Show HN: Monster Coloring Book, my first App just launched. What do you think?

The site design at least is very beautiful, congratulations! I especially like all of the extra content you've added, the store, the "freebies", etc. My only idea to make it even better would be eventually writing some kind of subtle animation into the monster, or alternating the monster for different sections of the site.

To pay HN back for all the feedback and buzz, consider writing up a blog post about the process, and how sales and marketing go. I, at least, would love to read about it and learn from your experience.

Great idea!

I have a gentleman who is into this sort of thing and I've played through most of AppStore apps with him. They fall into exactly two categories - shorter games that are shallow in their content with low re-playability and longer, more elaborate games for older kids. And I can tell you with certainty that 3-5 year olds is an under-served market.

With regards to the app (the paid version of it) - it looks promising, but the test subject is napping. Three things though -

(a) the app is lagging heavily on iPad 1. For example, clicking on the ? icon scrolls the page up in jerky increments, it looks like the app is really struggling.

(b) the music selection is a no-go. For one, I doubt the classics will fly with my kid, and for two - it will most certainly annoy the hell out of my wife and myself.

(c) the "purchase more" hooks - I appreciate why you have them, but as a rule of thumb I will do my best to avoid any apps that have in-app purchases. Having for-a-fee options always leads to "what is that?", "why can't I press this button?" and so on and on. This is a not so subtle form of parent arms' twisting by an app developer and I as a parent passionately hate it.

On a more constructive note regarding (c) - add a single option in a config menu "hide all related to real money" or let me buy ALL you optionals at once (full unlock) or explain exactly how the accumulation of monsterbucks works. Nothing else would do. Let me reiterate how I really really don't like my child being used as a leverage for milking me for follow-up purchases.

a) Yup, I have same experience here on iPad 1. b) I disagree with this, but my kid is 3 years old. I thought the music selection was playful and best of all, not annoying when played ad infinitum. c) I bought the paid version thinking that it would come with all the extras. I don't like in-app purchases in paid apps, and I think this should have been an option in the free version only.

With that in mind, I would also suggest that you provide a way to earn monster bucks for free, through offerwalls. Disclaimer and shameless self-promotion: I work for Tapjoy, that does this: https://www.tapjoy.com

Thanks so much for the feedback. Always nice to get a counterpoint to the sunshine and roses you hear from friends, family and the like.

Regarding:

a) Performance. Very disappointing to hear that you are experiencing lag. We did extensive device testing on iPad 1, and while we can't get the app to perform like it does on iPad 2 (SJ wasn't kidding about 7x graphical performance on the iPad 2), we did think we had gotten it to a stable, smooth operating state for the original iPad. Sounds like that's not the case for you. Would you be willing to let us know whether you downloaded the free or the paid version? And what version of iOS are you running? We'd love to address any issues you're seeing, but any further info you can provide is very helpful for any fine tuning.

b) Music. It's a funny thing, very much a matter of taste. My kids (age 2,4) love the music. In fact, the three of us had a huge dance party to the Brahms piece from the app to celebrate launch. Sorry it's not your thing. We would have loved to include some music from Philip Glass, but we couldn't work out the licensing. Any suggestions on what you would like to hear?

c) In-App Purchase. Very familiary with your sentiment regarding IAP. That said, the freemium model seems here to stay - see for example: http://blog.flurry.com/bid/67748/Consumers-Spend-Average-of-... And while there is a (vocal) group of folks that don't like this model, there are lots of people out there that are OK with it - and this is the market we've chosen to serve, in part because they pay. That said, for those parents out there that really dislike IAP, Apple does offer the ability to disable it from the device settings. This was enough for us, but if we continue to get this kind of feedback, we can relook at it.

Finally, I'm assuming that you don't go to carnivals, stores, malls, or anywhere else with your kids where they might be tempted to ask you for more of something that they like? Sorry for the snark with this last comment, but it's hard to hear complaints about asking for money for our hard work as anything other than a devaluation of the work itself. Parents don't blink at 19.99 for a new Lightning McQueen toy, but asking for half that amount for something of significantly greater entertainment value via IAP is somehow wrong? I struggle to get my head around that. But perhaps more of the community here can help me make sense of that POV?

Again, thanks for all the feedback, both positive and negative. Take my response with a grain of salt - there's a good chunk of my blood, sweat and tears in this baby..hard to detach from the criticism..