Trucks and Diggers version 2.0

We have been working hard to add a new game to the Trucks and Diggers app. User feedback suggested that the app needed to be more engaging. We are experimenting with the diggers being more interactive but also thought kids would enjoy a digger related game, and this is a classic! The new matching game is added under a new menu item (Apple only allow a maximum of 5 tabs on the main screen). Testing has shown that the kids can navigate the simple menu. Our young testers just liked finding the random pictures behind the 'cards', and our 3 year olds could play the game as intended.

Worldwide success

Trucks and Diggers is proving to be a bit of a success! Apple send us developers our daily sales reports which have been showing consistent sales, and we had noticed that it seems to sell well all over the world (there are about 40 i-tunes store locations). We recently registered with a great site called www.appannie.com and this shows the full history in each place. To our surprise the app is ranked in the top 200 kids games in most stores. Notable successes are 17th in Germany and 7th in Finland. This means Trucks and Diggers is going up against the big boys (Disney, HIT, Lego) and beating them in some places! We have just learnt that the app is currently featured by the Austrian Apple store as 'Games > Kids > What's Hot'. Thank-you everyone.

So why the success? We think it's because the app has no words, so it instantly has global appeal. Excavators are yellow the world over. By watching and learning from our own kids we made the user interface very easy, and kids love that.

Negative Feedback

The Trucks and Diggers app received some negative feedback recently (thanks Kittyblueit), and that really hurt. Admittedly the app isn't going to appeal to everyone, but they said it was a "rip off". Considering that it costs less than a bottle of coke I don't see how something that does what it says in the iTunes description can be a rip off. They also suggested it should be free. We consciously decided that the app shouldn't have advertising in it, after all it's for young kids. If there's no ads then the other business model is to sell it at a reasonable cost. There is a large cost (especially in time) developing such a thing. To expect something for nothing is optimistic! I hope the thousands of other people who have downloaded it do like it. I know our kids do, and they keep coming back to it. It's no Angry Birds, but then it doesn't pertain to be.

Apps for Cars

It dawned on me on a recent long drive that the next big thing will be apps for cars. Some new cars have built in satnav, I personally use my iPhone as a satnav (I have an app for that!). If you have the factory fitted satnav, you are stuck with that. If the car manufacturers were to stick an iPad (or similar device) on the dash you could have whatever satnav you wanted and there would be a million other apps designed around the drivers needs. Microsoft have been talking about the car computer for 10 years, but really they should just stick in the sensors and let the app developers do the rest. I just wanted to get this thought down on wax so that I could say "i told you so" in 2030!

The start of something wonderful

Today we launched our first iPhone app - Trucks and Diggers. There's been quite a few months of late nights producing this followed by rigorous testing by our kids. They like it (even without their Daddy telling them to!) and it was even modified in places where we saw them getting stuck. For a dollar you get a lot of app, and we have more ideas to add to it at a later stage. If you buy it and like it please don't forget to leave positive feedback as it really does help to spread the word.