A Shareware Life

Status Report

It's been a long time since I last posted, it's time to update on what all is going on.

Here's where things stand with our games:

• Pretty Good Solitaire (Windows) - We released a new version 12.1 on February 24th.  Version 12.1 added 10 games, bringing the total number of games to 710.  Version 12.2 is in development, it will add 15 games for a total of 725.  Version 12.2 will be released this summer.

• Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition - We released the long awaited version 2.0 of the Mac Edition on March 24th. Version 2.0 added 71 new games, bringing the total number of games for the Mac version to 101.  It also added a whole bunch of new features, such as Climb Mode.  Version 2.0 had a couple of crashing bugs, so we updated it to version 2.01 on May 5.  Version 2.01 seems to be very stable and is becoming quite successful.  Version 2.1 is currently in development, it will add 99 new games bringing the total to 200.  Version 2.1 should be released in a few months.

• Pretty Good MahJongg - We released a bug fix version 2.33 yesterday (May 26th).  We are planning a major new version that will add some games and features, plus we expect to have this new release for Mac OS X as well as Windows.

• Action Solitaire - we haven't released a new version of this game for some time.  We will have a bug fix update available quite soon.

• Goodsol Solitaire 101 - we released a bug fix version 1.01 in April.

• Most Popular Solitaire - we released a new version 2.0 on May 19th.  This version fixed some bugs and added Climb Mode, but the major thing about this release was that this new version is for both Windows and Mac OS X.  Most Popular Solitaire becomes our second product that runs on Mac OS X.

Pretty Good Solitaire v12.1

A new version of Pretty Good Solitaire is now available (for Windows 98/Me/XP/Vista).

Version 12.1 can be downloaded from http://www.goodsol.com/download.html

Version 12.1 adds 10 new games for a total of 710 games.

The new games are Chinese FreeCell, Double Limited, Endless Harp, Jacks in the Box, Private Lane, Quadrennial, Rueil, Sixteen Piles, Succession, and Trigon Left.

Version 12 is a free upgrade for users who originally ordered versions 10, 11, or 12.0 (2005 or later). It is not a free upgrade for users who originally ordered version 9 or below. Users of older versions can upgrade for $11.95 at http://www.goodsol.com/upgrade.html

The quick way to determine whether you need to upgrade to use version 12 is to look at your registration code. If your registration code starts with "24", "2p", or "2m", the upgrade is free and your registration code will work in version 12. Otherwise, you need to upgrade. If you registration code starts with "22" or "2u", version 11 was a free upgrade but version 12 is not.

This is the first update to the Windows Pretty Good Solitaire in a year.  My plan is to do 4 new releases in the next 12 months, including this one.  The next version 12.2 is planned for the May/June timeframe and will contain 720, 725, or 730 games.

$600,000 in a Month

Here is a Wired story about an iPhone game developer who made $600,000 in a month.

My reactions:

1) Good news!  Now maybe all the people who want to get rich quick will stop making clones to sell on the portals and start developing for the iPhone instead.

2)  He quit his day job before he ever received his first check.  In fact, the article indicates that he still hasn't gotten his first check yet.  Yikes!

3) Perhaps the guy should read what this guy wrote: Why I write software.  This is how things are done over the long term.

Amazon, Lincoln, and More

Some thoughts for the day:

1)  Amazon.com has recently entered the casual games market with a new Games Download store.

This has caused some controversy as the store sells games for $9.99 or less.

That this would happen sometime has been entirely predictable for years - the entire portal model has devolved into simply competition on price - which means prices were bound to just go lower and lower.   Most of the games on portals are completely derivative and have no way to compete on quality or as a brand - so that leaves only price.

The result will be that margins of the portal companies will just go down and down until the weakest have to either sell out to some big company who won't care or go bankrupt. 


2) Today is the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth, which is a pretty big deal here in Springfield IL.  There are lots of events going on in town today to celebrate and the President will be here tonight to give a speech.  The location is not very far from where we live and the security is out in force.  When I went out earlier I saw security people with dogs roaming around.

3) Our neighbors across the street still have their Christmas tree up.

Amazon Kindle 2

Amazon has released the Kindle 2, their new eBook reader.  We thought about buying the original Kindle, but passed as it seemed not quite ready.  But this version looks a lot better, so we decided to try it.  It doesn't actually ship until February 24th.  When we get it, I'll post a review of it here. 

In the meantime, if you want to buy one, click on the link below (it gives us a percentage).  It's $359, so it's not cheap, but eventually something like this is going to replace books.

Tropical Card Set

We have released a new card set for Pretty Good Solitaire and our other games:

 

Download the Tropical Card Set here.

2009

Hi everybody, it's 2009.  Happy New Year!

I've been meaning to get back into posting somewhat regularly in 2009, however I've been hit by a bad cold/flu bug since New Year's and haven't had much chance.

Anyway:

1) We are currently beta testing a new Mac OS X version.  We could definitely use more Mac beta testers.  If you are interesting in beta testing a Mac solitaire game for Mac OS X, shoot me an email at support@goodsol.com

2) Speaking of the Mac, does anyone know a good web page that simply explains the installation process on a Mac from a .dmg file?.  You would think that Apple would have something like this on their site, but I cannot find it.  It seems that Apple thinks that installation is so easy that it requires no explanation, but the emails I get from users says otherwise.

The Entire Sub-Prime Crisis Explained in One Comic

Note: Click to see full strip.

I Voted

Man Gets Windows Vista to Work with Printer

No, this isn't a headline from The Onion.  It's a real headline!

Man gets Windows Vista to work with printer

Interesting Article about Solitaire

Why We Can't Stop Playing Computer Solitaire

And a related page: On the Profundity of Solitaire

Aftershock

10:15 am:

Another one.  The whole house suddenly just shrieked.  For about one second, this one felt stronger than the first one, but it was much, much shorter.

Earthquake

OK, this woke me up at 4:35 am:

Magnitude 5.4 Earthquake

2007 - Looking Back

2007 is almost over.  It's time to take a look at what was accomplished in 2007.

The first part of the year was dominated by the release of Microsoft Vista.  Vista forced me to make a number of product updates, most notably version 11.0.1 of Pretty Good Solitaire.  It became clear in the first few months of 2007 that Vista was a real dog, which set up the decision that dominated the rest of the year: the decision to develop for the Mac market.

Throughout the middle of year, Mac development was the focus, which meant that we did little in the way of product releases.  The one new product we had planned to release in the spring was delayed in favor of Mac development (that product will now be released early in 2008).  Also in the middle of the year I decided to make the next update to Pretty Good Solitaire a major one, so the summer was devoted to development of version 12.

The fall was marked by the two big releases of the year: version 12 of Pretty Good Solitaire and the first Mac version of Pretty Good Solitaire.

Pretty Good Solitaire version 12 contained 40 new games (bringing the total to 700) and two new larger card sizes.  As such, it was the largest new version release since 2003.  Since it's release in October, it has also become the most commercially successful new version release since 2002.  No new version of Pretty Good Solitaire had caused such a large sales increase in five years.

Why was it so successful?  First of all, there were a lot of upgrades because this version was the first version that was not a free upgrade for people who ordered in 2002, 2003, and 2004.  But beyond that, it also stimulated new sales as well.  I think there were two reasons for this.

Historically, new versions with an even hundred number of games have always done much better than other versions.  So the previous best releases were the 500 game version in 2002 and the 600 game version in 2004.  Versions with a less catchy number of new games just don't increase sales as much.

But also, the 2 new larger card sizes clearly made this release stand out.  The last time I added new card sizes (the 500 game version in 2002) was the last time a new version increased sales as much as what we saw with version 12.  From my email it was clear that the larger sizes were a big hit.

November saw the release of Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition.  This 30 game basic solitaire collection was our very first Apple Mac game ever.  We didn't really have any idea what to expect.  The results since November have been very encouraging.  The Mac market is clearly a viable market for the indie game developer.  As I'll write in 2008 when I discuss our plans for the new year, we are definitely going to be expanding the Mac game and probably adding more Mac products as well.

All in all, the late in the year releases made 2007 end on a very positive note.  The falling dollar throughout the year certainly didn't hurt either, making our games as cheap as they have ever been outside the USA.  The signs are that 2008 should be a very good year.

 

Just Say No to Automatic Updates

Here is why you should never allow applications (or the OS) to automatically update itself.   Always only do updates manually, and wait sufficient time to make sure that the guinea pigs (ie. those who do allow automatic updates) have determined that the update is safe.