Here are LetterMiner’s October download numbers. iOS: 11 downloads Mac: 2 downloads The fear I had last month was realized. The download boost that started in the middle of August ended in late September. The download spike wasn’t helpful. All of the iOS downloads were from China, and I did not notice any new people playing LetterMiner.

Here are the download numbers for LetterMiner in September. iOS: 1744 downloads Mac: 9 downloads I had almost double the iOS downloads I had in August. The downloads started to drop on September 29. I fear the boost in downloads that started in the middle of August has ended.

I recently checked the download stats for the iOS version of LetterMiner and noticed a big jump in downloads. The following list of download stats shows how dramatic the jump is: 45 downloads in January 8 downloads from February 1 to May 7 0 downloads from May 8 to August 12 7 downloads from August 13 to August 16 331 downloads from August 17 to August 23 I have no idea how I went from nobody downloading LetterMiner for three months to getting over 300 downloads in a week.

It’s a short list. I used Apple’s Xcode tool and SpriteKit framework to program the game using the Swift language. I used the app Acorn to create the letter tiles. Some auxiliary tools I used include git for version control, Bitbucket to store a backup of my code online, and the app Asset Catalog Creator to generate the app icons. If you’re wondering why I used SpriteKit instead of Unity to make LetterMiner, I did try Unity before I settled on SpriteKit.

Here are the download numbers for LetterMiner in January. iOS: 45 downloads Mac: 4 downloads

I recently browsed through the word game section of the App Store and discovered something disturbing. LetterMiner does not appear in any list of word games. I navigated my way to the list of word games and found the following categories: New games we love All-time greats Decipher the word Play against the clock Word battle games Play and learn Free games Since LetterMiner is a free game it should be in the list of free word games.

It’s been almost two weeks since I launched the iOS version of LetterMiner. So far 43 people have downloaded it. I have a smash hit on my hands. The most surprising data iTunes Connect has shown me is only 10 of the 43 downloads are from North America. 22 downloads are from Europe, and 11 are from the Asia Pacific region. With LetterMiner not supporting languages other than English, I expected most of the downloads to be from North America.

I decided to release LetterMiner as a free game. The main reason for this decision is I was unable to build up a buzz for the game while I was developing it. Why bother charging for a game when no one knows it exists? There are three main ways to make money on a mobile game. Upfront purchase In-app purchases Ads Upfront purchase is the way most people buy console games.

The iOS version of LetterMiner is now available on the App Store. LetterMiner iTunes Listing Thanks to all the people who beta tested the iOS version of LetterMiner. You allowed me to release LetterMiner knowing it didn’t have any major bugs that made the game unplayable.

I submitted the iOS version of LetterMiner to Apple this week. Today I got an email saying LetterMiner was rejected because it could not be played in portrait orientation on iPads. LetterMiner is meant to be played in landscape orientation. The problem is I can’t find a way to support only landscape orientation on iPad. I tried removing portrait orientation from the list of supported iPad orientations. When I sent the build to the App Store, it was rejected because iPad multitasking requires supporting all four orientations.