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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

#21

Post by guyht »

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…

Is it only for iOS, or will it work for Mac App Store too?

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

#22

Post by mtogo »

jasonkester wrote: post #14

It always makes me smile to see a submission like this. - Solves an actual problem that people actually have. - Charges money to solve that problem. Without apology or explanation. My advice to anybody here who doesn't yet have a product out there: Do what this guy did. Build something small that people will pay for. My advice to anybody here who's currently building one of the four dozen photo tweeting services/Face…

> My advice to anybody here who's currently building one of the four dozen photo tweeting services/Facebook cookie cleaners/thing-that-fixes-the-css-on-hackernews's that get submitted here every day: Stop.

Hi. I rather enjoy making little css-mess-withers and other things that may not be quite as profitable as this. We all have things we enjoy doing, and I'm going to keep doing the things i enjoy doing.

So thanks for the unsolicited advice, but I think I'll survive without it.

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

#23

Post by MrMike »

robjohnson wrote: post #11

As an iOS developer, I can say that I agree with the statement that this would be beneficial for non-game apps as well. As for the strategy, I would highly recommend you read "Business Model Generation" if you want to flush out this idea a bit more. It seems like you're on the right track, but maybe need to clarify a few points. Lastly, have you considered going with a monthly subscription based service? Possibly eve…

* recurly.com

See also: Spreedly, CheddarGetter, Chargify, Vindicia, Zuora

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

#24

Post by rokhayakebe »

jasonkester wrote: post #14

It always makes me smile to see a submission like this. - Solves an actual problem that people actually have. - Charges money to solve that problem. Without apology or explanation. My advice to anybody here who doesn't yet have a product out there: Do what this guy did. Build something small that people will pay for. My advice to anybody here who's currently building one of the four dozen photo tweeting services/Face…

Your advice is only half right.

Older businessmen know something the internet generation doesn't. You need one business as your cash cow which will allow you to toy with other businesses.

So yes build something small that people will pay for, or find a way to get passive income. Now that you have that, you have all the freedom in the world to build yet another photo sharing app that may get you $100M.

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

#25

Post by nedwin »

pixelate wrote: post #6
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.

I think your product is probably 90% of the way there to being relevant for the music industry. It would appeal to music industry publicists, labels, marketing companies, artists etc etc.

I'm sure there is plenty of gas in the tank for the gaming industry!

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

#26

Post by benologist »

Nice work. Tweeted it to all my game dev followers for you.

Generalize it to non-iOS games too - for instance Newgrounds, Kongregate, Armor Games scores and Jay Is Games reviews for Flash devs. In the Flash side of casual games you have major portals (like those mentioned) who license/produce games in significant volume and can't track that stuff unless they want to spend all day in Google.

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

#27

Post by rfrey »

penetrarthur wrote: post #19

Its gonna take me 5 hours to make this app so it suites my needs and one more day to make it usable for everyone. Basically you are selling the time it took you to add all the blogs to your search engine + the CPU time it takes to parse the results.

You're in an excellent position to compete then! Looking forward to seeing your product.

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

#28

Post by kenferry »

This looks very cool, and I will just add that I don't think it's specific to even apps at all. It's relevant for anything that would get talked about on blogs, twitter, etc.

I have my own annoying aggregation stuff set up, and I'd love to be able to use what you've done instead. I can use google alerts for a lot of stuff, but I have not automated checking twitter search results.

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

#29

Post by lwalley »

MrMike wrote: post #23
robjohnson wrote: post #11

As an iOS developer, I can say that I agree with the statement that this would be beneficial for non-game apps as well. As for the strategy, I would highly recommend you read "Business Model Generation" if you want to flush out this idea a bit more. It seems like you're on the right track, but maybe need to clarify a few points. Lastly, have you considered going with a monthly subscription based service? Possibly eve…

* recurly.com See also: Spreedly, CheddarGetter, Chargify, Vindicia, Zuora

Thanks for including Chargify.

--- Lance Walley, co-founder, Chargify

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

#30

Post by MrMike »

lwalley wrote: post #29
MrMike wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* recurly.com See also: Spreedly, CheddarGetter, Chargify, Vindicia, Zuora

Thanks for including Chargify. --- Lance Walley, co-founder, Chargify

Have you considered a Chargify Lite (or an HN discount =])... I'll be launching a SaaS product soon that will be $10/mo. Even your Launch and Start plans won't be usable since they'll suck away the early revenue (which curtails my ability to reinvest growing the user base).
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