In a nutshell, Apple rejected the most recent set of updates recently. The rep from the App Store was very clear about what they needed and wanted and frankly we totally agree with what they have pointed out. I will say that I wish it didn’t take them so long to let us know, but regardless, we now have a very clear direction for getting in the changes that Apple needs and that you guys have been asking for.

The bottom line is that the next release of DM’s Tracker is obviously being bumped out a little further than we ever expected. The silver lining for this is that we will totally have a polished product on the way. We are ready to discuss a release date yet since at least part of that is out of our control and up to Apple, but when it’s getting close you’ll see us start tweeting and posting on Facebook more about it (that’s right – we have a Facebook Page!).

We are on our way to making DM’s Tracker a fun and more usable tool so just hang in there a bit longer. It’s on the way.

The original idea for the app focused on helping Dungeon Masters keep an idea of whose current turn is it, and an overview of the player’s current state. I was using a spreadsheet in my own weekly game, and I felt like there had to be a way to make the same data smaller and more handy. The spreadsheet wasn’t replacing anything, it was just summarizing our data and keeping it all in one place. We are all using iplay4e.com (hey Andrew!) to keep track of our character stats. And dndinsider.com is invaluable for setting up encounters for that night. So all in all, we are a pretty electronics-heavy group. We tend to decide to use tech to help us when we find something that lets the numbers get crunched quickly and easily, so then we can spend more time in the game. It struck me that a DM’s helper would be a great idea for the iphone.

I drew up some wireframes and started going around to gaming stores and conventions and talking with people about my idea. Everybody was enthusiastic and eager. I began the project and started moving forward. At first I assumed it would be nothing more than a table sorted by initiative with the ability to track hit points. Based on play testing and feedback we realized we needed so much more. 4e is a big system with a lot of nuance. It isn’t easy to get everything in there, but we tried to focus on the things we knew that we wanted and needed. Even still, we couldn’t get everything in there and our launch date kept slipping. Finally I remembered my mantra from the web days, release early – release often. Plus, I wanted to get it out before GenCon.

So I wrapped it up and sent it off to the App Store and we’ve been running around like crazy people ever since, writing a user guide, responding to feedback, planning next releases, and working on our next app.

Then we got approved and started getting great reviews and functionality requests. Our early adopters are just the best. They are really helping us see what we got right and what still needs some work. We’ve had only one “meh” review (hi Theo!). Thankfully, a lot of the suggestions the reviewer wants are coming in future versions. While we want everybody to love our app and tell all their friends, it is also important that we know what people feel like we could do better.

Despite our testing, which we thought was pretty thorough, one of our users found a bug in our first week – so frustrating, when we thought we’d tested everything. We fixed it within hours of when it was reported, and that bug fix version has been sent to Apple for approval.

We knew there might be mixed reviews, because it happens to everyone, but we’re really thrilled to have 5-star average rating right now in the App Store, which is great for a 1.0 version. A huge “Thank you!” to everyone who reviewed.

In summary, we know that this product is going to be a “long tail” product for us, which means that it will have a small volume of sales, but keep selling a few every day for a long time. We made DM’s Tracker for the love of the game, and hoping to give back to a community that we really cherish.

We are trying to offset our costs, but it will take a long time to accomplish that. So we are working on new apps as well and hoping that we can continue to please people with our little apps.