I thought it would be a good idea to make an introductory post before I start with the project updates, in case any of my readers would want to find out "who is this guy anyway?".
I am 22, living in Prague (Czech Republic), and working from the nice coworking space called Node5. I love creating iPhone apps and I've been in the industry since late 2009. I started with programming just shortly before that.
I slowly went from "what is this 'object-oriented programming'?!" to "wow, I am making so much progress!" and then to "oh, it's so hard to make money on the App Store". But the last remark - that's for another debate.
Most importantly though, I just fell in love with programming and creating apps. And, at the risk of sounding too cheesy - to this day, the romance is still there! And that helped me to get through it all and to keep at it.
A bit of history
In this 5 years span, I released two apps of my own. First of them was Quadratic Master (back in January 2010) and the second one is Routie (released in August 2013 but in active development for 2.5 years and counting).
Apart from my own apps, I worked on several client jobs. While I certainly also learnt a lot from those, I always knew that doing my own stuff is what I want to do. No matter how much it takes. I just love the creative process and having complete freedom in how I am going to build it. And I love being my own boss, and doing things exactly the way I want them to do.
The school..
In those 5 years, I also spent a lot of time in school, and preparing for it. I went to a gymnasium, and while my peers there were great and I kind of miss them, the curriculum and the sheer amount of useless things we had to memorize was just too much. Plus, I've never been very good at remembering huge volumes of information, so I had a tough time to even get through. And I've wasted a lot of time.
After high school, I went to Czech Technical University, Faculty of Informatics. While some subjects were really interesting, most of the stuff was just out of 'my field', so to speak. I understand that 'informatics' is a broad term and there is certain amount of theory you "should know", but that doesn't mean you really have to know it to do what you are passionate about.
I don't want to get too specific here, so long story short, I decided to drop out sometime during 4th semester. It was a hard decision and a lot of thought went to it, but ultimately, I was confident that it was the right decision to make. And now, almost a year later, I still feel that way.
I might write more in-depth article about the whole dropping-out experience in the future, but for now, that's it.
My idea for a new app
This blog is mostly dedicated to a new app I am just about to start building full time, so I though I would give a bit of a background to that.
I got the idea back in May 2014, and after one week of almost constantly thinking about it, I was completely sure that I want to build it. Mostly because:
- It's super interesting.
- It will be very useful for me personally (which already proved to be true)
- People will instanly understand what it's about from the first screenshot and its name.
- First version won't be as bloated as Routie.
- It's unique. It might stand a better chance of being attractive for press people.
Reading the last point, you are probably thinking: "Yeah right, that's what they all say..". I am not saying that the category is unique, because it's most cerainly not.
What is unique though is the completely different approach to the problem. And that might be for two reasons: nobody built it that way because it's not as great as I think, or, simply nobody thought that much 'out of the box' about it.
"You've come up with the idea last May and you say it's so great, how comes you haven't build it yet?" - anonymous
That's a great question! There are several reasons. Last summer, I was doing two client jobs and several updates of Routie. Then, in the autumn, I've build a completely revamped version of Quadratic Master for iOS 8, and in November/December, I'd been ill a lot.
Also, since I dropped out last summer, I have to pay for all my things now. And my apps are not there yet to make a living off them, so that's why I have to do those client apps from time to time. And it was about to get worse..
"This is the last time!"
That's what I've said to myself probably more than I should in the course of last month and a half.
Since mid-January, I've been working on a client app. Its scope is much bigger that what I was used to, but I was sold on the idea that I will have access to full source code of their Android version, and technical support from developers of this company I've been building it for. Which I had, but.. it still turned out to be just so much work. And the deadlines were just insane.
Originally, I planned to finish this job by mid-February. Then, by the end of February. When I was still working on it then, I hoped it will at least be by the mid-March. And it sort of was, but those guys weren't able to start testing it until very recently (last week), so I couldn't just let it off my mind. But I did start last week with some strategy planning of my new app and preparation of this blog. I had to also push forward some other things that I kept postponing for way too long, such as my new company website (still in progress, but very close to finish).
Long story short, I burned so much time and energy on this dreadful job instead of building what I believe could be a huge hit. I've regretted it a lot, but I knew that the only thing I can do about it is to finish it as soon as possible. So that's what I've tried.
Finally starting
It's evening, 31 March 2015, and I am writing this post. I've started building my new app just today and I am really excited about it!
As I said in the 'About this project' post, I will cover the whole process of building this app in a series of short project updates, shared twice a week on this blog. Since tomorrow is Wednesday, you can expect the first update tomorrow evening!
If you made it this far, thanks! I have the feeling that this is going to be an incredible journey, whether the app ends up being successful or not. And I'd be more than happy if you joined me! Come back here every Wednesday and Sunday evening to check out new update, or subscribe here and get them delivered to your inbox.
Cheers!
Lukas