdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17364481663076074340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7082241917570753538.post-81423584537341428892012-08-14T14:41:00.000-07:002012-08-14T14:41:13.088-07:00Still nothing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Man, oh man did I pick the wrong day to publish the app. Not only was the site formerly known as AppHub down for one day. After pimping the site, renaming it to Windows Phone Dev Center, Microsoft decided to introduce tougher demands on apps submitted to Marketplace. Not only new submissions, but apps already published, meeting the demands at the time of publishing, are now required to meet the new guidelines.<br />
The new guidelines and a couple of angry comments can be found here:<br />
<a href="http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/2012/04/30/four-ways-we-re-improving-marketplace.aspx">http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/2012/04/30/four-ways-we-re-improving-marketplace.aspx</a>
<br />
<br />
Apparently, Microsoft gave developers a twelve hour notice on fixing their apps before resubmitting them. I can see why the community went ballistic. This has probably lead to loads and loads of apps being resubmitted to Marketplace, and the backlog of apps waiting for certification must be huge by now. DiceFeud has been waiting to be certified for eleven days now. I have emailed the WinPhone team, asking what is going on, but heard nothing back.<br />
<br />
Also, when Windows Phone Dev Center was launched, I lost access to Ad Center, which is where you can see how you in-app ads perform. I just can't get in anymore. I tried everything and reported it to Microsoft, but so far - nothing.<br />
<br />
A very poor release by Microsoft, and it came at a very bad time. Marketplace is just gaining momentum. Huge amounts of apps are coming in every day, but when it is this hard to even get started, developers are already giving up on the platform.<br />
<br />
I hope to see a change in the near future. This really is a shame.</div>
John Hårdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17364481663076074340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7082241917570753538.post-19417376304437611282012-08-06T13:59:00.002-07:002012-08-06T15:05:25.894-07:00Release delayed<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Ouch!<br />
Windows Phone Marketplace is down due to maintenance today. Normally it should take about two days to get an app certified and published - at least that's what the documentation say - but this will surely delay the release. The estimated downtime is 24 hours so I hopefully both the free and premium versions will be up by the end of this week.<br />
<br />
The app is submitted to all available countries on the Marketplace, except South Korea and Brazil. For those countries you have to provide some sort of document specifying the rating of the content. You know, is it ok for kids to play it etc. I have no idea where to get these documents, and I didn't really look that hard to find out. Those countries will have to wait.<br />
<br />
Also, DiceFeud is not translated into different languages. All text is in english only. I have read that in some countries, you won't get any downloads what so ever if your app isn't translated. If that's true, maybe I will have to translate it, but then again - maybe there will be no downloads in any country. We'll see.<br />
<br />
Just checked Marketplace again. Still down...</div>John Hårdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17364481663076074340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7082241917570753538.post-65785855953232769972012-08-04T16:08:00.000-07:002012-08-06T13:43:53.539-07:00DiceFeud waiting for certification<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A couple of months ago I decided to try to create an app. I work as a freelance programmer, focusing on .NET so I thought the easiest platform to get started on would be Windows Phone. Now, a couple of hundred hours later, the app is finally ready to be released.<br />
The reason it took me this long to get the app launched is that there has been a lot to learn. My daytime job is mainly in the banking industry. I do backend programming. Very little graphical interface and for the most part invisible programming, serving front end applications with data. That took me half way, but the actual front end was all quite new to me.<br />
Also, I wanted to do things right and try to learn how proffessional apps are written.<br />
<br />
After a quick search on the Android and Windows Phone market places, I decided to write an online Yatzy game since I couldn't find one. If there are similar apps out there already, it doesn't really matter since this has been fun and very educating. I named the app DiceFeud in lack of a better name.<br />
<br />
This blog is a means of communicating with the users of the app. If there are problems or bugs, I will write about them here and try to estimate when they will be fixed. If you want to report a bug or discuss the app, please send a mail to <a href="mailto:support@dicefeud.net">support@dicefeud.net</a>.<br />
<br />
Also, I thought I'd write a roadmap for the app in this blog, and also acknowledgements of the open source components I have used when writing the app. It is amazing to see how helpful people are when it comes to sharing code and programming ideas.<br />
<br />
The app is now uploaded to Marketplace and is awaiting certification.<br />
I hope you enjoy playing. Feel free to invite me to a game. My username is grismun.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>John Hårdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17364481663076074340noreply@blogger.com0