Thanks. I don't really have any formal training other than having lots of fun with a very persuasive and very inspiring high school art teacher - here is to you, Mr. O'Brien!
[Book] The Little Mermaid
(54 posts) (22 voices)-
I wasn't the first one to add physics into a book app, that's all Alice and the AtomicAntelope guys have done a great job with it. However, I hope you'll find this book to be an enjoyable and new experience nonetheless, with different forms of interactivity, sounds, and "visual excitement" ;)
Posted 1 year ago # -
It's alive!!! Check it out in iTunes.
I have only have a handful of promo codes available, but I won't post them here, because I suspect sneaky bots stealing them. However, if you PM me and I still have some left, I'd be happy to forward you one. And don't worry - I won't think you're cheap. We're all starving developers after all... :)
Also, I'd love to hear your feedback, comments, and reviews. Let me know what you think!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Looks good, nice implementation! I had a similar idea (different title) the minute I saw the Alice app, one of those light bulb moments. I think I'm suffering from working in the industry too long, the first thing that comes to mind when starting a new project is where to have the meeting :s
Arggghhhhhhhhhhhh! I think I need to have a go at the doodle blast approach and see what I can get built in 7 days.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Thanks, @abitofcode!
Right now I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum. I'm so done with meetings and committees and approvals and process that I'm just excited to create. It doesn't always work out, but the nice thing about the App Store is that you get almost immediate feedback.
The 7-day-push is a fun exercise to try. It really helped me hone down on parts of the development process that are important and let go of the parts that are not. The down-side is that you end up with reviews like this one:
Minimalist style is a fantastic concept, but amazing looks have to be paired with inspired gameplay to really be fantastic. That is where Doodle Jump succeeds, and where many of the others, such as Doodle Blast! don’t.
...
The issue with Doodle Blast! is that while the graphics never look like an incomprehensible mess, the gameplay quickly devolves into one.Live and learn...
Posted 1 year ago # -
Codemattic
ModeratorNY Times mention:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/08/technology/personaltech/08smart.html
"Now comes “The Little Mermaid and Other Stories by H. C. Andersen” ($9), an iPad book with interactive pages."
Posted 1 year ago # -
Congrats on the nytimes mention!
I think I've found my 7 day push idea, just need to find 7 days now :)
Posted 1 year ago # -
Woohoo - whooping 8 words! :)
@abitofcode - let me know when you begin. I'll start crossing off days for you :)
Posted 1 year ago # -
I got a call from Apple after the rejection and they said that based on user's feedback they started disallowing lite books and are pushing for developers to implement the InApp purchase model instead. It's difficult to transition full apps that have already been released to smoothly adopt the InApp purchase model, but the guy just shrugged.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I think that's the idea. All I found out is that Apple prefers people to publish one version of their book for free (essentially the Lite version) and offer the additional content as InApp purchase, rather than having two versions of the same eBook available. I personally think that's hokey because InApp purchases always seem gauging to me. But that's just me.
Anyway, I'm just sharing what I discovered.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Actually it can also be a model for all kind of apps as well (I mean developers release only one free version with inApp purchase). For example popular studio (backflip) does this for its new game (I don't remember the name but it is in the new & noteworkhy) and it seems to be very OK for them. Perhaps Apple will also force game developer to do this later on. And perhaps it could be a good thing for the app store, because people will test all their apps before buying them, and thus the quality of app that are paid would increase (but perhaps there would less purchases, so less money for Apple and developper ?)
Anyway thanks for sharing pfg2009!
Posted 1 year ago # -
This is just amazing! It cleary express the potential of the iPad for persons of every age.
May I ask where can I find such copyright-free books with text and and mostly important with illustrations?
Note: if I find some interesting public domain book I will release on Brazilian AppStore in Portuguese, so of course, I would first translate the books (which would be new :D).I already found some public domain books, but they are pure text and not like this with images.
Again, great work! Congratulations!
Posted 1 year ago # -
letmeknow
Member@karnak: Legally you cannot translate people works without permission from the authors (then some people erase the author name as well :) ). However I see some ebooks/manga/comic published on Apps Store not by their legal publishers, look like Apps Store does not care about copyrights (unless customers report to them).
Posted 1 year ago # -
@karnak: Thanks! I don't have a good answer for you. Many books are public domain and you just need to come across one that speaks to you. Try the library. As far as illustrations go, most of the ones you see in "The Little Mermaid" were actually created by me. I used some of the original illustrations that appeared with Andersen's stories, but those were few (1 - 2 per story) and only as B&W prints. You are probably better off pairing up with an illustrator. Good luck!
@Codemattic: Basically, Apple's argument was that you should start with an InApp purchase approach from the beginning. To transition existing users onto a new app that implements InApp purchases, they suggested publishing a "secret code" in the original app that would allow people who already bought the book to download the new app and get the same content they already had before. That seemed clunky to me, so I just dropped the "Lite" version of the book altogether.
Posted 1 year ago #
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