Falling Balls for Windows Phone 7 is Live!

When I decided to learn Windows Phone 7 programming, deciding what to code up was a no-brainer. Falling Balls! I got most of the game done before I had a device. Then got a loaner from Microsoft and shortly thereafter got my own Samsung Focus. I love the phone. Really grows on you. Anyway, with a device, I was able to wrap up the accelerometer code and tweak the game play and such and get the thing ready to go. It took a bit of study to find out all the stuff you need for submission – name, description, keywords, various sized icons, screenshots, etc. But finally got it all wrapped up and pushed the button on Sunday night.

This afternoon, just two days later, I got an email saying the game was ready for download. It took a few more hours for it to appear in the store, but it’s now live, just about 48 hours from submission. That was really refreshing!

When you submit a WP7 app, you have the option to allow a trial download. Microsoft highly recommends this. There are APIs to test whether or not the app is running as a trial or full version, so you can enable / disable various parts of the game. There is also a very simple call you can make that will take the user straight to your app’s page in the marketplace so they can buy the full version. Microsoft did an absolutely amazing job on this workflow. Compare that to the iOS platform where it is forbidden to have any “demo” or “trial” versions of apps or have any part of any UI disabled, and the complexity of making “light” and “full” versions of apps, or implementing in-app purchases. For WP7 it’s one method call to see if you’re in trial mode, conditionals wherever you want to disable stuff, and one call to send them off to buy your app. Brilliantly simple.

So Falling Balls WP7 is largely identical to the iOS version, with an easy mode, a medium mode and a hard mode where the balls come from both directions. The trial gives you easy mode. For 99 cents, you get the other two. We’ll see how that goes. No ads at this time, but I might look into that later. The platform isn’t as big this time, so I don’t expect to make a ton of money, but hopefully it’ll do something.

If you have the Zune software installed, this should take you right to the app: http://social.zune.net/redirect?type=phoneApp&id=b81b9cef-78f5-df11-9264-00237de2db9e. Otherwise, just search the marketplace.

The first review is in already: 5 stars, “So much fun!!! Love it”. 🙂

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8 Responses to Falling Balls for Windows Phone 7 is Live!

  1. Karl says:

    Congrats,
    please keep us updated on the developments. The API Sounds really cool but if nobody plays your game it’s senseless.. Some comparing statistics between your iPhone and Win7 sales would be great, in a month or so.

    • keith says:

      Well, people are already playing it. I’m not going to post stat comparisons. It’s obviously going to be less than iOS. But so what? Does everything have to be a zero sum game?

      • Karl says:

        no definitely not. but if you wanted to make a living out of this it’s not trivial. 😉

        • keith says:

          I can count on one hand the developers I know who “make a living” on their own apps. And I’m not one of them. The real money is in having the skills to make apps for others. And to do that you need to know the current technologies. The apps I make I do for fun and to learn, and if I make a few bucks, or many bucks, that’s great.

  2. Now that falling balls is on there, a Windows 7 Phone might be worth getting.

  3. felix says:

    The iPhone app market is totally over-saturated. Seems like a great time to get into a newly emerging market. WinPhone 7 is going to be huge IMO. Amazing as it may seem, there are plenty of people who have yet to buy a smart phone. Choose your flavor!

  4. tony says:

    Might be best to capture a video of your work in action on the phone… so we get a clue of what it is 😉

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