Great Minds Think Different

So I’ve actually been pretty heavily involved in iPhone development since the SDK was released to developers. I’ve taught a class on iPhone development and worked on an iPhone app for Apple. However, my debut into the App Store has waited until today.

The App Store is a potentially great idea gone a bit wrong. There’s definitely some excellent work in there, but it’s often swamped by an ocean of 99-cent garbage. And what’s worse, a developer can make a good bit of money by writing one of these 99-cent garbage apps, like a fart noise app or a flashlight.

So being the cynic and lover of money that I am, I decided to get in on that. I decided that one weekend, I would sit down and crank out some piece of crap in a few hours and sell it for 99 cents.

I wrote Tap The Dot in 3 hours and 14 minutes; I timed myself. It’s a game, for a rather loose definition of the word “game”. The basic gameplay mechanic is this: the app puts a dot on screen. You tap it. Then the app puts another dot on screen. You tap it. Repeat.

It’s now available on the App Store for 99 cents:

Tap The Dot

My initial aim is to recoup the cost of the iPhone Developer Program ($99). If I make more than that, then joy for me. Stay tuned.