pwlk blog » Games

The Value of $0.99 – Frustrations from a Developer

Jason — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 05:41:21 +0000

One of the many ways Apple changed the world was by giving a single dollar, real monetary value.

The App Store opened up a whole new and exciting world for software developers to flex their digital muscles and see where the wind could carry them. I have only recently begun my trek into the world of app development, but in these few months, my eyes have truly been opened to the monetary value of digital media. Now I am careful to say “monetary” value, because many things can have value, but only certain things have monetary value. And by value, I mean what someone would be willing to trade for the product or service, monetary value … obviously, money.

The Internet brought out the pirate in all of us. Moving songs from one computer to another … it really didn’t feel like stealing … it was just like moving the files of a group project from a classmates computer to yours, simple. Record labels fought it, lawsuits against individuals (sorry I don’t have the references right now, I may fill them in later). But iTunes saw the problem and countered with a solution instead of a push back. Offer individual songs for an affordable price! Amazing…

Years pass and the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad come to life and the App Store is born. Apps on sale for $9.99 and selling well. Competition drives the price down. Apps sell for $4.99 and sell well. Competition drives the price down. Apps sell for $0.99 and sell well. No where to go but free…

An interesting thing happened. For the price of an impulse purchase candy bar at the grocery check out counter, one could purchase an app of any sorts that would keep them entertained and fixated for hours. But where one would not think twice about that impulse purchase that gave them pleasure for the car ride home, they would spend an hour looking for reviews and YouTube videos on whether or not this piece of appware was worth their $0.99 (+ tax). And of course I include myself in this audience.

Why do people feel the need to be so stringent on their $0.99 app purchases while a candy bar is so much easier? Is it for the mere fact that an app is not (well sorta) tangible? Is it that there are too many choices on the App Store to really make an impulse purchase? Is it the presentation of the App Store? Is it that you are only making a $0.99 purchase while the candy bar is just a percent of a fraction of the groceries in your cart? Should we be selling app specific gift cards at the checkout counter?

I’m no marketing genius. I wish I were. I wish I had the answers to these questions, but I don’t. I think the answer is probably a little bit of ‘yes’ to most if not all of them, though.

But from the other side, now I am a developer of apps. I see the thousands that enjoy and endlessly praise my apps while they are free but refuse to touch them as if they were a plague when they cost $0.99. I see the negative reviews people leave complaining that they have to pay for additional functionality in an already fully functional FREE game. I see the faceless users belittle my hours and days of late nights and weekends by saying, not worth four quarters. I know … I’m whining. But it fascinates and frustrates me to no end because I don’t understand why the dollar holds such a high value in the App Store. The consumer has every right to do all the things I have mentioned in this paragraph. I as the app developer, work for them.

What it really comes down to is this though … whoever can take the app store aisle of a grocery store and turn it into an impulse purchase at the register type of experience … those will be shoes worth walking in.

Five Traits of the Perfect App

Jason — Mon, 30 May 2011 16:46:54 +0000

I spend a lot of time thinking about the perfect app. I haven’t come up with the answer to the perfect app, but I have decided on some key criteria that the perfect app must possess.

The perfect app must…

Be social. I go back and forth on whether the social aspect of the app is mandatory for the user or not. Either way has it’s benefits. When dial up started to disappear, the thing on everyone’s minds was constant connectivity. People didn’t want to wait for beeps and blurps to hear they have mail, they wanted to open up the computer and be ready to go. That happened and the world is better because of it. Now the transition is towards smart phones where the constant connectivity extends to instant constant connectivity. Instead of opening up the computer and being ready to go, now these wonderful things called notifications let you know when things are happening. And with this instant constant connectivity, people want to stay up to date with what their virtual and real world friends are doing. Even if the social aspect of the app is not person to person, but instead analytics of all users of the app, people want to be a part of something larger than themselves.
Be fast. This one should be pretty obvious. The app needs to be fast, speedy, and be done loading before you open it is even open. Simple? eh… The best example I have of an awesome app gone askew because of load times is Smule’s Magic Piano. I love this app. I would recommend it to anyone. But the load times are terrible. Just to load the app, you sit staring at their splash screen for a while. Then to load the song list you have to sit and wait for not only the song names to show up, but also your account balance to show up. In order to play a single song, there are three separate wait times. There has been a number of times I wanted to play a quick song but decided against it because I knew I’d have to wait for the app to load.
Be quick. This piggy backs on being fast. When I say be quick I am talking about the whole user experience from loading the app to closing the app. Load screens on being fast are only a part of being quick. If I take my seat in a class, a meeting, the bathroom … wherever … I should be able to do something with the perfect app. If I have 30 seconds or 30 minutes, the app should be available for a complete and full experience in that amount of time. Now this is rather dependent on the content of the app. There are some apps where this might be difficult. A first persion shooter with long levels would be difficult to have a player get in and start destroying aliens for only 30 seconds. But this is where the developer needs to get creative and offer short levels or some mini game that would be fun being played multiple times through and can be completed very quickly. If it is a board game, the user should be able to take a turn quickly. If it is a shopping app, the user should be able to look up and item and save it for later viewing. A user that is familiar with the app should be able to start loading, use the content, and close the app within 30 seconds, one minute tops.
Be fresh. The content in the perfect app must be constantly updated. This is easy for social networking apps where the entire purpose is to see new content that is updated by your friends. But for games or shopping apps, there must be new content to keep the experienced user interested.
Be addictive. Easier said than done, right? The previous four notes tie into being addictive quite a bit. The whole addictive factor means that the user has a positive experience with the mechanics of the app and they enjoy the content. The perfect app must be addictive. When a person gets on the bus for a trip downtown, they are going to pull out their phone and the first app they think of must be yours, the perfect app.

I really don’t think there is just one perfect app, either. I look at the iOS apps that I enjoy and sure they have their similar traits that I discussed above, but their content is completely different. The keys is just finding the right balance between everything. Be available when your user wants it, but don’t be too intrusive. Have content that your user finds interesting but don’t flood them with too many new things at once.

I’ll leave you with a list of apps that I consider extremely well done, some of which I have used for a very long time, some of which are new to my arsenal. Thanks for reading.

YouTube
Pandora
NPR News
The Weather Channel
Evernote
What’s On?
Facebook
Twitter
RedLaser
Angry Birds
Pocket Tanks
Flick Golf!
DoodleJump
Tiny Wings
CliffDiving
Stylish Spring
Super Stickman Golf

Dice Game Simulation

Jason — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 05:22:32 +0000

The other day I played a dice game with the in-laws. Here’s the basics:
You start with five dice. Give a roll and see what you have. If you have any 5′s or 2′s you take out the dice that have the 5′s or 2′s and roll again (you get a zero for that round). If you roll and do not have any 5′s or 2′s, you add up all the dice and roll again. Your points accumulate through the rounds until you have no dice left.

So here is an example:
: You roll a 5, 4, 3, 2, and a 4
Since you rolled a 5 and a 2, you take those two dice out and roll again (still with zero points)
: You roll a 2, 1, and a 1
Since you rolled a 2, you take that die out and roll again (still with zero points)
: You roll a 3 and 4
No 5′s or 2′s, so you add up the dice and that is the start to your running total: 7
: You roll a 4 and 4
No 5′s or 2′s, so you add up the dice and add to your running total: 7 + 8 = 15
: You roll a 2 and 2
Bummer, all your dice were 5′s or 2′s, so you are out of dice with a final score of 15

Pretty simple, right? I quickly realized that there was no actual thought process to the game it was really just the luck of the dice that gave you a score. So naturally I wanted to write a simulation to see what a normal score looks like on a large scale.

I put together a little bit of code and came up with the following results:

Rolls Distribution for 10000 games
Rolls: ##Graph## Percent% (Count)
01: # 0.37% (37)
02: ##### 4.53% (453)
03: ############ 11.61% (1161)
04: ################# 16.83% (1683)
05: ################ 15.73% (1573)
06: ############### 14.11% (1411)
07: ############ 11.3% (1130)
08: ######## 7.78% (778)
09: ###### 5.53% (553)
10: #### 3.89% (389)
11: ### 2.73% (273)
12: ## 1.64% (164)
13: ## 1.31% (131)
14: # 0.74% (74)
15: # 0.77% (77)
16: # 0.41% (41)
17: # 0.26% (26)
18: # 0.16% (16)
19: # 0.08% (8)
20: # 0.08% (8)
21: # 0.03% (3)
22: # 0.04% (4)
23: # 0.03% (3)
24: # 0.01% (1)
25: # 0.02% (2)
27: # 0.01% (1)

Score Distribution for 10000 games
Score: ##Graph## Percent% (Count)
000: ##################### 20.54% (2054)
001: ## 2% (200)
002: # 0.66% (66)
003: ### 2.56% (256)
004: #### 3.85% (385)
005: ## 1.91% (191)
006: #### 3.45% (345)
007: #### 3.27% (327)
008: ### 2.13% (213)
009: ### 2.31% (231)
010: #### 3.35% (335)
011: ### 2.29% (229)
012: ### 2.76% (276)
013: ### 2.44% (244)
014: ### 2.54% (254)
015: ### 2.16% (216)
016: ### 2.12% (212)
017: ### 2.42% (242)
018: ## 1.88% (188)
019: ### 2.04% (204)
020: ### 2.06% (206)
021: ## 1.81% (181)
022: ## 1.92% (192)
023: ## 1.73% (173)
024: ## 1.61% (161)
025: ## 1.44% (144)
026: ## 1.33% (133)
027: ## 1.25% (125)
028: ## 1.27% (127)
029: ## 1.25% (125)
030: ## 1.03% (103)
031: ## 1.09% (109)
032: # 0.95% (95)
033: # 0.77% (77)
034: # 0.96% (96)
035: # 0.74% (74)
036: # 0.82% (82)
037: # 0.76% (76)
038: # 0.63% (63)
039: # 0.53% (53)
040: # 0.7% (70)
041: # 0.7% (70)
042: # 0.66% (66)
043: # 0.55% (55)
044: # 0.49% (49)
045: # 0.52% (52)
046: # 0.43% (43)
047: # 0.42% (42)
048: # 0.4% (40)
049: # 0.28% (28)
050: # 0.32% (32)
051: # 0.33% (33)
052: # 0.18% (18)
053: # 0.18% (18)
054: # 0.17% (17)
055: # 0.29% (29)
056: # 0.2% (20)
057: # 0.18% (18)
058: # 0.18% (18)
059: # 0.12% (12)
060: # 0.17% (17)
061: # 0.11% (11)
062: # 0.1% (10)
063: # 0.16% (16)
064: # 0.14% (14)
065: # 0.1% (10)
066: # 0.08% (8)
067: # 0.08% (8)
068: # 0.1% (10)
069: # 0.07% (7)
070: # 0.05% (5)
071: # 0.07% (7)
072: # 0.07% (7)
073: # 0.07% (7)
074: # 0.05% (5)
075: # 0.07% (7)
076: # 0.05% (5)
077: # 0.05% (5)
078: # 0.01% (1)
079: # 0.04% (4)
080: # 0.04% (4)
081: # 0.05% (5)
082: # 0.02% (2)
083: # 0.05% (5)
084: # 0.02% (2)
085: # 0.05% (5)
087: # 0.02% (2)
088: # 0.03% (3)
090: # 0.01% (1)
091: # 0.01% (1)
092: # 0.02% (2)
094: # 0.01% (1)
095: # 0.02% (2)
096: # 0.01% (1)
098: # 0.01% (1)
099: # 0.01% (1)
100: # 0.02% (2)
107: # 0.02% (2)
116: # 0.01% (1)

Average rolls: 6
Average score: 16

So apparently the average score is 16 and the average number of rolls is 6. The average score was lower than I expected and the average number of rolls was higher than expected. But hey, I’d love to get a round that scores 116, that’d be pretty awesome.

Anyway, I’ll paste the code below. The program takes one parameter, an integer of the number of games you want to simulate. It also prints out the results of each game as such:

Game 1
2, 6, 6, 5, 2
2, 5
game total: 0

Game 2
3, 6, 4, 1, 2
4, 1, 4, 1
6, 4, 4, 2
4, 1, 2
5, 5
game total: 10

(…)

Game 9999
6, 6, 3, 1, 1
4, 4, 4, 1, 1
6, 5, 3, 6, 2
6, 4, 3
1, 3, 1
4, 1, 3
5, 5, 5
game total: 57

Game 10000
3, 1, 6, 4, 2
4, 4, 1, 4
1, 4, 5, 3
5, 1, 2
2
game total: 13

Pretty interesting to just look through. So here’s the code:
Tough to read without tabs, so you can alsodownload the file here

#include #include #include #include


using namespace std;
int main (int argc, char * const argv[]) {

	// Start with 5 dice

    // Roll dice

	// if any of the dice are of value 2 or 5

	//   remove dice that are of value 2 or 5 and roll again

	// else

	//   add up dice and add to total score then roll again

	// if there are no dice left, game over
	srand(time(NULL));	// initialize random
	int numberOfDice, valueOfDice[5], rollSum, totalScore, tmpNumberOfDice;

	int numberOfRolls, totalGamesRolls=0, averageRolls=0;

	int numberOfGames, totalGamesScores=0, averageScore=0;

	bool goodRoll;

	map games;

	map numRolls;

	int i,j;
	numberOfGames = atoi(argv[1]);
	for (j = 0 ; j < numberOfGames ; j++) {

		// New game

		totalScore = 0;

		numberOfDice = 5;

		numberOfRolls = 0;

		cout << "Game " << j+1 << endl;

		while (numberOfDice > 0) {

			// New round

			rollSum = 0;

			goodRoll = true;

			numberOfRolls++;

			tmpNumberOfDice = numberOfDice;

			for (i = 0; i < tmpNumberOfDice ; i++) {

				// New roll

				valueOfDice[i] = rand() % 6 + 1;

				cout << valueOfDice[i];

				if (i < (tmpNumberOfDice-1)) cout << ", ";

				else cout << "\n";

				if (valueOfDice[i] == 2 || valueOfDice[i] == 5) {

					goodRoll = false;

					numberOfDice--;

				}

				rollSum += valueOfDice[i];

			}

			if (goodRoll)

				totalScore += rollSum;

		}

		cout << "game total: " << totalScore << "\n\n";

		numRolls[numberOfRolls]++;

		totalGamesRolls += numberOfRolls;

		games[totalScore]++;

		totalGamesScores += totalScore;

	}
	// Display rolls distribution

	map::iterator it;

	float percent;
	cout << "\nRolls Distribution for " << numberOfGames << " games" << endl;

	cout << "Rolls: ##Graph## Percent% (Count)" << endl;

	for (it = numRolls.begin() ; it != numRolls.end() ; ++it) {

		percent = (float)((it->second)*100) / (float)numberOfGames;

		if (it->first < 10) cout << "0";

		cout << it->first << ": ";

		for (i = 0 ; i < percent ; i++)

			cout << "#";

		cout << " " << percent << "%" << " (" << it->second << ")" << endl;

	}
	// Display score distribution

	cout << "\nScore Distribution for " << numberOfGames << " games" << endl;

	cout << "Score: ##Graph## Percent% (Count)" << endl;

	for (it = games.begin() ; it != games.end() ; ++it) {

		percent = (float)((it->second)*100) / (float)numberOfGames;

		if (it->first < 10) cout << "0";

		if (it->first < 100) cout << "0";

		cout << it->first << ": ";

		for (i = 0 ; i < percent ; i++)

			cout << "#";

		cout << " " << percent << "%" << " (" << it->second << ")" << endl;

	}
	averageRolls = totalGamesRolls / numberOfGames;

	cout << "\nAverage rolls: " << averageRolls << endl;
	averageScore = totalGamesScores / numberOfGames;

	cout << "Average score: " << averageScore << endl;

return 0; }

A New Look…. and pigs

Jason — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 05:23:00 +0000

Hey All -
Happy Saturday to you too! There really isn’t anything quite as nice compared to waking up just before noon on a sunny spring Saturday with the knowledge that you have nothing to do all day. Well, unfortunately for me, I do have something to do today, I have to clean the bathroom… Let’s just put that off for later.
So, as I am sure you have noticed, the blog has gotten a face lift. I wanted to try something a little different, a little lighter really. I’m not sure I like the header though. I might need to get something new for up there, suggestions always welcome by the way.
The game of Risk last night was a total failure on my part. ‘What did you do this weekend? I lost the world…’ It’s true. We played mission, and my mission was to take over Asia and Africa. Those there are some pretty big continents, when others just have to eliminate a certain color player. Oh well, you win some, and if you’re me, you lose lots! It was a good time though, hanging out, having a few drinks. Take note, those frozen margarita buckets that you just add 750ml Tequila to, those are quire tasty.

So for those that haven’t seen my pictures page on my site, I wanted to share part of my family, well, my school family, my roommates, the prettier ones… yes, the pigs. Here’s a few… King Arthur (mostly referred to as just Arthur) is black and white, while Charles is in the brown and white. They are becoming friendlier and more sociable every day… enjoy.

That’s all for now folks, enjoy the weekend!

DONE!!!!!! – - and some more talk of WoW

Jason — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 19:44:00 +0000

Can you say Woot!?!

I sure can now. I just got back from taking my fourth and final exam for this Winter quarter, Digital System Design, for those who are curious, and man I’m glad it is done. Starting next Monday and going all the way until late September, I will be working Full-time at Kroger. One more week at the downtown office and then its off to Blue Ash for me, at the Blue Ash Technology Center (BTC for future Acronym usage)

Before the exam began, a few of us were sitting around in the class room, myself trying to cram a little more as the seconds faded, but we were all talking about World of Warcraft. Before the exam, a bunch of the CS guys got together and studied a little bit in one of the computer labs, I have been at work all morning, and thus unfortunately was unable to attend. But they were telling me about this kid who was playing World of Warcraft on his laptop, killing the same monster over… and over… and over… and over… and… yeah (again) They were talking about how he was talking to himself a little and making sounds along with his sword, and pretty much making this kid out to be the biggest loser ever. Ya know what? I think its jolly good fun (yes, you heard ‘jolly good fun’) and love to play games like that. Sure it may be possibly the more anti-social activities out there… but think about it, really. You are some strange non-human form that has magical powers and goes on quests for greatest, power, and strength. You meet and see things that aren’t of this world giving your imagination a freedom to explore and comprehend visuals that you can not find elsewhere. I love games like that… I don’t play them all that much, but I think the entire concept is phenomenal. (i think i use the word phenomenal too much)

Really that’s all I had to say… you go guy with swooshing sword, you kill those overgrown lizards with three heads… you are the bright minds of tomorrow, you are MY fantasy world HERO!!! (too far… eh, yeah probably)

As for me, I’m gonna sit here and be antisocial and work on my website for a while. House to myself for the next five hours, good peace and quiet. Later!

Leeeroooyyyyyyyy Jeeennnnnnkinnnnnns!!!!!

Jason — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 00:32:00 +0000

Good evening all.

We were going to have people over to play cards last night… but due to something called exam week which is next week, all but one (our roommate for next year) bailed on us. So what did we do? We played Halo… naturally. In all the fun times that followed through the evening, a video of Leeroy Jenkins was brought up. What? Huh? Leeroy? My thoughts exactly. Let me explain.

In the lovely game called World of Warcraft, there are groups of players called clans. These clans work together to take down their foes. In this video (which I will post below) the character Leeroy Jenkins is AFK (away from keyboard) while their leader drones on about who is running in when and using what ability to take down the enemy. All of a sudden, Leeroy Jenkins comes back from away and yells, ‘alright chums… let’s do this! LEEROOOOOYY JENKINS!!!’ and runs into the cave… with the entire clan left mouth agape, stunned at the stupidity. Their leader of course says… well let’s go and they all run into the cave. All the monsters are of course awakened and the clan takes the beating of their life all while cursing Leeroy and his stupidity. But you see, while Leeroy was away from the keyboard, missing the lecture on the battle, he was making dinner. And so the scene ends with Leeroy’s comment… ‘At least I got chicken’ There it is folks, enjoy

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkCNJRfSZBU]

I’m not quite sure how well this will work for those folks who are subscribed to the feed. You might need to check into the site for this one.

I have been laughing at this one for the past 24 hours. I played WoW for about a month (a free trial) then I just couldn’t see spending the 15 dollars a month to keep going, and of course I knew I would be wasting all sorts of time. But hey, live a little… I know that’s what Leeroy would want me to do.

Thanks for stopping by. Next time I’d like to make a run through some of my favorite sites and give quick little reviews. Unless of course something better comes along. Later!