NEED MORE SPEED! Pain of mobile app development Case: Virittäjät mobile game 11.6.2014 Pasi Kovanen, Vincit Oy pasi.kovanen@vincit.fi / 050 374 9132

2007 103 #1 #8

TUNING

STEERING GAS BRAKE

3D GRAPHICS

DIFFERENT CARS

IN GAME CHAT

SHARE TO FACEBOOK SOCIAL MEDIA WALL

SEVERAL CIRCUITS

PC GAME MOBILE GAME

HIGH SCORE LIST

USER PROFILES

PAID & FREE

ADS

SPONSORS

IN APP PURCHASES GEARS

WEATHER

FB GAME

MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT

TUNING

STEERING GAS BRAKE

3D GRAPHICS

DIFFERENT CARS

IN GAME CHAT

SHARE TO FACEBOOK SOCIAL MEDIA WALL

SEVERAL CIRCUITS

PC GAME MOBILE GAME

HIGH SCORE LIST

USER PROFILES

PAID & FREE

ADS

SPONSORS

IN APP PURCHASES GEARS

WEATHER

FB GAME

TUNING

STEERING GAS BRAKE

3D GRAPHICS

DIFFERENT CARS

IN GAME CHAT

SHARE TO FACEBOOK SOCIAL MEDIA WALL

SEVERAL CIRCUITS

PC GAME MOBILE GAME

HIGH SCORE LIST

USER PROFILES PAID & FREE

ADS

SPONSORS

IN APP PURCHASES GEARS

WEATHER

FB GAME

• A new car is available each week • All cars are driven in Alastaro circuit • Fastest driver of each week wins a prize • Fastest driver of all 12 cars wins the main prize

Free game: 10 races / week Paid game: unlimited

GAME RULES

FAIL FAST

WINDOWS PHONE 8

TEST EARLY

NODE.JS – MIKÄ JA MIKSI Jari Huilla, Passionate Software Developer

REALITY BITES...

Building the application requires

WP PAIN #1

Absurd number of certification requirements

WP PAIN #2

Marketplace technical support is open Monday - Friday 16:00 – 04:00

WP PAIN #3

WP PAIN #4

Review process can take up to 5 days, and is repeated for all updates. No way to expedite review.

WP PAIN #5

Administration of the app can not be shared with several users

WP PAIN #6

Building the application requires

IOS PAIN #1

Absurd number of certification requirements

IOS PAIN #2

Review process can take up to 14 days, and is repeated for all updates – however there is a way to request expedited review

IOS PAIN #3

• No review process • Publishing delay only a few hours • Good management console • Easy to add new administrative users • Easy to share and deploy apps

ANDROID IS PRETTY PAIN FREE

BUILD PROCESS

• Build free and paid WP8 apps on Windows 8, submit to Windows Marketplace, wait for review

• Build free and paid iOS apps on OSX, submit to App Store, wait for review

• Build free and paid Android versions on Windows 7, upload to Google Play

BUILD PROCESS

D-DAY: 11.3.2014, 21:00

Free and paid apps sent to iOS certification

27.2. D-DAY -12

Free and paid apps sent to Windows Phone Marketplace certification

28.2. D-DAY -11

Snow shoeing CEO gets call from Symantec, India

Windows Phone certification starts... again

3.3. D-DAY -8

iOS apps accepted!

4.3. D-DAY -7

Windows Phone free version accepted

6.3. D-DAY -5

Success! Your app or in-app product was successfully published. Customers will be able to see it in a few hours.

Uploaded Android versions to Google Play

6.3. D-DAY -5

Windows Phone paid version failed!

7.3. D-DAY -4

PEPTIC ULCER TIME!

Fixed and resubmitted WP8 paid version

8.3. D-DAY -3

WP8 paid version accepted, but not yet installable

11.3. D-DAY, 9:30

Success! Your app or in-app product was successfully published. Customers will be able to see it in a few hours.

WP8 paid version still not available at the marketplace

11.3. D-DAY, 15:00

WP8 paid version finally ready for download – 4 hours before start of the new season!

11.3. D-DAY, 17:00

START REVIEW PROCESS ASAP

Lesson

Bug found in management of sponsor ads. Fix process: • Build free and paid WP8 apps on Windows 8,

submit to Windows Marketplace, wait for review

• Build free and paid iOS apps on OSX, submit to App Store, wait for review

• Build free and paid Android versions on Windows 7, upload to Google Play

13.3. D-DAY +2

MINIMIZE NUMBER OF DIFFERENT VERSIONS!

Lesson

Players start to report that saving high scores fail • Cookie was set to expire at 14 days • Quick fix to back end

25.3. D-DAY +14, 21:30

Purchases of paid version below expectations • Decision was made to make the full version free

to keep sponsors happy

8.4. D-DAY +28

AVOID PAID APPS

Lesson

ANALYTICS

REPORTS

INSTALLATION STATISTICS

HIGH SCORE LIST

COMMENTS

Every Sunday 20:00

SEASON 4 NOW ON SUB TV

• Continuous delivery is not possible with iOS / WP8 mobile apps • Android is much better

• App review process can be arbitrary • Start review process ASAP to ensure all

formalities are done • Windows Phone Marketplace is poor • People were not willing to pay 1,50 € for a game • Unity rocks! • Avoid having several versions of the same app

• Prefer in app purchases

SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS

THANK YOU! pasi.kovanen@vincit.fi

Try it yourself: www.mtv.fi/virittajat/