Sometimes it’s the Little Things

Over the weekend I was working on some additions to my Craft Pricing Pro app. The main addition that is being added is the ability to share the information from the app in the form of a PDF. This will allow the user to print out lists of their projects and the relevant information along with a single sheet views of an individual project.

This was working until I went into an individual project view and returned. Once it returned, it would no longer generate a list of the projects, but instead a sheet of the last project viewed. I beat my head for hours attempting to fix this. I thought it was an issue with SwiftUI, then I thought it was an issue with the ShareLink command. I spent hours trying different things. I moved code into different functions. I made new functions thinking that might have been the problem. I was writing and rewriting various parts of my app over and over again then removing the changes when each new solution would fail.

Then, I began to notice the error messages that sometimes would show up saying that it couldn’t find a certain file. I also noticed that when I’d create a new PDF that filename would show up as the name of the PDF. It took a while, but eventually I made enough connections to figure out the solution to my problem. All the PDFs I was creating had the same file name. SwiftUI wouldn’t create a new file because the data didn’t change, so it would simply use the existing file and that would be the previous view.

So, I simply had to give each type of PDF that I was generating a different filename and the problem was solved. So hours of effort and searching for a solution was solved by simply changing one line of code in order to change a filename. Everything else was working just fine. It was both frustration, and oddly satisfying to finally solve the issue.

So, yeah. Sometimes the simplest solution will be the one that saves the day.

‎Craft Pricing Pro
‎Craft Pricing Pro
Developer: Ducky Planet LLC
Price: $5.99+
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot

Craft Pricing Pro is now live!

I’ve been working on this app for well over a year and it is finally live in the app store! I’m pretty excited for people to actually start to use it.

This version of the app adds many useful features, including the ability to add an image to the project, along the being able to save multiple projects. The basic app is free, but you have the option to purchase the added features that were added.

It has been a long time since I have used an in-app purchase – hopefully it will work okay for most users. I have unfortunately been struggling to pay bills and if something doesn’t change, I will have to step away from my apps and do something else.

I wish I had been posting more as I worked on this app. I suspect some part of the journey would have been interesting to someone.

I can talk a bit about the last major step – putting the in-app purchases into the app. I originally planned to use a subscriptions for the app, but after getting it mostly working I dropped that idea. I struggled being ok with charging people monthly/yearly for an app that doesn’t really change. It doesn’t use more resources and there isn’t really new content being added regularly. I will add app features over time – there are several already planned. But the regular charge just doesn’t feel right to me.

So, there we have it. A quick rundown of my app. Oh, I should also add, this is my first app that is available in another language. It supports Spanish.

The official marketing page

‎Craft Pricing Pro
‎Craft Pricing Pro
Developer: Ducky Planet LLC
Price: $5.99+
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot
  • ‎Craft Pricing Pro Screenshot

Success Is Found By Not Limiting Sources Of Inspiration

A lesson that I learned again recently – inspiration can come from anywhere. I have been working on several projects lately and also taking some time to learn new skills and also refresh some old knowledge. During those attempt to refresh old knowledge I fell into a rabbit hole of going through old games that I used to play. When I say old, I mean old. Most of these I had had played on my old Apple II back in the 1980s. Needless to say, many old memories came flooding back. But, also, I was able to see things that were done with games back then that kept my attention and kept me playing. These games were made decades before micro-transactions, and years before the internet would start to shape our lives. They had to focus on the gameplay itself to keep our interest and there is a lot to be learned from that.

In my case, I was reminded how much humor and curiosity for what would come next drew me in. Spare Change on an Apple II emulator was the game that prompted this post.

A screenshot from the Apple II version of the game Spare Change

The goal of Spare Change was simple – collect coins while trying to keep the robots from stealing them. The robots themselves were quite funny. They would perform various silly moves as they stole the coins, including passing between each other, running into each other or kicking the coin into their piggy bank. If they collected too many coins the game would end. Also, of interest were short cut scenes involving these robots and their silly antics. But a feature that kept me wanting to play the most were the various items on the game board that could be used to distract the robots. They loved watching Popcorn popping, or dancing to the music on the jukebox. On some levels you have get them to talk to each other using the pay phones. Now, these distractions would cost a coin, so you had to be careful to not waste too many coins. This became more of an issue as the levels went on. But, it all led to the player wanting to keep playing in order to see what other silliness could happen along the way.

So, what does a 40 year old game have to do with my current efforts? It caused me to rethink my own game that I am currently working on. I have since made an effort to add cutscenes along with items for the player to collect. I should back up and explain the game a little bit – it was essentially a demolition derby game using various geometric shapes to battle.

The images above show a little view of what the game looks like. It also shows a shot from one of the cut scenes that can be found in the game. I am proud of how the game is turning out. The sides on the shapes turn red as they get damaged until the player dies if the damage becomes too great. Once an enemy shield is destroyed, you have the chance to steal their fruit. It is the fruit that is necessary in order to advance to the next level – by making an epic fruit salad to impress your alien overseers.

You can clearly see how playing a close to 40 year old game inspired a new game. If I hadn’t taken the time to play Spare Change, my game would still be the original Geometry Derby game in which you would simply crash into shapes until you finally died. It was somewhat fun even if it did get a little boring over time. The new version is one that can easily hold interest for a far longer time.

So, to bring things back around – don’t be afraid to look for inspiration everywhere. You never know what might contain an idea for a future project.