Getting featured by Apple once is hard enough, but twice in back-to-back weeks? Well, that’s Jordanesque.
Meet Philipp Stollenmayer of kamibox the developer behind Pancake and Okay? the two apps that were featured back Apple in back-to-back weeks.
I interviewed Philipp via email and asked him how he did it.
#1: How did you come up with the idea for Pancake?
Philipp: Pancake looks like a stupid little game which it probably is, but a lot of thought went into it. The game combines aspects from top ranked high score games that I have tried to analyze for a while now.
I took these aspects, like on-toilet-playability or accessibility, and invented a ridiculous game around it. The game itself had been design within 24 hours.
#2: What technology do you use to build your apps (Unity, Objective-C)?
Philipp: Corona SDK. I had to learn coding myself because I am a designer, and Corona’s language is very easy.
#3: Tips on getting featured by Apple
Steve: You were featured two weeks in a row by Apple for 2 different apps. Give us some tips on how to launch an app and get noticed.
Philipp: I have a list of blogs that I inform when I am about to release a new app.
The most important aspect is getting featured by Apple though, you have no influence on that, but design is everything. Clean, flat iOS 8 design with a good app name and a well thought icon and you have good chances to be recognized by Apple.
#4: What advice would you give to other indie app developers?
I look at many new apps and I have never seen a well-designed app that didn’t have success sooner or later. Design is much more important than functionality, potential users look at your app for only a second to decide if they tap on it. Think about where your users come from and set your priorities.
Also, many apps are too difficult. Take a look at popular apps and you will notice that the first 15 levels are no-brainers. Make them so ridiculously easy that a fish could do it and you have a few levels that are played for sure.
#5: Any monetization tips? What’s working for you?
It’s a bit sad that paid apps don’t really work out any more because of the oversupply and the new value propositions in the App Store. I am happy with the outcome of the pay-what-you-want concept of Okay?, it proves that the users’ moral didn’t get lost between packages of gold and ad-loaded games.
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