A few of my friends and co-workers already know this, but I’ve been working on an app in my off hours.
Why? A number of reasons.
First, I bought my daughter an iPod touch, and although there are a lot of great games out there, I didn’t see exactly the alphabet game I’d give her.
Second, I just don’t do that much real programming at work these days. I’ve slowly shifted into managing, and although I still take on the occasional project, I just can’t keep up with my duties if I do as much programming as would scratch my itch at work.
Third, I had an idea that burned. Really, that’s probably first, now that I think about it.
Now, the app isn’t for everybody. Actually, unless you’re under the age of four, you’ll probably not get much use or entertainment out of it.
Although I think there is probably a profitable niche market here, I have no illusions that I’ll earn the order-of-magnitude more money selling Typey Typey than I do at my day job to be worth quitting. I hope to make some amount money. Maybe save for Evelyn’s college – that would be awesome.
I want to say thanks here to my lovely wife for helping out with a few of the animal illustrations, as well as being patient with me when I stayed up nights scratching my itch. I also want to thank my beta testers, who suffered through TestFlight’s opaque signup and device registration process to try things out and give feedback.
The app itself is available today, but I’ve already got an update in review that adds a new font and a few more animals. I have about a million ideas on where I’m taking this thing, and I’ll likely continue to blog about my experiences and motivations here – though you can likely tell I’m keeping the real promotion for other venues.
Anyway, feel free to grab the app – 99ยข until I have all the letters of the alphabet paired up with an animal picture, then $1.99 – on iTunes. Gift it to a friend with an old iPad and a young child. Send me feedback on Twitter via the @TypeyTypey account. And thanks for reading!