Gary's Place Now Available For Android

In this post I'm going to write about what we've been doing with Gary's place and some of the mistakes we've made along the way - and give information on how to contact my son Aaron for help with your app.

First: Gary's Place can now be found in the Google Play and Amazon app stores for Android devices - YAY! We are charging a dollar less since it's optimized for iPad and stretched a bit on many of the android phones and tablets.

Second: I'm not sharing sales data yet because we really haven't gotten off the ground yet - I've been holding back because of all the problems we've had - ARRRRG! Sales data coming after we start advertising.

So lets talk about the problems and subsequent updates:

When we first uploaded to iTunes and waited and waited for the approval we were horrified when we downloaded the app and saw that it was called "Build 17" on my iPad in the title below the icon. NOOOOOO!!!!! Let me just say that while Apple is "user friendly" for consumers they are 180 degrees from that for developers. It really feels as if they don't care about helping you AT ALL! When we uploaded the app file Apple asked for the title of the app - which we filled in with "Gary's Place". But they don't use that to put under your app icon - instead - they use the file name -BUT THEY DON"T TELL YOU THAT.

So...update #1 was to fix the name.

Then one of my online friends - Elizabeth - informed me that at first she read the ending as Gary moving back in with his parents at the end. Hmmm - I thought - that's not good. So I asked Jan Watford who had reviewed Gary's Place for her blog if she read it that way as well - and she said, "Yes - isn't that what you intended?" .....crap.

So...Update # 2 was to fix the ending and reducing the overall size of the app...and that update just went live for iPad.

Then my son Aaron (who's been working really hard on all of this) thought we needed navigation to make it easier to pick a specific page in the app and go directly there. It will disappear after a few seconds so it's not in the way.  I've been so busy with a large freelance assignment that I haven't been able to give it as much attention as it deserved. But he went ahead and did it and it makes using the app sooo much easier - here's a screen shot of what update #3 will look like.

So Update #3 will add a navigation bar to quickly jump to any page and reduce the size even further.

Rick Walton has now written the next story and I'm starting to layout the entire app - and loving it!

My son Aaron has decided to help other people with their apps as long as they're using Kwik. He's spent the last 3 months working with Kwik and has gotten pretty good at it. He's offering to coach you or build your app - you can visit his site right here: http://www.atanimations.com/