Category: Developers

Today I am speaking with Rakeyia Collins, Founder/CEO Simpbliss LLC and we are talking about their new app, Crowntheapp. I recently found the app in the store and thought it was interesting. Because it is a different sort of app, instead of a traditional app review, I thought some q&a would be better and would help explain what it is all about.

Crown is a free app currently for iOS devices. See the screenshots and download link below.

With Crown, you upload a video with the hope of winning the daily contest and hopefully some cash. How does it work? Check out the interview below.

Q. Thanks for the time today, can you tell us a little about your company?

A. Simpbliss LLC is the parent company of Crown. Crowntheapp is an iOS mobile application that is based around the idea that everyone should be able to show off who they are and get paid doing it!

Q. Crown is a video contest app – correct? Can you explain how it works and the costs?

A. Yes, Crown is a video contest app. Once the user downloads the app the first video upload is free! After that if the user wants to upload another video it will be $0.99 cents. The first video is free because we want each user to get a feel for what Crown is like. The contest begins at 7PM EST each day and the winner is announced at 7PM EST the next day. Each contest there will be new videos as the app deletes them automatically. Each video can be 20 seconds or less.

Q. Who picks the winners?

A. The winner is picked by users. For instance, if you download the application and have no intention of uploading videos that is perfectly fine. You can just scroll through the timeline and like the videos. The winner with the most video likes at 6:58PM EST will be the winner. He/She will be announced on all of Crowntheapp’s social media and emailed the next steps to claiming the prize.

Q. What are typical prizes for the daily contests? Odds of winning?

A. The prize will always be cash. The minimum amount will always be $10. A portion of each users $0.99 cents will be thrown into the daily cash prize so it will be consistently updated throughout the day. This means that the prize could be anywhere from $10 to hundreds or more.

Q. Do you “own” the videos users upload via the app?

A. Crown does have temporary ownership of the videos the users upload for as long as they are on the mobile application. Typically, from 7PM EST to the next day at 7PM EST. But, we do not and will not sell videos to third parties and use the videos for any other purposes except to post the winner’s video on our social media.

Q. So how many users do you have?

A. Crown has been continuing its marketing efforts for the application because it was just on the market in late August. We do not currently have a concrete user base.

Q. Do you have any plans to bring the app to Android?

A. Yes, if the iOS version goes well then the Android version will be on the market in the coming months.

Q. What future plans do you have with the app? photos maybe?

A. Crown’s future plans will be to create an Android version and allow photos to be uploaded as well.

Well there you have it. Many thanks for Rakeyia for taking the time and letting us know about Crown and its video contest app. If you consider yourself a videographer, then Crown might be a neat way to share your work and win a few dollars at the same time.

Now that you know something about this awesome game, I decided to reach out to the developer to hear a bit more the team behind Cards and Castles. Today I am speaking with Matt Siegel, our lead developer over at Bit Mass.

Q. Tell us about your company

A. Bit Mass is an indie studio founded in San Diego by friends and industry colleagues who wanted to make this game.

Q. What was the inspiration behind the game?

A. We’re most heavily inspired by Hero Academy and Magic the Gathering, and we really wanted to break away from the tabletop format of most digital CCGs and really explore what could be done uniquely in the digital world.

Q.  Can you tell us a little about the game, specifically the following areas?

• Quests

A. Daily quests are a fun way to earn a lot of card points by completing some simple gameplay goals. The quests are designed to fit naturally into how players would already be playing the.

• Scenarios

A. Scenarios are non-repeatable single-player event matches that offer great rewards!

• Draft mode

A. Draft mode is a way to compete with other players in a non-constructed format. Instead of building a deck from their collections, all draft participants instead build their deck from a sequence of random choices.

• Card Points

A. Card points are the in-game currency you use to play drafts and buy card packs.

• Silver (bit) points

A. Bit points, which have been renamed to Silver Points in our massive August 13th update, are our premium currency. They’re mostly used as an alternative to card points, or to buy more specialized card packs.

Q. A major question – Can folks play the game and do well without spending any real money?

A. Yes, all cards are available without spending any real money! Player’s have a chance of pulling any card in the game, except the starter set, from the normal boosters.

Q. How many people are playing the game?

A. We’ve seen peaks over more than 50,000 daily active users, and are close to hitting 1 million downloads!

Q. Any other games in development?

A. Nope, we are wholly focused on making Cards and Castles totally awesome.

Q. Ok, my final question, what games do you guys like to play?

A. SMASH BROS! My favorite version is Smash Bros Melee. We also like Mario Kart, League of Legends, stuff like that. We’re social gamers at heart and we love to compete!

Well thank again Matt for the time and an awesome game. Hope you enjoyed this post. Until next time.

Yesterday I reviewed the fun CCG Trouble with Robots. It is an enjoyable, free game for both Android and iOS users. After trying to save the world from the invading robots, I reached out to the developer ArtCastle to learn a little more about the game and their company.

Q. First off thanks for the game I am really enjoying. Before I get into some business stuff, can you give me some more tips on moving deep into the game?

A. We have created the Easy Mode to be at a level that we think should be accessible to all players. If we are discussing tips, I would think they would apply to more advanced situations. That being said, here are some basic tips for new players in the early levels.

• Use Plenty Of Healing: Early on, you will need to heal your guys a lot. Try using both the Centaur Shamen AND the basic Heal cards together. Play your Centaur Shamen when your guys are moderately hurt. Wait until you have some troops in the red to play the Heal.
• Choose 1 Direct Damage Card: Lightning Strike is easier to use. Fireball is effective against groupings of range attackers such as the People Management Unit. You don’t need both (at least not yet).
• Experiment With Attack Enhancers: Try different combinations of range attackers with Tactician or melee attackers with Angry Mob. This will help you learn what is good for which situations.
• General: Don’t waste the precious seconds of any card that does something for a limited time. For example, if you have an Angry Mob, wait until your melee attackers are in close combat before you play it. The bonus only lasts for 20 seconds. If you play it 4 seconds too early, you’ve wasted a fifth of the bonus.

Q. What inspired you to make the game?

A. The initial idea and mechanics of the game came from Geoffrey White, and he had this vision of a game that merged fantasy and sci-fi themes. Ed Mandy was the developer that brought this to the mobile platforms doing most of the coding specific to iOS and Android.

Some mechanics were inspired by Castle Crashers, Magic: The Gathering, Plants vs Zombies, and a prototype game called “Live Cards” that Geoffrey had developed. It had the core idea of using collectible card gaming elements in real-time battles, using cards to summon an army and support them with spells.

Q. Can you tell us a bit about your company?

Art Castle Ltd. is based in Hong Kong, but we like to think of ourselves as a global team. We have team members in places like England, USA, and Spain. We also have a good relationship with Play-Asia.com who publishes our titles.

Q. What games do you guys enjoy playing?

A. It should be obvious that we enjoy collectible card games like Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon: Trading Card Game.

Personally, I (Ed) have recently played Scrolls (by Mojang) on my computer. Generally, though, I am more drawn to retro gaming and enjoy classic handhelds like the Neo Geo Pocket Color. When playing with the family, it seems that we often gravitate toward the Gamecube.

Q. What does the future hold for you guys? Any new games coming out?

A. Besides Trouble With Robots, we have one other game available on iOS called 3Domino. As for the future, we also have another game in the works that will be a combination of mini-games all linked through a common themed story line. Right now, however, our main focus is on getting Trouble With Robots all the attention it deserves, so, as a reader, please share this article. We know that the vast majority of players love the game, so please recommend it to your gamer friends.

Q. In general, where do you see mobile gaming going in the next few years?

A. I would tend to say that mobile gaming and console / PC gaming will live well next to another. Mobile games are designed to facilitate a different game-pace. Mobile games are generally made to be interruptible. Short periods of gaming will always limit this genre to games that are less deep than console or PC games where gamers make time upfront to feed their gaming crave.

The future of mobile gaming is to hone in on these differences and make new experiences that can leverage the advantages of each to create a new type of cross-platform immersion. Imagine a game where you can play for short interruptible bursts while on your mobile platform and continue with your deep character/game development when you get home in front of your console.

–Thanks Ed for the time again and super fun game in Trouble with Robots. As always, I really enjoy touching base with developers to see how the mobile world is from their perspective and to get some insights on what the future holds.  Looking forward to seeing what Art Castle Ltd has for us in the near future.

Yesterday I reviewed Galaxy Trucker, a great port of a physical board game to iOS.  I definitely can recommend this game to everyone. I thought it would be neat to meet the folks behind the game, so today I am  speaking with  Lenka from Czech Games Edition (CGE).

Q. Tell us a little about your company?

A. Czech Games Edition was started by people who met playing board games at Czech gaming events, and who helped to publish the first edition of Through the Ages in 2006. During that work, they realized that creating board games is what they want to do for a living, Thus they founded a company and published Galaxy Trucker as the first game. Since then CGE has produced 20 games and expansions, including Dungeon Lords, Tzolk’in: the Mayan Calendar, Last Will, Space Alert, and Tash-Kalar: the Arena of Legends.

Since everyone at CGE love to play board games on their devices, they decided to start their own digital department of CGE.

Q. Can you tell us a little about the game Galaxy Trucker? What is the game about?

A. Galaxy Trucker as a board game is about building spaceships from scrap material and trying to fly them through the galaxy, hoping they do not fall apart before you arrive at your destination. The main innovation was that the big part of the game is played real-time, with everyone building their ships as fast as they can.

Galaxy Trucker as an app is based on this board game, but offers much more – both real-time and turn based building modes, big non-linear campaign, many AI opponents, options to play on one device or online, achievements etc.

Q. Is this your first game developed for mobile platform? Do you want any plans to produce more mobile games?

A. Yes, this is our first mobile game implementation and it’s based on our in-house multi-platform framework. We definitely plan on using it for implementing more of our board games to mobile.

Q. What was the hardest thing in developing a mobile app for a board game?

A. When we started with development we said to ourselves that we wanted to make more than just a digital copy of the Galaxy Trucker board game. We want to make a game that will benefit from both the physical board game and its new digital environment. With Vlaada Chvátil designing and working with our developers, we faced challenges such as development for various platforms, flashier graphics, an awesome campaign career mode, a new turn-based building mode, and multi-platform online multi-player support.

Q. Do you see more board games (in general) moving into the mobile or digital platform in the near future?

A. We believe that transition of physical games into digital environment is logical result of wide spread digital devices.

Q.What role do you see mobile board games playing in the overall board game industry?

A. Playing board games with friends is a great experience. Most of us love it, but unfortunately can not afford as often as she would like. Board game implementations for mobile devices, enables us to experience this wherever we are. We can and have fun with your favorite board game and friends even though we cannot be with them at the moment. Which is great 🙂

Q. What mobile games do you guys like to play?

A. Everyone’s taste here is a bit different, but generally we plays games that are clever, well thought, polished and fun. Usually not too many free-to-play games, we want to compete with our skills, not money. Many of us like to play some of the current board game implementations (on mobile).

Q. Any particular games you would like to see on your iPad or Android device?

A. Loads, but we really would be happy to see more board games come over to mobile.

Thanks again Lenka for the time and I look forward to seeing what games CGE has for us down the road.

Today we are going to cover 2 apps: SmartDoctor Schedule and SmartPatient Schedule. Both apps are available for free for on the Google Play Store and both are from Patronus IT.

Doctor Schedule
Patient Schedule

The premise behind these apps is to help doctors and patients get rid of scheduling conflicts and confusion. This is a new app so it is growing but does have potential.  Overall the interface on both apps is clean and easy to use. There are not a lot of “moving parts” but you do not need them. Your job is to connect with your doctor and setup an appointment. The app makes it simple to keep track of your appointments. For a quick look, check out this video from the developer.

I see potential in this app/service. I especially think smaller doctor offices or individual practices would find this app/service helpful.  Because this is really a service and a new one at that, I thought it would be best to ask the developer some questions, to help shed some light on everything. Here is what we have.

Q. Can you tell us a little about your company?

Patronus IT LLC is a new, developing company; our current project Smart Scheduling is only 4 month old.

Q.Can you briefly explain how this all works?

First the doctor will setup his profile (country, city, address, specialty, picture, and schedule) in the Smart Doctor Schedule application. This way patients will be able to search for them. Patients will then set up their profile (first name, last name, e-mail, insurance number, phone) in the patient app. Since we sync  the two, patients will be able to search and find any doctors they need.

When the patient makes an appointment , both they and the doctor will get  a notifications and have it placed on their calendar. Now the doctor will be able to list all patients and their profile, right down notes, attach photos etc.  Patients can also cancel an appointment through the app.  There is also an archive feature which shows all past appointments.

Q.  What made you decide to create this app/service?

After my last doctor’s appointment- watching him write down appointments and notes in his diary, gave me the idea of trying to make it electronic and thus more portal and easier to manage.

Q. For this to work for patients, their doctor needs to have this service also correct?

Yes

Q. How many doctors do you have using this service now?

We have just released the app but only after a few days had over 500 doctors register. Currently most physicians are located in Europe but we have some in the USA and Canada.

Q. Why should doctors use this service vs other online appointment services?

We think our app/service is much more convenient and easier to use.  We have had many physicians try the app and have gotten positive feedback.

Q. With doctors being so busy,do you think they would actually use something like this vs. their nurse or office staff?

One of key features of the app is that the doctor can use app on one device, while his nurse or staff use it on another. So the nurse could enter the information in and then the doctor can see his appointments right on his phone.

Q.  From a patient’s point of view I really see this app being very useful, but if they are dependent on getting doctors involved, that could pose a problem.

There a lot of apps currently available for doctors, but their is no application like ours- it is so fast and simple.  Currently the service for all doctors is free and it will be for a long time. For patients it is a free app. Even if doctors needed to pay a monthly fee, ti would be 5-10 times cheaper then others service.

A couple of notes: The app is currently free to doctors until 2015, then there will be a yearly fee. The apps are also available for iOS devices.

Well there you have. Pretty cool service. If you have given it a try, let us know; also if you are a doctor let us know what you think.  Thanks to Patronus IT for taking the time to talk.