Feeling like a lawyer with all this legal crap…

For my two hours last night, I did some research on how to strategically name my app so that it will get the most visibility within the app store. This brought up some questions in my mind about the legality of my original name… after some research, it turns out that I would have run into copyright issues with the original name. The company that owns the rights to the original name is actively suing companies who infringe upon their intellectual property over the past couple of years, so I’m going to rename the app entirely.

I also sent over a couple of other (small) concerns about the first build of app #2 from the developer. I used the app a few times throughout the course of the day to test it and made mental notes of the items that I’d like to change. I think the changes are all pretty small.

The most exciting part of my entrepreneurial time yesterday was when my friend, the plagiarizing graphic artist (upon whom I have opened an investigation with the contracting website I used to hire him) started hitting me up via email and Skype for his final payment. Yeah right! He’s not getting any more money out of me. I’m probably out the original 25% upfront payment, but I’m not dumb enough to give him any more money. I’m not using any of his artwork – found a few nights ago that at least three of the images he submitted to me were copies of artwork that shows up pretty quickly in google image searching. Hopefully I can get a new artist hired today or tomorrow so that we can get some original artwork going and get the app finished with no legal concerns.

First build for app #2 sent from developer

Spent my time last night communicating via Skype with the developer. He was able to get the first build sent over and I ran it on my phone late last night. It looked great. I think he’s doing a good job. There were a couple of small issues to iron out and the app only currently has the gameplay activated, so the menus and non-gameplay screens still need to be completed. I’d guess that within a couple more days we’ll see a completed version. It was really motivating to see it coming to life!

Also spent some time yesterday working on getting a replacement graphic artist hired. Found another one who may work, so I offered him a trial job to do the icon for the app. I’m guessing I won’t be able to use any of the artwork from the original artist. Sent the NDA off so hopefully he will respond and accept the trial job. Also followed up with oDesk on the investigation with the original artist – hopefully this concludes soon. At this point, I’m ready to not pay the original artist the remaining 75% of the contract and just hope oDesk is able to recover the 25% paid upfront for me. Regardless, I will need another artist quickly to get this app done soon.

Family in town – no time yesterday

Didn’t have time yesterday as I was hanging out with family. It was a nice reprieve from the recent stresses in my day job. Very good re-charge on my work-life balance meter.

Initial keyword research … Apple rejects app #1

For my two hours yesterday, I spent some time communicating with the developer and uploading image files to dropbox so he can access them. This is all with the understanding that we will likely be replacing the image files due to the likely plagiarism by the artist. Haven’t heard anything back on the investigation yet, but will follow-up with oDesk later if still no word.

Did a bunch of keyword research using Sensor Tower. Keyword optimization is likely going to be my largest marketing channel, at least early on. The idea is to find the right keywords to help your app show up toward the top of more searches. Think I found a pretty decent list, although I will refresh it before publishing app #2.

Also spent some time going through my iOS development training guide. I’m about 40 pages in (out of 800+).

Apple rejected app #1 due to a couple of things: 1) a transition issue which isn’t very smooth when moving from one screen to the next from the main menu (used Buzz Touch template for this – not sure why it looks so crappy), and 2) Apple said that the app could just as easily be a PDF file (which is completely true). Guess I need a PDF display app source code so I can get it to make the app look right. Will do more work on this later.

Graphic artist cheating his way through my job!

Received the next (and final) batch of artwork from the graphic designer yesterday, so last night I sat down to make sure it was all there. Also, my brother came into town and I wanted to show him the progress we were making with the app. As we sat down to view the artwork, we noticed that some of the images weren’t very consistent with some of the others… and I was slightly frustrated that the artist hadn’t yet done a very good job of capturing my idea for this character in the artwork. So we took to google images searching to try to find something more along the lines of what I was envisioning for the character that I could forward to the artist to give him some better guidance.

On the first page of google image search results, we found nearly identical images to what the artist had submitted to me for the app… although these images were from different artists. Was this guy plagiarizing his artwork? It sure looked like it! He had made a few minor adjustments, but the art he had sent to me was obviously copied (directly) from other artists’ work. We searched for a few minutes to determine if there was creative commons licenses for these images (thanks for my wife, the artist of the house for pointing us in this direction), and it appeared that the original artwork was licensed and not in-play for unlicensed commercial use.

So… what to do? Well, not all of the art files appeared to be copies, only 3 of the main images (at least according to our google searches at a wee hour of the morning). However, who knows? Maybe he copied all of the images illegally and we were only able to track down the originals for 3 of them. Regardless, I was realizing that I probably need to hire a completely new artist and that we’d be starting from scratch with the artwork. I had a discussion with oDesk (the website where I found and hired the artist) and they opened an investigation. Glad I didn’t agree to pay him more upfront. While I eagerly await the results of the investigation, I notified the programmer that we’d probably be replacing the artwork with new images in a few days. He said no problem, as long as they are the same size.

What a way to start! Oh well, live and learn. Now I see why the app entrepreneurs (I refuse to use the term “appreneurs” due to its complete suckiness) say you need to be slow to hire and quick to fire. I’m ready to fire this guy when the investigation is done.

Next batch of artwork received for app #2 … feeling like a project manager

Spent my time yesterday making notes on the images sent by the graphic artist for app #2 and sending them back to him. He didn’t read the requirements doc very carefully, even after I have emphasized to him on multiple occasions via email and Skype messages to ready it closely because there are parts that are different than the app we’re modeling. So… he did more work than he needed to. At least I have him on a fixed-price contract, so his mistake won’t cost me anything. The artwork he has produced looks really good. If I work with him again on another project, which I likely will, I’ll be sure to specifically address the changes to him via email and Skype chat (because I know he reads those).

The developer began work – I should see an early build of the app within another day or two. I am using dropbox to manage the files for the app. After combing through the artist’s files and making notes for him, I then uploaded the art files that are ready to be used in the app (or only need minor changes) to the developer’s folder and gave him some instructions on the art files so he can begin incorporating them into the code.

It definitely feels like I am a project manager at this stage, in addition to being the visionary for the app. It’s very exciting to see the pieces of the app coming together so quickly. Hopefully I’ve got an idea that will show up in searches and that will get people to download and play it. I’m continuing to research keywords for the app to maximize search results/downloads and to look for the right advertising networks to best monetize the app.

 

First images on app #2 look great!

Got the first set of artwork for app #2 from the graphic designer this morning. I must admit, I think it looks great. He did an amazing job. I only had one minor adjustment, which I sent back to him, along with my approval. I also asked him about the rest of the artwork – he only sent the gameplay screen images, not the buttons and other menu/instruction screens. I think they will work well. He added some things that I didn’t ask for, but that I like. Now I just need him to send the rest of the files – he said he’ll send them tomorrow.

On the developer side, I need to figure out the details on the team relationship as far as developer IDs are concerned. I submitted app #1 by myself to Apple. However, I have the final milestone payment for the developer tied to the successful publication of app #2 to the app store, so I may have the developer submit app #2 to the store. This will ensure that he is motivated to ensure that the app makes it through to publication and he is as plugged into the process as he needs to be to quickly respond to any issues that arise during the submission process. Not sure if allowing him to submit for my company opens up any security concerns though. Need to research this topic more in the immediate future. Developer was set to begin work later today.

Additionally, I did some more research on advertising networks for mobile apps. Seems like I’m seeing Apple’s proprietary iAd network banners on more apps these days, although from what I’ve read (which may be dated material as terms change frequently), iAd wasn’t a very good payout to publishers who were using them. Looking into Applovin as I keep hearing it’s the best for developers.

Also registered a user ID with Sensor Tower. This site allows apps owners to track how successful their keywords are. I think this will help me reach users through app store optimization. Keywords, icon quality and screenshot quality seem to be the key pillars to successful marketing within the app store. Will continue to learn more about this.

About to kick-off development on app #2 … app #1 “in review”

Had family in town Saturday and wasn’t able to get much done.

On Sunday, I spent some time doing more market research and thinking about how I will be able to re-skin app #2, which begins development today/tomorrow. Came up with two ideas that seem like they’d be fairly easy and cheap ways to re-use the app that coincide with currently popular games’ themes.

I’m excited to see the artwork for app #2. Hopefully it shows up on time. I ping’d the graphic artist yesterday just to make sure he was aware to put the files into the dropbox folder I setup for him. He responded pretty quickly, so hopefully that’s a good sign that we’ll see some art later today. There are now two clone apps in the store for the app I’m using as my base idea… gotta hurry!

Also got an email from Apple that app #1 is In Review status. Sweet – hopefully this is a fast process and it gets into the store without too much delay.

Got the team hired!

I woke up on Friday excited to see the sample icon from the graphics artist. Immediately I thought it was a good fit for the app, and so did my wife (who is an artist in her own right and whose opinion I trust). So I contacted the artist and we were able to work out terms for the rest of the project and get him hired via oDesk. Should have all the artwork for the project done by 6pm Monday 3/24. Need this before the developer can write the code for the project.

I reached out to the developer and we discussed terms and timing for the project, after he signed the NDA. He thinks it will take about one week to write the app, so I’m hoping to have a working app in my hands around 3/31 or 4/1. Got him officially hired for the project through oDesk.

I now have the team hired and ready to go, with contracts and timelines in place. Both contracts are flat-fee (instead of hourly), so my financial investment is limited. Both the artist and developer are on Skype a lot, at least from what I’ve seen the last couple of days, so we will use that to communicate each day of the project. Additionally, they will upload all work they edit or create each day via dropbox – I think it’s important for me to review their work daily so I can provide feedback on a nearly real-time basis and so they don’t do work that doesn’t fit the vision of the project.

Submitted app #1 to apple … progress on hiring a team for app #2

With my time yesterday, I found a graphics artist for app #2 on oDesk. I decided to hire someone on a trial basis to only create an icon for the app, instead of hiring for the entire job all at once. That way, it will be cheaper to find someone who can create new custom work that fits the style of my game. If I need to fire and move on to someone else, it will only cost me $30 instead of $200. After some brief email interactions with a couple of the best candidates on oDesk, I thought one was the right candidate, so I sent him an NDA and we discussed the project via Skype and I decided to hire him for the icon. He said he’d send it in a couple of hours, so we’ll see what it looks like in the morning.

I reached out to the developer I’ll likely be using to code app #2 to see if he had heard back from any of his designers yet. No word back yet.

Also, I submitted app #1 to Apple for their review. It seemed to go smoothly… no hiccups. The hiccups all happened during the beta testing phase.