After Dark
It’s your daily Lex after dark Your Daily Lex It is 10 or 3 p.m.
Eastern Time as I record these words But I couldn’t let the day go by without recording your daily Lex especially because I’m sitting at my computer because I just recorded a podcast specifically an episode of mind meld hosted by Tony Sindelar on the incomparable podcast network And then I was fixing bugs in my app and then I was like, yeah instead of fixing bugs I could record one of these but yeah, I’m getting very close now.
The public beta is available for paying subscribers I don’t know if you consider that public or not But anybody who pays to use my games can join that beta now and it’s been fun Seeing more people use it getting their feedback.
I’m enjoying that and then today I launched a game That’s iOS exclusive Will it always be iOS exclusive?
I don’t know.
I haven’t I truly haven’t decided I think there’s a very real chance that will eventually come to the web And I think there’s a very real chance it will never come to the web I just I don’t know if I were gonna bet I’d say I will put on the web but what’s funny is it’s a game that I you know, I had experience playing some versions of and wanted to make the one that I wanted and Made it and then I was like, hey, I could set this game up where I don’t know anything more than anybody else Who’s gonna play it?
So I did I had to you know, generate random starters and The game gives you a couple of letters and you have to list all the words that you can that start with those letters In a span of 90 seconds So you’re just typing in word after word after word and you get points the long you get more points the longer the words are It’s like hey I could have it randomly create what these games are and then I could just start Playing it myself and I did and I have a massively high score compared to everybody else who’s played it today Which is you know Not very many people because it’s only available in the app and you’d have to launch the app and you know Be it any beta tester all those things But it was exciting to get to number one on a leaderboard of my own game where I didn’t have to cheat to do It so good for me But yeah, I’m getting close I the list of things that are must do’s before initial launch is shrinking I did decide I think this is just me thinking out loud really but I think I decided that I’m gonna include in-app purchasing So if people want to subscribe within the app, they can my understanding is I can’t add in-app purchasing In-app subscriptions until after the app is already launched I think you have to have an approved app in the App Store before you can add subscriptions to it, which is fine It doesn’t need to be there on day one Let’s see But otherwise, you know things are going well Oh, I think I’m gonna offer local push notifications just to tell you hey, the new puzzles are available because they’re available New York Times does it I like it when the other time says it because it’s exciting to know Hey, I can play new puzzles now I’m debating do I let people in the app or do I let paid subscribers in the app see new games early?
Like can you get to them three hours earlier?
Like I don’t know I can argue both ways New York Times does exactly that New York Times publishes their games publishes the crossword at 9 p.m Eastern the night before it’s official day and the other puzzles tick over at midnight So, I don’t know.
I haven’t I haven’t made a decision there nor does the app support crosswords at all just yet I haven’t even thought of tackling that one But man, I’m making progress.
So it’s exciting.
I think I will hit the App Store in May assuming I get approved in You never know.
Anyway, that’s it.
That’s a that’s your daily Alexa after dark as a whole It’s a whole lot like your daily Lex during the daytime just darker Yeah, so there you go.
Happy rest of your Monday, but it feels it is on Monday You should really go to sleep soon, particularly from the East Coast.
Goodbye Lex