iSlice update

A month later, and i’m here with my next project post. I’ve been busying myself with everything other than writing, which has taken a backseat lately. However, I promised myself to keep it up - today i’ll be providing everybody with a backstory on iSlice

Development for the iSlice iPhone game started in December 09, and it moved fairly slowly to begin with. My partner Ed Nash had the experience with iPhone apps that I didn’t, with his previous successful apps. We began by using his team based in Belarus to build the first version of the app. It was fascinating being involved in this development process, being able to class playing a game as my job.

Throughout development, we had friends interested in buying a slice of the app, pardon the pun. Lachy Groom had expressed his interest throughout, as he loved the app - and had spare funds to invest from previous projects. I held to the fact that I wouldn’t sell any of my share in the game, for a short term gain. On the other hand, Ed required funds pretty urgently. He decided to sell half his share to Lachy, making them equal partners. 

In hindsight, that was a brilliant decision for the app. Lachy became a partner 2 weeks before apple approved the game. Since Launch, I haven’t seen anyone hustle so hard. He was proactive in getting us a ton of press, and our efforts were seeing sales nearing double each day. We were only about 4 days into launch, and we were all mentally and physically exhausted. We had a great game on our hands, but didn’t have the marketing muscle, the app also needed some major updates to become a chart-topper.

Something big was needed, a push of some sort. We had an update in development - but major press was needed. After some meetings, we had an offer on the cards from our development company in Belarus to handle all of our marketing. They had experiences with top #3 games in the US app store. However, this meeting was pretty brutal. We were offered no room for negotiation, and some pretty uncomfortable terms. I got a bad vibe from the attitude of the marketing guys during this talk. At the same time as this, we were in talks with appular - who loved iSlice, and were interested in publishing it for us. 

Talking with the appular team, we really gelled - what’s more, they had a great background and track record. In just over a day of talks, we had the contract signed and we were ready to get back to a work. Unfortunately, this deal meant we had to remove the game from the store. A painful experience, but we’ve made the necessary updates, having accomplished an extreme amount of progress during this week. We hope to submit an updated version of the app to apple early next week.

It’s been an awesome journey so far, especially finally being back in business after my website sale over a year ago. I have a good feeling about this one too.

What i’m currently working on

Throughout 2007/08, I was blogging fairly consistently about my projects and updating the world on the status of everything I was up to. I gained a fairly solid reader base, which would most likely be put down to how open I was about my projects and ideas. Over time, I’ve fallen out of the blogging rhythm, and have taken some time to find out what I would be doing next.

I’ve always had this feeling I should be documenting what i’ve been doing, ever since the end of my Wordpress blog. It’s somewhat therapeutic. In terms of Business, it’s great to build a personal brand and really connect with others. This is why I want to get into the rhythm of blogging again. 

I’m now deep into 2010, and i’m constantly fired up. In 2009, I didn’t accomplish anything of true value, but I learned and experienced things most people my age would never do.

As of now, i have three projects:

• MinoMonsters
• iSlice
• Investments

MinoMonsters(http://minomonsters.com/)

MinoMonsters has been anything but a simple website for me to launch. When I look at the game today, it’s completely different to the picture I had in my mind this time a year ago. 

Three of my biggest websites in the past have all been game related, it’s definitely what i’m passionate about creating. I truly believe that MinoMonsters can become a huge hit. 

The concept’s akin to Pokemon. After adopting your Monster, you train it up to become as powerful as possible to beat others in battle. We’ve built it as a standalone website (not a facebook app) and there is heavy javascript involved. I’ve put a focus on making the game as beautiful as possible, and our testers have really noticed it. 

With all the great game mechanics and features we place, it all amounts to nothing if the game never launches. That’s the problem I’ve been facing. We’ve been hitting ridiculous amounts of development roadblocks, and it’s somewhat embarrassing to say the least how late we are to launch the site.

A few weeks ago, it struck me that something had to change if I ever wanted to bring this idea to life, I had two options. Firstly, i’d received a lot of investor interest in the website, however raising money was something I chose to rule out until at least 6 months into launch. My second option was something many people recommended. I offered my developer Jeff equity to come on board as a partner. That’s where we’re at now, he’ll be working full time for a while to get the website open. I feel it was a great decision - Now here’s to hoping we can make huge progress!

iSlice

iSlice is an iPhone game i’ve built with my friend Ed Nash. We outsourced development, and we’re at the final stages of creating a really addictive game. It will be priced at £0.59, and it’s hopefully out at the end of this month!

My iPhone has a development version of the app, passing the game around to other people really shows we’ve got it right. As soon as people understand the concept, they love it. One friend was playing it on my phone for an hour. Watch this space, as we’ll be promoting it heavily.

Investments

Other than the final 2 months of school keeping me busy, I’ve had a creative itch and some available capital to invest in new ideas. I’ve been involved with a stealth startup which takes up little of my time, however I see as much potential in this idea as my others. If anything, it could take off even more than everything else i’m working on.

I’m aiming to periodically update this blog with personal & work updates from now, depending on how the feedback goes. I have an intense 2 months ahead with projects and exams, but I believe this blog can become something of true value.