I lost my momentum. My rank for Hearts Net is now down to number 46 in the U.S. store. Sales are still substantial, though, so that just means that I can’t live solely on the profits, as I might have been able to do if I’d made it into the top ranks. Still plenty good enough for me to want to continue improving it. Right now I’m working on porting the game to Mac and iPad.

Here’s an excerpt from an email I got from a satisfied player, named John Maldaner:

Last night I played Hearts Net via wifi with my wife. Game setup was exactly as described in the instructions. No problem. There is a slight delay when you pass and accept passed cards. There is a slight delay to go to the Next Hand. Both of these delays make sense since one or more opponents are real people now. But, the delays can confuse you at first just because you’ve played the single-player version so much. Game play is perfect. We had no issues with the flow of the game. Nothing unusual happened. Except that I lost the game! LOL!

Regarding the robots and shooting the moon. The robots are better at stopping moon shots. They intercede early. I will give this some study and report back. I had gotten pretty good at shooting the moon in Hearts Solo. The real key, there, was playing low cards early in a manner that seemed innocent. I could pretty easily lull the robots into playing early high hearts. That is the key. They would usually play their high hearts first, sometimes even in an obvious situation where playing a lower heart would have set me. I have not experimented enough in Hearts Net to give you a fair comparison. I will do so.

I would be interested in the demographics of folks that have purchased your game. I am 56 and played hearts (and spades) extensively, especially in college. I do like card games in general, but there is something comfortable about playing the games you grew up with. For that reason, Hearts and Spades are the only card apps I have purchased and play. I play both daily, at least a couple games each.

I have not experimented with other Hearts games available. I have looked at some, but it’s never gone past looking. Why? Well, most look gimmicky. Some designers have chosen to concentrate on elaborate board designs or adding in extraneous character enhancements that, to me, just take away from the game itself. Your game is true to the game. I especially like the two-touch approach to choosing a card to play. I know I can change that to one-touch. But, I don’t because at times I want to change my mind. Also, the two-touch method helps me make sure I touched the right card. This sounds simple, but other card games have not embraced that. I like your method the best.

Categories: cards
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Everyone’s second biggest complaint is that they don’t like one or the other of the new color schemes. Okay then, version 2.1.0 of Hearts Net is now available on the App Store. It allows you to switch back to the original Hearts Solo “classic” theme, if you wish. The game will look almost exactly like it did when you first started playing. Get the new version of the game by clicking here.

AND: the game is currently on sale! Used to be $2.99, marked down to $1.99, because I need to move some units.

To encourage you guys to help me push the game into the top 25, I’m giving you another couple of promo codes. Instructions for redeeming promo codes can be found here.

A9EKEANX9NEF
43797R4E77RT

Categories: cards
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So, a funny thing happened. I thought that the people buying my game were all Hearts Solo players, forced into upgrading because I crippled that version. But the number of people downloading Hearts Solo has peaked, and is heading down. Yet the number of people buying Hearts Net is still going up.

I wondered: You don’t suppose I made it on to one of those top lists, do you? So I looked, and I am in fact number 33 on the top paid card games list in the U.S. store. Further inspection reveals that I am in the top 100 card games list for every single country. My highest rank is 17, in Lebanon.

This is great news. Please help me drive the app even farther up the highest paid apps list!

Categories: cards
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Just got the sales numbers for yesterday. It’s going to sound like bragging if I keep quoting them. So I’ll just say that they are still going up.

Dear internet: I have a shameful confession. When I crippled Hearts Solo, I honestly didn’t know that it was going to create such a firestorm. But once I saw that there was indeed a great groundswell of anger bubbling up, I decided to see if I could turn it to my advantage.

There are a number of prominent, successful people in the tech community who are essentially professional trolls. I could name names, but that’s exactly what they want, and I don’t feel like further glorifying them. I’ve always despised that kind of thing. It seems like a cheap shortcut to success. Why not just do good work, and be recognized for that?

It doesn’t always work that way. There is this thing that us techie-types are mostly unfamiliar with, called “marketing.” Apparently it has something to do with connecting customers to stuff they might want to buy? I guess? I think there may be pie charts involved.

I’d always written off “marketing” as unnecessary fluff. Then I started trying to sell my own products directly to customers. Strangely enough, buyers did not just magically appear, ready to stuff money into my pockets. Puzzling.

Nowhere is this more true than for Apple’s App Store. Apple controls way too much of the experience. If you sell products on the App Store, they control your store front, your customers, your reputation, your prominence, your payment processing, and your customers’ ability to find your products. People write ridiculous, unfounded reviews of my game every day, and I have no way of knowing who they even are, much less a way to respond or correct those impressions.

I have more than a passing familiarity with trolls. I was there up close and personal as USENET was entering its death throes. I’m a bit ashamed to admit it, but I have a fairly strong trollish streak myself. I try to suppress it for the most part, but sometimes, it’s useful to be familiar with that personality type.

I’ve gotten, oh, let’s say 200 emails regarding my Hearts games in the last few days. More than I’ve gotten in the entire life of the app, before this. And a lot of them, I realized, came from trolls. They don’t care whether I crippled Hearts Solo or not. They just smell blood in the water, and they want in on the feeding frenzy.

So, here’s the confession. I fed them a little. Just a little bit. So that they would make a slightly bigger firestorm, and that the resulting blaze might attract a bit more attention than I was getting before.

Was this a good move or a bad one? It’s too early to tell. Early indicators, like my sales numbers, say “good move.” Boy, talk about conflicted. Am I joining the ranks of the professional trolls? Will I be able to live with myself? If it makes me enough money to keep me from having to get a day job, then yeah, it’s worth the ickiness.

If you find yourself sickened by the fact that I’m “turning to the dark side,” well, there’s an easy way to put a stop to it: give me something better to do. Give me enough contract work so that I don’t have to go back to a boring, paranoid, stultifying office environment ever again, and I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll keep my mouth shut and code, which is my place in the natural order of things anyway. But until that money-laden benefactor arrives, I’ll be twiddling the knobs here by myself, trying to find a way to get along in the world.

I don’t regret crippling Hearts Solo at all, by the way. That was the push that my true customers needed to see that I am serious about this. But if I’d known everything that I know now back at the beginning, I would never have released a full-featured, free card game to begin with. Then I wouldn’t be in the position of competing with myself right now. Live and learn.

Categories: cards
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I was holding my breath, wondering what the first full day of sales would be like. iTunes Connect had the daily report available exceptionally early today, so I didn’t have to wait long. The final total: $113.39.

Okay, wait. Just stop a minute. Um. Holy crap! Over a hundred dollars! In one 24-hour period!

Putting this into perspective. I’m sure this is a spike, induced because I’m forcing all the dedicated Hearts Solo players into the Hearts Net camp. It won’t stay that high forever. And my standard of living is such that I can’t survive on a hundred bucks a day. But if I had several projects like this, I could cut back on the contracting work that I do. Maybe even quit altogether eventually.

I’d planned to write more about the spat I seem to be having with some of the grumpy Hearts Solo players, but … no. I stopped reading the reviews, but my friend Steph didn’t. “Class action suit?” Really? Yeah, I’m sure you’ll get back every penny you all spent on my program. Seriously, this is beyond parody at this point. There is nothing I could say to that level of vitriol.

There’s a lot I can say to a hundred bucks a day, though. And here it is: lots and lots and lots of updates. I’m almost finished with the theme-changing feature. I’m just waiting for my best beta tester to have time to check it out. Then it’s headed to the App Store.

Categories: cards
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Man! I’m not even reading the Hearts Solo reviews anymore. I did scan down the list of titles briefly, though. I used one of them as the title of this blog post: “Crook.”

You know what happened to this particular “crook” today? He made $54.12 on sales of Hearts Net. That’s for approximately the first 12 hours that the new Hearts Solo has been in the App Store.

That is not just “a good day” for me. That is five times greater than any other sales day I’ve had so far. This is, in fact, the first occasion where I have a glimmer of hope that the time I’ve spent on this game will be worth it. If you people keep buying $54.12 worth of Hearts Net every day, I will keep working on it until it is PERFECT. Internet multi-player, chat rooms, statistics, rules variations, Mac version, Windows version, Android version, and the most fiendish, clever robot players in the world. I’ll make you the best damned Hearts game you ever played. All for $54.12 per day.

By far, the biggest legitimate complaint I’ve gotten is that some people don’t like the color schemes, either for Hearts Net or Hearts Solo. Okay, I got the message! I’m going to release a new version of Hearts Net pretty soon, which will allow you to pick any one of the three themes that the game has had in its life. If you were fond of the plain old green-and-red theme, you will be able to get it back. If you’re willing to pay for Hearts Net, of course.

Now, a casual rundown of the various hate mail. A lot of people say I “tricked” them into downgrading to a crippled version of the program. I said exactly what was going to happen in the “what’s new” notes, and on my website. Where else would you have expected me to put this information?

Have you stopped to think what you’re complaining about here? You got Hearts Solo for free. FREE. For like eight months. And you were apparently so attached to it that you are now frothing at the mouth over its loss.

One of the people who angrily emailed me today said that he has played over 750 games. Apparently, this was supposed to make me feel bad? Because I’m taking this precious resource away from him? So he sent me this angry email, rather than just spending three bucks to get Hearts Net.

Folks, I tried to do this the “polite” way. Hearts Net has been out for over two weeks now. I have many indications that the heavy players are aware of it. It was completely, utterly ignored. Okay then, now we’re doing it my way. And on the first day, I made $54.12. Are you really going to claim I did the wrong thing here?

So, you guys just go right on shouting, as loud and long as you want. The feedback pages for App Store free apps are always a study in casual, drive-by negativity. I know a lot of you enjoy being pissed off over things like this. Okay then, you got your wish! But you are not my customers. My customers are the people who spent $54.12 on Hearts Net, on the first day that I crippled Hearts Solo. It is those people who I’m interested in. To the rest of you: Bon Voyage!

Categories: cards
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According to my access logs, the RSS feed for this blog is the most popular thing on my website, by a large margin. I know next to nothing about RSS, so I can’t gauge how many readers I have. Could be two, could be a hundred.

Most of the articles I write here are about technical subjects. I assume most of you found one of them via web search, liked what you saw, and added my blog to your RSS reader. That’s great! I love having readers.

But now, based on the nerd rage I see in my inbox, I suspect I’m going to be writing a lot of articles that are aimed at users of my card games, rather than technical articles. I think these people would be more sympathetic to my plight if they understood it, so I’m going to be writing about that. This is liable to put you off, if you came here for my technical articles, causing you to unsubscribe from my RSS feed.

Instead of doing that, I encourage you to subscribe to a subfeed, in which I’ll post “the good stuff.” Pretty much all of my technical articles include the tag ‘programming’, so I’m going to use that one to for those articles from now on. Here’s the new URL to add to your RSS reader:

http://www.platinumball.net/blog/category/programming/feed/

Categories: meta
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I just got the “available for sale” email from Apple, so the new version of Hearts Solo should be available on the App Store pretty soon. The good news: it now has all the user interface improvements I added to Hearts Net, and also the improved robot players. The bad news: you probably won’t be able to finish an entire game.

Here’s a review I got on the iTunes App Store just a couple of days ago, for Hearts Solo:

I’ve now played 150 games against the ai players and it’s a great implementation! It can be a bit easy to shoot the moon (something apparently improved in the author’s hearts net) but still MUCH better than most other iphone hearts games. Highly recommended, great fun.

So, let’s review. This person has spent many, many hours playing the free version of my game. He is aware that there is a better, paid version of the game. He is even aware that the paid version fixes a criticism he has of the free version. Yet he is apparently not willing to spend just a couple of bucks buying Hearts Net.

I’m sorry folks, but this is not acceptable. I know the App Store gives you strong clues that all apps ought to be free, but I’m not going to play like that. If I can’t get paid for this kind of work, then I’m not going to do it at all.

By crippling Hearts Solo, I’m trying to send the message that it’s just for evaluation purposes. It has been downloaded over 30,000 times. So this is my appeal to all 30,000 of you: If you like it, spend some money on the paid version. If you don’t like it enough to pay for it, then this is where we part company.

Categories: cards
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Apple has released a new SDK specifically for iPad. It’s not yet ready for prime-time, so if you want to continue to develop for iPhone, you’ll need to use both the old and new SDKs for awhile. Curious about the logistics of this endeavor, I googled up this article. I dutifully followed the instructions and installed the beta 1 release in a separate dev directory. Yeah, I’m calling shenanigans. It did not work. I think it’s a bit irresponsible to post something like that without having tried it.

You can’t completely separate the two SDKs. According to the release notes, the one that is installed last is the one whose compilers will be used for both. I had other problems as well. Both the old and new device simulators were crashy. So I completely wiped both sets of dev tools and reinstalled the iPhone SDK.

Recently, Apple released beta 2 of the iPad SDK. They may have fixed the problems I experienced before, but I’m not taking any more chances. This time, I got myself an external Firewire hard drive. USB 2.0 would also work, but I prefer Firewire for a possibly frivolous reason: I have so many USB devices that it’s difficult to find a place to plug in a new one, but I have two Firewire ports on the back of my Cinema Display that are otherwise unused.

This next part is important. You’re going to need to boot off this drive, so its partition map scheme must be set to “GUID Partition Table.” If it isn’t, you should reinitialize it so that it is. On the Mac, you use the Disk Utility program for this. It doesn’t create GUID partition tables by default, so you have to press the button that says “Options…” and change it.

Next, use a program like Carbon Copy Cloner to make a copy of your primary hard drive onto the external drive. Finally, in System Preferences, pick “Startup Disk,” select your external hard drive, and reboot. Now install the new iPad SDK. It will be copied onto your external disk, leaving your primary disk alone. This way, the two SDKs won’t butt heads with each other.

It’s a shame that Apple is making us solve a software problem with hardware, but this is the sort of inconvenience you have to put up with if you want to live on the bleeding edge. I can’t even remember the last time I had to use the Startup Disk pref pane before this. It’s been years, surely. This reminds me of when I used to work at Be, and we had a new version of BeOS to install every couple of weeks.

Categories: cocoa, ipad, iphone, programming
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I finally got around to installing Snow Leopard on my MacBook Pro. I don’t believe in putting a new operating system on top of an old one, so I started over from scratch, on a brand-new hard drive. Which explains why I waited so long. Installing everything from scratch is torture.

A couple of days ago, I could no longer postpone reinstalling all the dev certs and crud you need to make iPhone apps that you can put on real iPhone hardware. As I was installling all that stuff, I encountered this interesting text from Apple’s developer website, concerning development certificates:

It is critical that you save your private key somewhere safe in the event that you need to develop on multiple computers or decide to reinstall your system OS. Without your private key, you will be unable to sign binaries in Xcode and test your application on any Apple device. When a CSR is generated, the Keychain Access application creates a private key on your login keychain. This private key is tied to your user account and cannot be reproduced if lost due to an OS reinstall. If you plan to do development and testing on multiple systems, you will need to import your private key onto all of the systems you’ll be doing work on.

Well! From the sound of that, you would be forgiven for thinking that, if you don’t back up your private key, you’ll be completely dead in the water, never to write another iPhone app again. That’s certainly what I thought when I was setting this stuff up the first time, about a year ago. So I did just what they told me to, and I backed it all up. I was reading somebody else’s blog recently that claimed the text quoted above was literally true. Which is why I’m writing today.

Actually, no. If you don’t back up that stuff, you won’t be dead in the water. I found my cert backups from a year ago, and tried to use them, but it was just too painful. Nothing about Apple’s iPhone code signing process makes much sense. When you get stuck, it’s best to just blow everything away and start over.

Which is just what I did! I removed everything from my keychain that had anything to do with iPhone development, I threw away all my provisioning profiles, and I started over from scratch. It went a lot easier this time. I think I’ve finally been doing this long enough to understand a few of the concepts.

From the sound of it, I think the only time you’d really need to follow Apple’s backup device is if you plan to use two or more Macs for iPhone development simultaneously. I’ve never needed to do that, so that’s one less thing to worry about.

Categories: iphone, itunes app store, programming
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