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Grandma’s Garden for kids, COMING SOON!
Monday, February 6th, 2012
We’ve just completed development on our newest iOS game for children, Grandma’s Garden! Now that the months of development are complete, I thought I’d post a few comments reflecting on what we’d like to accomplish with this game.
As a parent, I wanted to create a game that would engage and delight young children, while including rich educational content. I also wanted to select a theme that would generate positive emotions and atmosphere (e.g. love, positive words, fun in the outdoors), rather than the negative emotions and atmosphere (e.g. aggression, time pressure, inanimate objects) so-often-seen in games. My own children have enjoyed playing iOS games that include: 1) a variety of mini-games, 2) fun/charming characters, and 3) occasional unexpected events/rewards. On the other hand, they’ve been disappointed by games (often featuring a well-known licensed character) that have little depth or variety, include over-used features that have lost their newness (e.g. freehand coloring), or don’t stretch them either cognitively or emotionally. They don’t “connect” or “engage” with these characters or games.
Our goal for Grandma’s Garden has been to create a charming, lovable character who can guide children through learning activities in her garden. In the game, Grandma offers children LOTS of positive feedback (“You’re so smart!” “Excellent!” “Wonderful!, “You’re good at this!”, etc.) as they progress through each of the five mini-games. She also dances and claps and offers opportunities for children to select a prize from her bag and even to give her a kiss on the cheek. We hope that children will connect with Grandma and enjoy her warm charm while they learn letters, vegetable names, counting, colors, and shapes.
Grandma’s Garden has been submitted to the App Store and will be available soon! In the meantime, be sure to check out the game’s website, where you can get a sneak peak at features, a game trailer, and screenshots.
fairlady
Fairlady Media at Raleigh’s Game On Event
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011
August 29, 2011. Fairlady Media co-founders Connie and James Bossert were invited to demo Bust-A-Marble (for iPhone and iPad) at Monday night’s Raleigh Game On event. The event was held at The Hive above the Busy Bee in downtown Raleigh.
Raleigh Game On was a local event in which indie game developers united to show off their latest and greatest games. The local gaming community was invited to come check out the games, play them and decide who was the best in show. A variety of game platforms were represented, including PC, iOS, Android, WP7, Web, and Flash.
The list of indie developers and their games included:
Mighty Rabbit Studios – “Saturday Morning RPG” – Nostalgic Role Playing
Lab Rats Studio – “Muse” – Thriller (3rd person) Shooter
Lunar Workshop – “Digitanks” – Strategic Futuristic Tank War Sim
Galeforce Logic – “Atmospheric” – Ambient Music Experience
Spark Plug Games – “Aya Go” – Classic Board Game, “Codename: Taco” New Game Demo
Nakai Entertainment – “Ninja Hamster Rescue” – Cute Action
Fairlady Media – “Bust-A-Marble” – Color Match Puzzle
Raison d Etre Games – “Felix Lost in Time” – Physics Puzzle
Pangolin Games – “Annabelle” Puzzle Action Platformer
We Fiends – “Sushi Boy Thunder” Arcade Action Shooter
Bust-A-Marble was a big hit with the gamers at the event. Comments included “Wow, this is SO addictive!”, “I wish I had an iPhone!”, “Hang on, let me go get my girlfriend because she’s gonna love this game!”, and “Sorry I’m taking so long, I want to get a higher score!”
The winner of the show (by gamer votes) would walk away with the Ben G Russell Raleigh Game On trophy Cup. They will then be invited back to the next event to defend it against the other groups that will certainly have improved their games by then. After a very close vote, Bust-A-Marble came in second next to “Sushi Boy Thunder” by We Fiends. It was a great competition, and we’ll be ready to challenge the winners for the trophy next time!
fairlady
Fairlady Media Execs Enjoy Summer Days on Yacht
Tuesday, August 30th, 2011
Let’s face it, there has been a lot of work involved with developing, releasing, and maintaing the 12 popular Fairlady Media games on the App Store. Sometimes we need to take a break and enjoy the rewards that come with a flourishing business. This summer, company co-founders Connie and James invested in the restoration of a beautiful yacht to sail along the picturesque coastlines of North Carolina. Connie’s father, Charlie Garrett, took on the daunting task of refurbishing the weather-worn vessel and bringing it to a like-new gleam during the early months of summertime.
The project included new sail, rigging, and rub rail, extensive repairs to the exterior of the boat, sanding and varnishing of wooden parts, repainting, and many other repairs. “It was a labor of love,” said Charlie, when asked about the extensive work involved.
Upon project completion, the vessel was Christened “Fairlady” and set to sail on the Neuse River with Captain James at her helm. “We are looking forward to many summers of sailing adventures on this boat. It’s a great way to relax and take your mind off the pressures of business.” said James.
fairlady
Kids Learn With Whizzit 123 in iPads for Learning Program
Monday, June 27th, 2011
Our children’s counting game, Whizzit 123, is currently one of the apps being used to teach students with disabilities at Warringa Park School in Melbourne, Australia.
fairlady
Bust A Marble Takes Off on iPhone and iPod Touch
Thursday, March 17th, 2011
Bust A Marble is now available for free as a universal app on the App Store. When the game was originally released in November 2010 for iPad only, it soared to into the Top 25 with an average customer rating of 4.5 stars. The game had over 100,000 downloads in the first four weeks, leading us to begin development of the universal version of the popular game. Today we began marketing the game with a press release, Admob ads, Twitter, Facebook, and forum announcements, and most importantly, cross-promotion from other indie game developers. It’s been a fun day of watching the game climb the rankings. Right now, Bust A Marble is ranked as follows:
iPhone Top Free: 33
iPhone Games Free: 19
iPhone Action Games Free: 5
iPhone Puzzle Games Free: 4
iPad Top Free: 17
iPad Games Free: 6
iPad Action Games Free: 2
iPad Puzzle Games Free: 3
We owe a HUGE thank you to all of the members of the iOS community who have helped promote our games. And of course, we hugely appreciate our customers, who download and enjoy our games and give us great feedback and inspiration to improve our games.
fairlady
Indie iOS Dev Networking: Good Fun and Good Business
Tuesday, March 15th, 2011
Last year James and I attended the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco (March, 2010). As indie iOS developers, we weren’t really sure how much we’d get out of the conference. At that point, we’d had some moderate success on the App Store with our first free game, Spazzle (critter-whacking fun). It had had over a million downloads in 2009 and brought in enough ad revenue to support Fairlady Media as a part-time business. What could we learn at the conference to help us grow our business and build on our successes?
It’s important to note that, for us, GDC was a very expensive excursion… with plane tickets, plus hotel and meals and the conference pass, we’d be spending thousands of dollars. Plus, it would mean a week away from our work. So the question we had was, “What will we gain from this?” Sure, GDC offers great workshops, tutorials, and sessions on game design and development. But in addition to that, now we can see that GDC 2010 was the start of forming a great network of friends and colleagues in a rapidly changing market. This network has helped us stay afloat while so many developers are struggling for visibility on the App Store. Attending GDC 2011 allowed us to spend a bit more time with these really creative and talented developers, and it’s inspired me to encourage others to create or join networks of their own.
Benefits of Indie Networks
- Alpha and beta testing. Other devs can be a great resource for beta testing… they know what is possible and what has already been done. They also know how to describe how to replicate that bug in your app!
- Cross promotion. Apps can be promoted in other apps through ads or in-game news, or on websites. Everyone benefits from cross-promotion… when one app gets into the Top 25, it has a lot of visibility and can promote other apps. Plus, companies like Linkshare allow devs to benefit from putting links to the App Store into their apps. This week, we’re launching the iPhone version of our newest game, Bust-A-Marble, and it will be cross-promoted in several other successful games. When we have a large audience for that game, we can return the favor to another developer.
- News. Are the rankings frozen or whacky on the App Store today? When is the next iOS beta coming out? How’s that new iPad2? You’ll be the first to know about the news that affects your business.
- Tips. An indie network can share everything from code debugs and marketing to great contractors for sound, music, artwork, and code.
- Friendships. It’s great fun to meet other devs in person; often, you’ll have more in common than just App Store strategizing. We’ve found that the members of our group have a rich mix of personalities and experiences, and we’ve had great conversations about everything from kids and travel to home-brewing beer!
Risks of Indie Networks
- Competition within the network could lead to “stealing ideas” or other undesirable business practices.
- Too many people and ideas could create too much “noise” to find valuable information.
Some Strategies for Creating a Successful Network
Thus far, we have found that the benefits outweigh the potential risks. Our advice to new indie devs? Get connected! A few ways to connect:
- Make regular posts on Facebook, Twitter, discussion forums, blogs, etc.
- Attend conferences and seek out other devs with similar apps.
- Attend local meetups.
- Tell your friends and family that you’re an iOS developer; often they know someone else who is a developer too.
- Send replies to promising “cold call” emails… often there are opportunities for marketing and advertising that you have not yet thought of.
- Consider joining more formal groups such as the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) or cross-promotion companies.
James and I are not the organizers of our group, but as we’ve participated in the group we’ve begun to learn what works. If you are organizing a group of indie developers, consider the following strategies for success: 1) create a listserv or group forum to share ideas, 2) select new members carefully to make sure they will add value to the group, 3) set up guidelines for sharing information (e.g. NDAs, frequency and type of posts), 4) plan to meet in person at conferences and meetups, 5) keep the group small enough so that you’ll be able to get to know the people in the group well (less than 50 seems ideal), and 6) share ideas freely to encourage others in the group to do so as well.
Oh, and by the way, if you see us at the next GDC or 360iDev, come on over and say hi.
- Connie, aka fairlady
Fairlady Media is hiring!
Wednesday, February 16th, 2011
Job Opportunity: iOS Game Developer
Fairlady Media is seeking a highly talented iOS (iPhone/iPad/Mac) Developer. The successful candidate will have great development skills and will also be someone who is a strategic thinker and can make sound technical decisions. The successful candidate will be a self-starter, highly organized, have excellent communication skills and be capable of handling multiple projects on tight deadlines.
Sound Right Up Your Alley? Read On…
Required Qualifications:
- Proven experience with one or more apps published in the App Store
- Expert knowledge of Objective-C, Cocoa, and UIKit
- Entrepreneurial excitement, a positive attitude and a hunger to get things done
- Strong communicator, self-motivated, reliable, and eager to share your excitement with our other developers
- Ability to write good, clean code and to work from and maintain existing codebases
Bonus Skills:
- Familiarity with Cocos2d
- Leadership experience to help bring innovative mobile solutions to our clients
- Gaming background, excited about making and playing games
- Android development experience
- Excellent CSS, JavaScript, and HTML skills
- Experience with other game-development skills, such as graphics, sound, and marketing
This is a flexible position with opportunities for contracting, part-time, and full-time work.
To apply for this position: Send resume to “careers@fairladymedia.com” with “iOS Developer” in the subject line.
Located near Raleigh, North Carolina, Fairlady Media, Inc. (http://fairladymedia.com) is a privately held company founded in 2009 by husband and wife team James and Constance Bossert. Leveraging their longtime experience in development, marketing and UI design concepts, the company produces and publishes interactive media for a variety of technology platforms, with a focus on specializing in the development of mobile games for the iPhone platform. Fairlady Media has created 11 games for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch with over a million downloads and counting.
Someone Knows How to Bust a Marble!
Friday, November 26th, 2010
Congratulations to player “benben&huaihuai” for being the first person to solve Bust A Marble for iPad, with an amazing score of 80,030!
Way to go!
Bust A Marble for iPad Tops the Charts
Thursday, November 25th, 2010
A few days ago we released our newest game for iPad, Bust A Marble. This free game is an easy-to-learn (but difficult to master) puzzler in which the player connects long lines of like-colored marbles to remove them from the board. The response to this game has been outstanding!
Immediately after launch, we watched the game rise in the App Store rankings. By the end of the second day, Bust A Marble was in the top 10 games in over 20 countries, including the United States. It was listed as the number 16 App in the App Store (right ahead of The Weather Channel App!). Shortly thereafter, Apple featured the game in Top Game Center Games, New And Noteworthy Games (in both the Action and Strategy Games categories).
And now for the numbers. How many downloads are needed for an App to land in the Top 10 games?
Day 1: 69 downloads
Day 2: 6,809 downloads
Day 3: 12,819 downloads (Number 8 Game, Number 16 App)
Day 4: 12,591 downloads (Number 8 Game, Number 14 App)
Bust A Marble is a free game with in-game advertisements. We can see that customers are playing and replaying the game based on the number of ad impressions. A new ad is shown every 60 seconds during gameplay. Thus far, Bust A Marble has served over 754,000 ad impressions!
We’ve also been pleased with the great customer feedback we’ve gotten for this game! Here are a few quotes from App Store customer reviews:
“One play just isn’t enough. Love it.”
“Give it a try, what have you got to lose?”
“I’m so addicted to it.”
Thank you to everyone who has downloaded the game! If you haven’t yet given it a try, you can Download it Here.
We hope you enjoy it. As always, if you have suggestions or feedback, please email support(at)fairladymedia.com so we can continue to improve the game.
fairlady
Our spookiest game, GHOSTS! is now live on the App Store
Saturday, October 2nd, 2010
It’s the season for scary! We’re very excited about the release of our new game, GHOSTS!, just in time for Halloween.
The premise for this game is simple… re-create the creepy feeling that you get when you’re fumbling through the dark with a flashlight after hearing a strange noise. Scary movies play on this scenario all the time, and we thought it would be fun to build a spooky game around the idea.
In this game, you hunt in the dark for ghosts that are approaching across a creepy landscape during a thunderstorm. Fortunately, you have a super-charged flashlight that allows you to zap the ghosts with a lightning bolt before they enter your home. There are twenty levels in the game. In between levels there are occasional fast-paced bonus rounds in which you defeat five ghostly enemies as they pop up from behind tombstones in a graveyard.
Achieve high scores and power-up your weapons to earn the ultimate ghost-fighting tool… a flame-thrower. This new weapon gives the game a whole new appeal as the ghosts begin to come in large waves.
We hope you enjoy this new spooky title, and have a great Halloween while you’re at it!
fairlady
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