So about a month ago we were running our “10 days ’til block’d” count down blog post event thing where we posted about a different aspect of the Block’d development each day in anticipation of the launch on 7 - 7 - 14. . . But then Block’d! didn’t come out we just kinda stopped posting stuff . . . (although to be fair, Austin did post about the delay and then the release and then the first update)
So we’ve decided that we are going to try much harder to keep this blog updated with news about the minor and major updates we are bringing to Block’d (and the other projects we are working on), along with other stuff we find interesting (maybe some game reviews or a look at the new iPhone or . . . who knows). See, one of the good things about not having a lot of people reading this is that when I say “we are going to keep the blog updated" people aren’t going to remember that this is probably the third or fourth time I’ve said that. But I digress. Let’s take this back to Block’d!
First things first, If you haven’t downloaded it yet go do it now. It’s completely free so you have no excuse to not at least give it a try. Secondly, I guess I can give you a recap of what happened (if you haven’t already read Austin’s posts). So basically what it all comes down to is that we didn’t give ourselves enough time. We were a little rushed submitting to try and get it released on the 7 - 7 - 14 deadline. When we finally did get it submitted it took a week for Apple to tell us that we were missing one freaking icon, and we were already behind our scheduled release by two days. We resubmitted with the proper icon and after about another week we had success! But then things started breaking. The ads weren’t working, the Facebook share button wasn’t working, there was a wired delay in one of the animations that was only happening on the 5s. . . It was clear that we needed a quick 1.0.1 version to address some of these issues. So we started on that and within a couple days we were submitting the update to fix most of the major issues we found in the first release. And that pretty much brings us to where Block’d! is today.
Right now it’s in version 1.0.1 which means pretty much all the little bugs we found on release day were fixed. We fixed the ads and fixed the Facebook sharing button. Although with this version there is still a delay in the animation on the 5s device. However, we actually just fixed that issue yesterday so we will be pushing a 1.0.2 update pretty soon here with some other minor but fixes. Additionally we are working on a 1.1 update which will include a new level group with 30 new levels, a new color scheme, and a bunch of other new features that we’re still discussing. To try and avoid the problems we had last time we are planning on releasing this major update sometime late September or early October depending on how things go. One of us will post about some of the new features we are thinking about adding in 1.2 but I think this post is long enough as it is.
So yeah. It’s always an experience submitting to the App Store but I think we learned some good lessons from all of it. We're moving forward with bug fixes and content updates for Block’d! along with some other side projects, so keep checking back for more updates and other fun posts
As always, thanks for reading
-Matt.