Just Released "Simple Things" and it's Free

BIG_THINKIN_APPSBIG_THINKIN_APPS Member Posts: 944
in Announce Your Game!
Hello GS,

I just released a brand new iPad app called Simple Things. This app features a clean simple design with beautiful pictures, inspiring quotes, and peaceful music. I have worked very hard on getting this app out so I would love for you to check it out and leave a review on the app store.

Please Dowload it here
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/simple-things/id797290962?ls=1&mt=8

Each quote was picked out by hand to match the pictures. If you like an quote you can share it on twitter right through this app. Simple Things has 25 pictures and quote pages with many more to come in the future. Every picture on this app was taken and edited on the iPad Mini by 13 year old Conner Haines.

Features

25 Inspiring Quotes
Clean Simple Design
Peaceful Relaxing Music
Beautiful high-res Pictures
Ad Free
Twitter Sharing
& More

app

app

Thanks
Conner

Please tell me what you think!

Comments

  • quantumsheepquantumsheep Member Posts: 8,188
    Connor,

    You're really starting to find your style. I like that you never give up. Never give in. It's an admirable trait :)

    I didn't download the app, even though it's free. Sorry, but I'd like to tell you why.

    Firstly, it's 215MB - that's a huge amount of space that could be used up by 10 games that will provide greater longevity. Space, on a mobile device of any sort, is at a premium these days!

    I imagine it's due to the size of the photos, but it seems big even taking that into account. Perhaps looking into how you can optimise images to create a smaller file size might be an idea worth pursuing?

    I understand that you want the photos to hook up with the quotes, which is, I'd imagine, why there are only 25 quotes.

    Consider attributing more than one quote to each photo - if you added one more possible quote to each photo, you'd double up and have 50 quotes. Make four to each photo and suddenly you have 100...

    With tables, this shouldn't really be a problem and would certainly increase the amount of time a user spends with the app :)

    Consider the user's experience. They download the app. They flick through the photos (rather quickly I'd imagine). Then what?

    I fear most will delete it, having seen it all rather quickly, and move on to something else.

    I don't want you to be discouraged. Please don't be. I'm trying to be honest about why I didn't download your free app.

    What's important is that you're 13. You have a lot of living and learning to do. But at least you ARE living and learning! :)

    I look forward to what you come up with next!

    QS =D



    Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home...
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quantum_Sheep
    Web: https://quantumsheep.itch.io

  • SnapFireStudiosSnapFireStudios Member Posts: 1,603
    Nice job! Agreed with @QuantumSheep, some good thoughts there.
    - Thomas
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  • BIG_THINKIN_APPSBIG_THINKIN_APPS Member Posts: 944
    @quantumsheep

    First of all I want to thank you for your advice and being honest with me.

    I would love to update Simple Things with your ideas and I think that you are right about everything. Do you know of any programs that can make the pics less room with out changing the res? I was planing on adding more pages but I did not think of your idea about more quotes per image, that would be a lot easier.

    I am very grateful for your advice! (:

    I will try working updating my app according to your ideas.

    Conner
  • CodeMonsterCodeMonster ACT, AustraliaMember Posts: 1,078
    I don't think it's the pics. It's going to be the music if you use music.
    Try this:
    Delete all the music off your game in gamesalad then see how much mb the game decreases.

    It's the WAv files or music files your using. That's why I use play sound as a music behaviour as it uses .ogg files and ogg files are so small in size.

    Example:
    This musics name will be called happy.
    Happy.wav would be about 40mb
    Happy.ogg would be about 5mb

    Big difference!
    Just take that into consideration

    GSINVENTION FREE TEMPLATES :D

  • BIG_THINKIN_APPSBIG_THINKIN_APPS Member Posts: 944
    I don't think it's the pics. It's going to be the music if you use music.
    Try this:
    Delete all the music off your game in gamesalad then see how much mb the game decreases.

    It's the WAv files or music files your using. That's why I use play sound as a music behaviour as it uses .ogg files and ogg files are so small in size.

    Example:
    This musics name will be called happy.
    Happy.wav would be about 40mb
    Happy.ogg would be about 5mb

    Big difference!
    Just take that into consideration
    Thanks for the idea, just tried it and it only took 3mb off! ): I wish it was that simple. each picture is around 3.5mb and I have 50 of them because one set is for the app and the other for the attached twitter pictures.

    Thanks
  • quantumsheepquantumsheep Member Posts: 8,188
    edited January 2014
    Hey Conner, thanks for taking the advice as it was meant.

    I'm a big fan of ImageOptim (http://imageoptim.com) - I use it on all my games :)

    Also, if you convert your images to jpeg, it may save space (especially if they have no transparencies).

    Additionally, check the actual resolution size of your images. If they're full screen, they should be no larger than 2048 x 1536 for iPad Retina. I know that some cameras save pics out very large so reducing their size might help. I usually use preview (built in to every Mac) or Pixelmator.

    As to the quotes, I would give every image a number 1 through to 25, then use that information in a table.

    For example, if the app picked image 16, you could grab a quote from row 16, column 1 of the table.

    Additionally, you could fill columns 1, 2, 3 and 4 with quotes that relate to each image. Then when a pic is chosen (let's say '16' again), you'd look up table row 16, column Random (1,4) to pick a random quote.

    You could then easily expand the app by adding more rows and columns - more rows for more quotes per pic, more columns for any additional images.

    If you're going to use a table like this, make sure you add a bunch of extra rows/columns to have spare, as updating an app with extra rows colums in a table will overwrite that table's data (though I don't think it's relevant here, it's good practice).

    Good luck, hope that helps! Let us know if this improves the app any!

    Cheers,

    QS =D

    Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home...
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quantum_Sheep
    Web: https://quantumsheep.itch.io

  • darrelfdarrelf Member Posts: 243
    @BIG_THINKIN_APPS I think you could save tonnes of space by following the advice of @quantumsheep. My game has lots of images and the only way I could make it work without having a huge file was to use jpegs.

    As GS will convert to png when you import the jpegs, you'll have to open the projects's package contents, replace the png's with the jpegs in the images folder and then change .png to .jpeg for those replaced images in the assets file.

    I always save lots of different versions and have backups done before I do this stuff - one wrong move in the assets file could lead to a game that doesn't work properly.

    Best of luck with the app...

  • Ali_WoodAli_Wood Member Posts: 52
    @BIG_THINKIN_APPS i won't take any credit for this as someone else came up with this technique to compress images without losing quality. I use this method all the time now...

    http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/comment/361846#Comment_361846

    Give it a try
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