iOS and Mac developer
I apologize for the lack of posts recently, as I’ve been more interested in writing code than blogging. Most of my work has been on some enterprise projects, but I’ve also made an update to Sugar Rush.
I submitted Sugar Rush version 1.2.1 today, which lets you earn real world bonuses with Kiip.
I’ve submitted Sugar Rush 1.2, which adds support for a new Halloween candy pack, as well as internal changes to support multiple themes or candy sets. Also, if you bought donuts, you now have two varieties with even more power.
The Halloween pack gives you a new spooky background, candy corn, pumpkins, and candy apples. You can pick the theme from the main menu screen. Each theme has its own leader board in the game center to keep the scoring fair, since the amount of candies & their distribution frequency differs in each theme. If you also bought donuts, they will remain available in all themes.
Sugar Rush 1.1 is now available and it’s now free. Current users who upgrade from version 1.0.5 won’t see ads, but new users will see a small unobtrusive ad when no special powers are in effect. If you prefer, you can purchase an upgrade that removes the add. Premium items will be added for sale in the future. You can now buy donuts, which give you a big energy boost. Soon we hope to have a Halloween candy pack available.
I’ve submitted Sugar Rush 1.1, which is a major update.
Our sales have been pretty low, but our free promotions, including the one last weekend, have been wildly successful (18,000 downloads in a single day). Therefore, I’ve made the difficult decision to move to a “Freemium” model, and I’ve made an effort to avoid pissing off existing customers.
Here’s the deal: Nothing will change for existing customers. If you upgrade from 1.0.5, you won’t see any ads, although you will still be able to purchase other premium items. New customers will see ads, but will have the option to pay $0.99 to get rid of the ads. The ads will work the same way they do in the current free version (which will be removed from sale), occupying the bottom of the screen when no bonus power is in effect. Unlike the current free version, there will be no limitation to the game.
You will also be able to purchase additional premium content. The first new item is donuts, which give you 3x the jump boost of cupcakes and occur much more frequently. You just have to buy it once and it will remain available. We will also be offering holiday themed packages and other items in the future.
Note that version 1.1 will require iOS 4.0. Anyone running iOS 3.x will need to continue using 1.0.5.
I have a major update planned for Sugar Rush later this month.
I just submitted a minor update, version 1.0.5, which fixes some problems with the settings not being saved and updates the settings format in preparation for in-app purchase in the next update. Version 1.0.5 is the last version that will support iOS 3. The next update will require iOS 4 or later. I’ll post more details about the major changes coming after version 1.0.5 is approved.
I have submitted Sugar Rush 1.0.4 and Sugar Rush Free 1.0.4. This update fixes a bug where the balloon sometimes didn’t appear when floating and adds 3 new achievements for conserving jump power and for collecting all 4 bonus powers in a single game.
My recent Removr updates were rejected with the note:
“Please remove any references of iOS 5 from your release notes and/or application description.”
Thankfully, Apple no longer requires reuploading a binary when it’s rejected for metadata issues. Supposedly just changing the description (it now says ‘bug fixes’ rather than ‘now compatible with iOS 5’) and replying to the message in resolution center should be enough to have it reviewed again.
On a side note, I’ve heard that iOS 5 beta 2 resolves the issue with SQLite3 opening databases in the app bundle, although I haven’t verified it yet.
Update: Apple has approved the updates after simply changing the description without resubmitting the binary. Removr 1.3.3 & Removr Free 1.3.3 are now available.
For some reason I don’t understand, iDjembe, which is my least interesting and lowest-rated app, is outselling my other apps, including Sugar Rush. This is not good because the low ratings brings down my average app store ratings, despite Removr & Sugar Rush’s much higher ratings.
Last week I tried to kill iDjembe by quietly raising the price to $1.40. That did stop iDjembe sales, but at the same time it brought down the sales of my other apps. Rather than kill it, I tried the opposite by making it free. That experiment seemed to work, and I’m now getting 700-800 free downloads a day, so I decided to keep it free and use it to help sell my other apps.
To go along with the pricing change, I submitted a minor update to iDjembe, version 2.1.2, which updates the info screen with the description & app store link for Sugar Rush, and makes the info button a little more prominent with a cute sugar rush player icon.
This is a minor bug fix release that makes it compatible with iOS 5. It remains compatible with iOS 3.1.3 or later.
I’ve been able to test my apps in iOS 5 and the only one that has an issue is Removr. Sugar Rush is 100% compatible with iOS 5 and doesn’t require an update.
Removr immediately returns to the menu when you tap play or try to go to a level. I’ve already fixed it and will submit the update after some further testing as soon as Apple accepts iOS 5 application updates.
There seems to be a change in SQLite’s behavior under iOS 5 which affected Removr. I’m storing the level maps as a SQLite database in the application bundle. In the current version, I’m opening the database as follows:
int err = sqlite3_open([self.dbpath UTF8String], &db);
Under iOS 5, that fails unless readonly mode is specified when opening the database. The simple fix was merely to specify read only mode as follows:
int err = sqlite3_open_v2([self.dbpath UTF8String], &db,SQLITE_OPEN_READONLY,NULL);
I will release a Removr beta in the next few days to anyone whose device ID I have (I can’t add any new devices until July 16).