So, who am I and what is this blog about?
My name is Markus Ranner, a Swedish software developer with 15+ years of experience, mostly with backend focus using Java but also numerous other programming languages. In 2012 I started looking into mobile development out of curiousity, and began building an iOS app in Objective-C just to learn the language, as well as the iOS platform and the whole Apple eco system. After only about three months of development I released my first version of Avocado Meal Planner on the App Store. And from there on I knew that I wanted to do more mobile development!
I didn't realize it back then because I had nothing to relate to, but it was actually quite a success right from the start with several hundreds of downloads each day! Unfortunately the first version wasn't all that good, so not many people wanted to pay for the full version. But just knowing that people all around the world were downloading and using my app was a huge boost for me to continue to build on it! Still today in 2016, Avocado Meal Planner is being downloaded and liked by many people although I haven't had much time lately to improve it. Keeping up with every new iOS version, API changes, Apple's design "requirements" and so on takes too much of an effort and takes away most of the fun of programming and inventing new features.
One of the most important things I learned from building my first app was that "going native" with Objective-C wasn't a very smart move. As the app grew with more features, tweaks, version patches and so on, it also became harder and harder to port to other languages and platforms. The Android version that I had in mind from the beginning has not even been started because of the immense workload I know will be required. However, today there have popped up several new hybrid frameworks that actually seem very good and easy to use. And most interesting of them all in my opinion is: React Native!
I've been playing around with React Native for a short while and I'm absolutely stunned about how intuitive and easy it feels to develop with this new, hyped Javascript-based framework. So I figured that the best way to learn it really well would be to convert Avocado Meal Planner into React Native. Starting with the iOS version I can still reuse many of the Objective-C parts as they are, and slowly work my way to a new cross-platform version of my app.
Besides Avocado, I've also taken a dive into the mobile game development world. Creating games is something that I've always loved because of all the creativity involved in it. Create your own world, invent new game mechanics, design cool characters. Anything is possible. You make the rules!
So in 2015 I decided to build my first mobile game. I evaluated the most common game development frameworks briefly before I decided to use Corona SDK, which seemed to be a good fit for the kind of simple 2D game I wanted to create. Although Corona SDK has its flaws, I must say that it was incredibly quick to get started with it, and learning the Lua language couldn't have been any easier. So after a few months of intense programming I released the game Dragonflies both for iOS and for Android. It was a huge disappointment.
The game itself I think is actually quite good, although probably too difficult for most people. The main problem is that I severly underestimated how hard it is to get visibility for your game in the App Store or on Google Play. Well, as a matter of fact I kinda knew this already, but didn't want it to be true I suppose. I knew I had to spend more time on marketing, building a community, a "buzz" and so forth. But the development itself took more time then expected, and by the time the game was finished I was so sick and tired of it that I just wanted to get it out there ASAP. Needless to say, it hasn't sold many copies up until today. But anyway, I got a game out there, and I learned some valuable and expensive lessons from it.
At the moment I'm back on the game development track with a new title. Once again using Corona SDK. Considering how much code I wrote for Dragonflies that can be reused it would be just plain stupid to start from scratch using some other framework. In just a few weeks I've come very far on this new phsyics puzzle game, which I will write more about soon.
In this blog I'll try to write down and share my thoughts, experiences and ideas for building both utility apps and games for mobile devices. Hope you'll enjoy it!
My name is Markus Ranner, a Swedish software developer with 15+ years of experience, mostly with backend focus using Java but also numerous other programming languages. In 2012 I started looking into mobile development out of curiousity, and began building an iOS app in Objective-C just to learn the language, as well as the iOS platform and the whole Apple eco system. After only about three months of development I released my first version of Avocado Meal Planner on the App Store. And from there on I knew that I wanted to do more mobile development!
 |
| Avocado Meal Planner for iOS |
I didn't realize it back then because I had nothing to relate to, but it was actually quite a success right from the start with several hundreds of downloads each day! Unfortunately the first version wasn't all that good, so not many people wanted to pay for the full version. But just knowing that people all around the world were downloading and using my app was a huge boost for me to continue to build on it! Still today in 2016, Avocado Meal Planner is being downloaded and liked by many people although I haven't had much time lately to improve it. Keeping up with every new iOS version, API changes, Apple's design "requirements" and so on takes too much of an effort and takes away most of the fun of programming and inventing new features.
One of the most important things I learned from building my first app was that "going native" with Objective-C wasn't a very smart move. As the app grew with more features, tweaks, version patches and so on, it also became harder and harder to port to other languages and platforms. The Android version that I had in mind from the beginning has not even been started because of the immense workload I know will be required. However, today there have popped up several new hybrid frameworks that actually seem very good and easy to use. And most interesting of them all in my opinion is: React Native!
I've been playing around with React Native for a short while and I'm absolutely stunned about how intuitive and easy it feels to develop with this new, hyped Javascript-based framework. So I figured that the best way to learn it really well would be to convert Avocado Meal Planner into React Native. Starting with the iOS version I can still reuse many of the Objective-C parts as they are, and slowly work my way to a new cross-platform version of my app.
Besides Avocado, I've also taken a dive into the mobile game development world. Creating games is something that I've always loved because of all the creativity involved in it. Create your own world, invent new game mechanics, design cool characters. Anything is possible. You make the rules!
So in 2015 I decided to build my first mobile game. I evaluated the most common game development frameworks briefly before I decided to use Corona SDK, which seemed to be a good fit for the kind of simple 2D game I wanted to create. Although Corona SDK has its flaws, I must say that it was incredibly quick to get started with it, and learning the Lua language couldn't have been any easier. So after a few months of intense programming I released the game Dragonflies both for iOS and for Android. It was a huge disappointment.
 |
| Dragonflies - A tricky and innovative action puzzle game for iOS and Android |
The game itself I think is actually quite good, although probably too difficult for most people. The main problem is that I severly underestimated how hard it is to get visibility for your game in the App Store or on Google Play. Well, as a matter of fact I kinda knew this already, but didn't want it to be true I suppose. I knew I had to spend more time on marketing, building a community, a "buzz" and so forth. But the development itself took more time then expected, and by the time the game was finished I was so sick and tired of it that I just wanted to get it out there ASAP. Needless to say, it hasn't sold many copies up until today. But anyway, I got a game out there, and I learned some valuable and expensive lessons from it.
At the moment I'm back on the game development track with a new title. Once again using Corona SDK. Considering how much code I wrote for Dragonflies that can be reused it would be just plain stupid to start from scratch using some other framework. In just a few weeks I've come very far on this new phsyics puzzle game, which I will write more about soon.
In this blog I'll try to write down and share my thoughts, experiences and ideas for building both utility apps and games for mobile devices. Hope you'll enjoy it!
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