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Show HN: I built a tool I wanted to have, but didn’t exist

madebypixelate.com

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Re: Show HN: I built a tool I wanted to have, but didn’t exist

#3

Post by mcobrien »

Great idea! I signed up and will definitely use it for my next app.

A few initial thoughts:

* You refer to "games" throughout the site, but the site is (almost) just as good for non-game apps. A simple word change might make non-game developers like me feel a little more at home.

* It's a big leap from free to €99 + VAT. Indie iOS developers don't pay VAT (it's taken by Apple on top of our 30% cut), so a VAT-inclusive price is easier. I'm more likely to pay €9/month unlimited or, even better, €5 for up to three apps.

* How are average scores calculated? This sounds interesting but there isn't much detail on it at the moment.

One last thing, is the "- username" text in the top left a Google+ joke? I like it :)

Re: Show HN: I built a tool I wanted to have, but didn’t exist

#4

Post by nedwin »

This is incredible.

One route for this would have been to make it so it could be used across any industry but by sticking to games you've made it incredibly valuable in that niche.

Keen to see how it goes and if you adapt it to other niches (I know a whole heap of people in the music industry who would kill for something like this).

Re: Show HN: I built a tool I wanted to have, but didn’t exist

#5

Post by pixelate »

mcobrien wrote: post #3

Great idea! I signed up and will definitely use it for my next app. A few initial thoughts: * You refer to "games" throughout the site, but the site is (almost) just as good for non-game apps. A simple word change might make non-game developers like me feel a little more at home. * It's a big leap from free to €99 + VAT. Indie iOS developers don't pay VAT (it's taken by Apple on top of our 30% cut), so a VAT-inclusiv…

Thanks for your feedback!

There are some things about it that are games-specific, such as the festival calendar and the sites that Promoter is crawling for press mentions. It could be expanded to non-game apps in the future, but I wanted to start with the area I have most expertise in.

The VAT pricing is due to the tax rules we have in Europe, but I can see that it adds noise to the price point. Monthly payment is something I'd want to add, but I wanted to keep it as simple as possible starting out.

For the average scores you enter the scores from the reviews to Promoter (e.g. 7 out of 10). Promoter will then calculate the average of all reviews.

Not sure what you mean with the Google+ joke? ;)

Re: Show HN: I built a tool I wanted to have, but didn’t exist

#6

Post by pixelate »

nedwin wrote: post #4

This is incredible. One route for this would have been to make it so it could be used across any industry but by sticking to games you've made it incredibly valuable in that niche. Keen to see how it goes and if you adapt it to other niches (I know a whole heap of people in the music industry who would kill for something like this).

Thanks! Yes, the music industry would be another niche that you could spin it off, but I still think you'd need to target the needs of that niche to make it really work well.

Re: Show HN: I built a tool I wanted to have, but didn’t exist

#7

Post by mcobrien »

pixelate wrote: post #5
mcobrien wrote: post #3

Great idea! I signed up and will definitely use it for my next app. A few initial thoughts: * You refer to "games" throughout the site, but the site is (almost) just as good for non-game apps. A simple word change might make non-game developers like me feel a little more at home. * It's a big leap from free to €99 + VAT. Indie iOS developers don't pay VAT (it's taken by Apple on top of our 30% cut), so a VAT-inclusiv…

Thanks for your feedback! There are some things about it that are games-specific, such as the festival calendar and the sites that Promoter is crawling for press mentions. It could be expanded to non-game apps in the future, but I wanted to start with the area I have most expertise in. The VAT pricing is due to the tax rules we have in Europe, but I can see that it adds noise to the price point. Monthly payment is so…

I guess the VAT situation must be different in other parts of Europe. I'm in Ireland and prices are usually advertised as ex-VAT if customers have a VAT bill they're paying themselves (because they charge VAT). That isn't the case for Irish devs which is why it's noisy for me.

One other thing I noticed: I suddenly got lots of emails from promoter because the search terms I used were too broad. I have a google alert "switch multi user browser ipad" which works well, but promoter emails me every time any of these terms appears. I couldn't find a way to correctly match articles containing all those terms (is that possible?), so I had to disable it by entering a random string in the search field.

Re: Show HN: I built a tool I wanted to have, but didn’t exist

#9

Post by pixelate »

mcobrien wrote: post #7
pixelate wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for your feedback! There are some things about it that are games-specific, such as the festival calendar and the sites that Promoter is crawling for press mentions. It could be expanded to non-game apps in the future, but I wanted to start with the area I have most expertise in. The VAT pricing is due to the tax rules we have in Europe, but I can see that it adds noise to the price point. Monthly payment is so…

I guess the VAT situation must be different in other parts of Europe. I'm in Ireland and prices are usually advertised as ex-VAT if customers have a VAT bill they're paying themselves (because they charge VAT). That isn't the case for Irish devs which is why it's noisy for me. One other thing I noticed: I suddenly got lots of emails from promoter because the search terms I used were too broad. I have a google alert "…

I'm based in Sweden, so you'd only pay VAT if you're located within the EU and do not have a valid VAT number or if you're located in Sweden.

The syntax is different from Google Alerts (see the little grey text above the text field for the search terms). For your app I'd try "multi user browser" without commas.

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