As I’ve been getting back into development for Hydrate (a water intake tracker for iOS), I’ve been thinking about the sort of representation of myself as a developer.
When I think of a great developer, they usually have a small number of apps. Sometimes they’re all at a really high standard, but most independent developers I see, have one or two main apps, and a few more fun ones.
I have been developing for iOS/macOS for quite a few years, and I have to say most of them are dead, stale, or heading in that direction. So it’s time for a clear out. This might not be a very interesting article, but I certainly think the act of me writing this, will aid in the process.
For some background information, here is the list of apps that I’ve made for iOS/macOS, and their current status.
| Name | Platform | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hydrate | iOS/watchOS | Available. | My current work-in-progress, a water intake tracker. |
| Pretty Regular Expressions | iOS/macOS | Available. | Regular expression tool for macOS/iOS. Very simple. |
| Pixels Sticker Pack | iOS | Available. | Some pixel art iMessage stickers! |
| AniMatchers | iPhone | Available. | Just a fun memory matching game, with cartoon animals. |
| Bill Splitter | iOS/watchOS | Available. | A super basic bill splitter. Mainly a small project so I could check out the watch SDK. |
| Qwiki | macOS | Available. | My wikipedia menu bar app, which is one of my best projects in my opinion, which I will hopefully update soon. |
| Tap Gap | iOS | Available. | A quick game for iOS, where you try and tap the screen when a line is between a certain gap. |
| Floppy Turd | iOS | Available. | An awful, but funny remake of Flappy Birds. It took a sunday morning to create, and that was where I left it. |
| TinyMe | iOS/macOS | Removed. | One of my first few apps, they used the goo.gl api to shorten longer links, but they aren’t an issue anymore. |
| Postie | macOS | Available. | I used to blog on Scriptogram, and this was a basic Markdown editor with publishing built in. The service has unfortunately shut down. |
| The Girlfriend Helper | iOS | Removed. | I think the first app I made. It was an app that suggested message you could send to your girlfriend depending on the event type. |
| Halloween FX | iOS | Removed. | Basic soundboard app, which also featured a timer so you could hide your phone and scare someone. |
| The Farm | iOS | Removed. | Even more basic soundboard app, just contained farm animals. |
| Bug Splatter | iOS | Removed. | This was a weird one, there’s multiple levels of bugs/difficulty, and the aim was to splat as many of them before they reached the end of the screen. |
| Whack | iOS | Removed. | A pretty simple whack-a-mole game, but with pixel art, and funny noises. |
| TextShot | macOS | Never made it. | This was a really fun project to work on, it was going to be an app where you could select a bunch of text, and it would generate a picture from it, even including multiple different styles. Sadly the MacBook I was using at the time died completely, and I wasn’t clever enough to think about source control back then. |
Okay, I didn’t actually know I already removed a few of these already. But there’s still some clearing out to do.
My aim is to have a small number of applications, that either are stable, and need hardly any maintenance, or ones that I can regularly keep updated, and are proven to be worthwhile.
So if you just take the apps I have available, there’s 9. Well one isn’t released yet, but it’s in progress.
- Hydrate
- Pretty Regular Expressions
- Pixels Sticker Pack
- AniMatchers
- Bill Splitter
- Qwiki
- Tap Gap
- Floppy Turd
- Postie
If I separate them into the groups I mentioned before, I’m left with this:
Maintainable Apps:
- Hydrate
- Qwiki
- Pretty Regular Expressions?
Minimal Effort/Stable Apps:
- Pixels Sticker Pack
- Tap Gap
Left over:
- AniMatchers
- Bill Splitter
- Floppy Turd
- Postie
That was pretty quick and easy, and it sort of represents what I already had in my head. Out of the four left over, they all have very good reasons why I don’t want to support them anymore. Low download numbers, super old code, and lack of interest to work on them again.
So, they’re be removed.
That leaves just five remaining apps, three I feel that are maintainable, and the other two are kind of eternal to an extent.
Of course Hydrate will stay, I mean I haven’t even released it, and it’s still in active development. Qwiki is stable, and my most popular app, so that will also stay.
Pretty Regular Expressions however was initially well taken, but I haven’t had any desire really to go back to it, and improve it. I will have a look at the code again, and hopefully I can add something to make the app even better soon.
Pixels Sticker Pack is a bunch of images, and I can’t see myself ever needing to update these. They’re fun, and I still enjoy using them!
That leaves Tap Gap, it’s a simple game, that still works fine. I’ll certainly make a few changes and support the iPhone X soon, but that is only a minor issue.
So the remaining apps, along with their pricing are:
| Name | Price |
|---|---|
| Hydrate | Not decided. |
| Qwiki | £2.99 |
| Pretty Regular Expressions (iOS/macOS) | £0.99 |
| Tap Gap | Free |
| Pixels Sticker Pack | Free |
Not a bad bunch!
I’ll be checking out a few of these projects today, and maybe even get thinking about the changes/updates I can make!
If you want to follow on with more detail, just follow me on twitter!