Branding a Game Company

Author: Tommy Leung | 01.06.2010 | Category: Business, Marketing

You can’t be everything to everyone. We are all uniquely different. Think of a close friend. What feelings come to mind? What words describe that friend? Now, think of another friend. What feelings come to mind? I bet you had distinctive feelings for both friends. That’s their brand.

Brands are like people. They take on personality traits and we like those traits or we don’t.

This means you are a brand. You evoke certain feelings when people think of you. The entirety of who you are, is your brand. Your beliefs, likes, dislikes, attitude, personality, style, etc. are all things that create you. These same things make up a company brand.

We all have distinct feelings about each of the top ten brands in 2009. Some brands you know better than others; some brands you like better than others. It’s no different than friends compared to acquaintances. Being everyone’s best friend is being no one’s best friend.

Building a brand for a game company is the same as for a car company, beverage company, restaurant, or any business. The major game companies don’t need a lesson in the importance of branding–they already spend millions a year doing it. That’s why their games sell so well. Consumers know their product. We know what to expect from a game with the EA logo on it.

When your target audience sees your game with your logo, do they know what to expect? They should. A company name should sell itself. That’s the power of a brand.

Your company needs to have a brand as much as you need to have a personality. It doesn’t matter how big or small: a one man show or a thousand man spectacle. You need a brand.

Your customers will develop feelings about your company based on points of contact. These experiences can be influenced or the chips can fall where they may. There are brands that people want to evangelize and tell their friends about. That brand makes a top ten list. That’s a brand you want. That brand didn’t happen by accident.

A strong brand allows for competition on more than price. Competing on price is the weakest competitive advantage. Anyone can lower prices until they go out of business. That’s not smart business. Smart businesses create their own market with few competitors. You can’t achieve this without a brand.

thatgamecompany, the makers of the popular flOw, has a distinct brand. Their games are truly unlike any others in the industry. Their games won’t be a fit for everyone and that’s okay. They call their games “core games”. They are in their own market with few competitors.

So how do you build a brand and benefit from it? First, your company needs to know Who am I?

You have an identity. The people who make up your company have an identity. What are they? What makes you tick? What makes your employees tick? Why are you in business? What do you do? Why do you wake up every day? What is your passion? What do you offer your customers?

Don’t try to hide your identity. It is a fools errand to pretend being someone else. Take the example of Superman and Clark Kent in their quest for Lois Lane’s affection.

Clark Kent hides his identity. He pretends to be someone else. He is not a run-of-the-mill small town boy looking to make it in the big city. Clark fails miserably to court Lois. On the other hand, Superman knows who he is. He doesn’t hide his otherworldly origin or his super powers. He saves people from danger because he believes he should. It’s not an act, it’s who he is. Superman wins.

Clark Kent and Superman are exactly the same person. One is true to himself and the other is not. A brand that attracts people is like Superman.

A small game company with a few employees should not be ashamed of being small. That is who you are. Don’t pretend to be bigger. You cannot build a brand on a foundation of lies.

A large game company shouldn’t pretend to be an indie shop. It isn’t you. People will see right through it. No one likes a liar. No one wants to do business with a liar.

The goal of a brand is not to be a fit to everyone. Not a single successful brand does that. Successful brands are like successful people. They know who they are and believe in their work. People are attracted to them because they are real. Not everyone will like them but, those who do will make a real connection. That’s a fan for life. Lifetime profitability is the lifeblood of long term success.

Every point of contact with customers need to be congruent with your brand. The only way to do that is to be able to communicate who you are to your employees. Your brand starts with your employees. You can’t communicate that you are a friendly, loving, smile-flashing company and have employees who are rude to customers.

The people responsible for direct interaction with customers should exemplify your brand. If your brand is fun, social, helpful, and out-going then you need people who have those qualities. Best Buy’s Geek Squad needs technology and gadget lovers working for them or there will be a brand disconnect.

The quickest way to communicate your brand to employees and customers is with a tagline.

A good tagline is essential. Potential customers should know what you do and who you are in a blink of an eye. Your tagline needs to tell them everything they need to know in a few words. A tagline is like a signature, it should be distinctive. Once you come up with a good tagline, use it on everything. There is no point in having a tagline if you aren’t going to use it.

Take the time and effort to come up with a great tagline. It may seem useless to put so much effort on a few words but, you need those magical words that eloquently consolidates everything you are. It’ll help keep everyone in the company focused and on the same page. That is priceless.

Everything about your company needs to be congruent with your brand: company logo, mission, employee attitudes, website, advertising, story, etc. All of it. Every inch of your company needs to reflect your brand.

Building a brand takes time and effort. Two people can’t become great friends in one sitting. It takes a series of meetings, activities, conversations, cups of coffee, pints of beer, etc. Every contact builds the relationship. Every contact provides more information about each other. Showing up as a different person at each contact will never create a strong relationship. Building a brand is like building a friendship.

Brands are like people.

Avoiding iPhone Game Obscurity

Author: Tommy Leung | 12.29.2009 | Category: Business, Internet, Marketing, Video Games

There is no shortage of iPhone developers. There is no shortage of iPhone applications. With over 100,000 apps, there is no shortage of extra features. It makes me wonder how I ever lived without my iPhone. I use Google Maps to get around. I share picture perfect moments using the Facebook App. I use the Subway Map app to get around NYC. I use Shazam’s tiny elfin librarians to tell me the name of songs. I use the Chase Mobile App to check account balances.

You name it, there’s an app for that. A year from now, you name it, and there will be apps for that and the ten other things you didn’t think of.

These are all conveniences iPhones owners have enjoyed. I have taken these services for granted. I don’t worry about where anything is anymore, I can find it on Google Maps. All of this convenience is fantastic for the consumer, while those trying to sell apps on the iPhone are finding it harder to stand out.

The most competitive category is Games. There are few categories as popular as the Games section of the App Store. There are more Games than any other category. At over 20,000 strong, avoiding obscurity will be a challenge.

But not only that, you need to have a lasting impression. You may have created the hottest iPhone game to date but, what is going to stop someone from releasing a $.99 clone? How do you ensure a cheaper clone isn’t going to eat away at your sales and market share?

Take the once popular iShoot. It made $800,000 in five months and prompted its creator, Ethan Nicholas, to leave his job at Sun Microsystems. iShoot has since been buried by competitors and copycats. Nicholas says it’s “terrifying” and that iShoot’s success was “pure luck”.

Pure luck is not going to work for a business selling games on the App Store. Relying on luck to run a business is the surest way to the land of businesses-that-were. And I’m not sure all businesses go to heaven.

Luckily, the solution is as old as time: marketing. Why do you buy Tide instead of Acme Brand? They may have exactly the same quality and stain fighting power but, Acme Brand isn’t going to hold a candle to the power of Tide.

There was a time when only a handful of games were on the App Store. The best games sold well in those prehistoric times. Those days are long gone. You can release a game on the App Store tomorrow and it’ll be in the company of a hundred other games. Only a small fraction of all iPhone users are going to know your game came out. People can’t buy what they don’t know about!

This is logical reasoning but, not everyone is on board. In an interview with Wired, Austin Sarner, CEO of Design by a Knife, said this:

“Basically everybody’s on the same level once they submit an iPhone app. Unlike traditional marketing, there’s no ad campaign: A user just sees what he sees in the iPhone store, and the applications kind of have to sell themselves to some extent.”

Sarner’s philosophy is that great content drives App Store success and not “marketing”. Sarner is a developer by profession so this an understandable point of view. Sarner confuses advertising with marketing and doesn’t realize that developing a great product is a fundamental function of marketing.

It is inaccurate that there is no advertising behind iPhone games. EA didn’t come to the party without their advertising muscle. And with hundreds of games being added to the App Store every week, the clutter alone will make you invisible no matter how good your game is.

It is suicide to release an app and hope it will be magically discovered. Only 7% of iPhone users download through iTunes, 62% knew what they wanted, 60% browsed the top lists, and 46% were from word of mouth according to AdMob. The 62% who knew what they wanted heard it somewhere first. It didn’t come to them in a dream.

If you are convinced that making the greatest iPhone game in the world, releasing it to the App Store, and then praying it will sell is a viable strategy, I have two words for you: good luck. You are going to need it.

However, if you want a viable business, there is a better way.

Game developers worldwide will disagree and hate this but, marketing has to be part of the development process from day one. You can’t create a game and then sprinkle some marketing pixie dust as an after thought. That’s the equivalent of wearing a blindfold, spinning around a few times, and then trying to hit a pinata. You have no idea where the target is. You are going to miss.

The development process starts with an audience. You need to target someone. You don’t need to go after the same audience as everyone else, but you need an audience. Who is going to buy your game? You need to make a game for them. You can make a game for yourself, but that’s not a business–it’s a hobby. Doing things in that fashion means it’ll always be a hobby.

Your game needs to be characteristic of your company brand–your company does have a brand right? There is a reason EA has multiple brands. Each brand has its own image and their games reflect that. EA Games caters to a more traditional audience, EA Sports develops games for the sports audience, and EA Play is solely focused on the casual market.

Engage with the community. If your audience is there, you need to be there engaging them: blogs, forums, YouTube videos, LinkedIn groups, Facebook groups, etc. If your audience is there, you need to be there. Being engaged does not mean spamming. Join the conversations and use your company as the name of contact or end each comment noting your company. Don’t be obnoxious. Be informative, helpful, and provide useful discourse.

Marketing your game is a full-time job. People who solely work on the development side find this difficult to swallow. In their world, they are doing the hard work. Their point of view isn’t without merit. Without them, there would be no product at all.

To make things worse, it is difficult to accurately measure the impact marketing has on your business. You may never know how or if someone who interacts with your marketing ends up buying your product. In fact, they might not buy your product at all. They might talk to ten other people about their experience with your company and then one or more within those ten may end up buying. We cannot accurately measure this.

For people who are used to concrete and visible patterns, marketing may as well be voodoo. However, this doesn’t make marketing less important. It does mean marketing requires a different mindset than that of development.

Social medias has allowed us to monitor our audience’s thoughts, concerns, and feelings in real time. This lets us adjust our marketing efforts on the fly if it isn’t working or is having a negative effect. You need to be constantly monitoring your audience. It isn’t just a matter of marketing during a release–you will end up like iShoot. Cultivate your audience and develop a community.

Infinity Ward, the makers of Call of Duty, understands the importance of a strong community. They have a community manager, Robert Bowling, whose sole job is to monitor the Call of Duty audience. Without him, Modern Warfare 2 may not have become the highest grossing entertainment release of all time. The game would have done well no matter what. Call of Duty has a history, the first Modern Warfare was excellent, the hype surrounding Modern Warfare 2 was spectacular, it was a high quality product, and Call of Duty is a known entity–a brand. But, would it have done as well without marketing? Of course, we can never actually measure it but, I’m willing to bet marketing made the difference between one of the highest grossing and the highest grossing.

Do the Opposite

Author: Tommy Leung | 12.26.2009 | Category: Business, Life, Marketing

It’s that time of year again! Time for our personal Year in Reviews. We usually end up making New Year’s Resolutions that we keep until February and then it’s back to business as usual. It is not our fault, we are creatures of habit–good or bad.

2010 is going to be different. For starters, we can’t call it “oh-ten”. That doesn’t make sense. Are we going to call it “ten”? Maybe we’ll need to actually say the entire thing: “twenty-ten”. No matter what becomes the accepted way to say the year, it is a change from the last nine years.

And change is something we are all dying for. We thought we were getting change in 2008 but, 2009 has shown us that it was just wishful thinking. No change to be found! So that begs the question, are we looking in the right places for change? Maybe we shouldn’t be looking to others. Afterall, the late King of Pop told us to look at the Man in the Mirror.

And we all know a mirror shows us everything in the opposite. Maybe 2010 is the year to take a look at ourselves and see if our lagging endeavors need to be evaluated in a completely different light. Perhaps, we need to do the opposite.

The economy is suffering the effects of being stabbed a thousand times by a toothpick. You wonder if now is a good time to make radical changes. To that I ask, would it be a good time if we went back five years? We all know it’s not about the times–there is never a good time. There is only now.

Now is as good a time as any! And if not now, when? If there is never a good time, perhaps that’s the first thing we need to apply the opposite to: it’s always a good time.

Besides, the economy can use some opposite thinking right now. The old ways of thinking have sunk the Titanic. And as everyone carries on thinking the same way and doing the same things, the water keeps climbing!

We think what we know is safe. It could be killing us, but it’s familiar so we stick with it. Well, it’s time to do the opposite. Take the plunge. Take the leap. Just do it. Whatever jingle you like.

It could be the best of times or it could be the worst of times. It’s impossible to know. But, we do know what doing the same will result in: the same results we’ve always gotten.

Some of us will choose to do the opposite. Things are going to change. Some of those changes will be so dramatic that we will all feel it. We’ve already seen it in the past decade. Ask someone about Twitter or Facebook in 2000 and you’ll get a blank, puzzled stare. Social networks have become a part of everyday life and used in everyday language. And it took less than a decade.

We know one giant is opting to do the opposite in 2010. Pepsi is foregoing advertising during the Super Bowl to focus on social media. This could go terribly wrong or it could be a banner year for Pepsi.

Take Pepsi’s lead and do the opposite. At least you don’t have $20 million on the line.

How To Get Into The Game Industry

Author: Tommy Leung | 02.17.2009 | Category: Business, Video Games

Working in the video game industry had always been a dream of mine. I grew up with video games. It was probably my favorite past time as a kid. I have some pretty fond memories of winter breaks from school playing video games with my younger brother. That was what we did all day. It kept us entertained for hours on end.

Christmas was always an exciting time because we would get new games. Then, we would then have winter break to play them to death. The weather would be cold outside. We had no money to go anywhere. Life was simple and the only thing we cared about was beating the next level. Eventually, I got older and had a social life. My brother also got much better than me at playing games so, time to retire!

Being a person who likes to make things, playing all these video games only made me want to make them. I also made comic books, websites, and cartoons–well, I tried to make them. If I find it interesting, I’m going to want to make my own.

When it came time think about college and–if you believe your high school adviser–your future, I was convinced that I wanted to make video games. I love the industry so, why not? To make a long story short, I did end up in the video game industry. I had written about that story before–feel free to read it.

Before I went to college, I spent a great deal of time looking into how I could break into the industry. I bought books on the subject and looked in every online crevice for information. Now that I’ve spent over a year and a half making games professionally, I think I can offer some advice.

What College?

The usual suspects looking for advice on breaking into the game industry are high school students. I was one of them. I think a college education is nice to have. However, I don’t think college teaches you much of what you need to perform any job in the real world.

I still think one should go to college for the experience. At the very least, you’ll meet useful people. I don’t believe one needs to go to a college that specializes in producing students with video game degrees. I went to the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Arizona for one year. I was pursuing a degree in Game Design.

UAT is a pretty small school. They have great contacts and all the students are after similar things. Like-minded people were there in abundance. I place more importance in being able to understand a wide range of subjects. While one would be able to develop a really focused skill set for making video games, they would be lacking in everything else.

I didn’t really want to become a monkey or a small cog in a big machine.

It is also important to remember that the college experience is a one-time deal. I wouldn’t look so far ahead into the future and forget about that. It doesn’t even matter what degree you are pursuing–although a degree in sociology is likely going to be difficult to apply to games.

I have a BA in Marketing from Pace University. If you want to make games, you are likely going to also be interested in graphic design, programming, or some technology field. A business degree will also work since all game companies are still a business. Communication degrees tend to have a lot of overlap with marketing–especially in the PR department.

Your best bet is to study what you really want to study. Chances are, you won’t know what it is and you’ll change your mind during your college career. Getting into the game industry has very little to do with what college you went to. It has a lot to do with how knowledgeable you are of the industry and how much you participate in the community.

How do I get Experience?

Getting experience is the problem for everyone trying to get a job. There is no way to get real experience without doing it for real. Finding internships at game companies would be the surest way to get a feel for how things work.

Internships

I’m not a big fan of interning but, it is a proven method. I interned for a game company once before I went to college. All I did was test a game.

In my experience, if there is work to be done, we are usually too busy to figure out what to give to an intern who might not know anything. That is why I don’t find much real value from interning. It is still a good experience and you get something to put on your resume. The most important benefit are the contacts you’ll make.

I found my internship by using Gamasutra’s list of game companies. You can sort the list by City or State so I looked for all the game companies in New York and sent them internship requests. Most companies didn’t respond to me but, one of them did. And one was all I needed.

Learning on Your Own

My preferred way of getting experience is to actually make a game. There is an abundance of resources online for making games. Learn how to use the tools and create your own game. That is a learning experience unlike any other. You’ll never know how it feels to make a game from beginning to end without doing it.

Doing is the best simulation for the real thing. It will be more complicated on the job because there are other people in charge of quality and creative. Where you might let some defect slide, the client will not. There is also money on the line–that always changes things.

If you are someone who is just incapable of understanding all this technology mumbo jumbo, you can still get experience by doing. You just need to do something different. I made websites about the video game industry. I tried to compete with GameSpot or IGN–it didn’t work. It was still a good experience. I got to understand the industry very well by reading and reporting the news on a daily basis.

I also got to understand some of the business workings of the industry as I made contacts with the PR departments of companies like Eidos, Ubi Soft, and Midway for review copies of games. It was a fun time and I figured out that being a game journalist was not for me.

All you need to figure out is what you want to do in the game industry and do something that relates. If you can’t do the technical, work on the non-technical.

Useful Resources

Since I never got any formal schooling in making games, I had to find a lot of resources to learn on my own. Most of it had to do with passion. If you really want to do it, there are few things that can stop you. Since I spent time learning how to make games and being a part–a very small part–of the industry media, I can share resources on both.

The Technical

On the technical side, GameDev.net is a great site. I spent most of my time looking through their resources for programming. They also have information about art, sound, design, etc. It is a huge treasure trove of information.

Many tutorial sites that I used have since disappeared. However, Flash was not a big player for games back then. The explosion of Flash games have really changed the landscape. Making games and allowing other people to instantly play them is now easier than ever. All you need is a web browser.

I recommend Kongregate’s set of tutorials for making Flash games. I am working on a series of tutorials myself but, they aren’t ready yet. You can also put your game on Kongregate and have people play and rate it. If you don’t know about Kongregate, look at them as the YouTube of games.

There is also Microsoft’s XNA platform. They have a huge amount of information about making games for XNA that will play on both the XBOX 360 and Windows. I never had that opportunity to put games on an actual console. I think XNA is great way to learn.

Games built in XNA for the XBOX 360 can also be put on the XBOX Live Marketplace if the community deems it worthy.

The Not So Technical

I consider the not so technical side to be the business side. So that could be a journalist, a writer, an analyst, a PR person, etc. Everything that doesn’t need advanced technical know-how. There are very few to zero resources for telling you how to be a game journalist.

You would go through the same steps as any journalist, except you need to be knowledgeable in games. That is the same for all other non-technical positions. There aren’t any real resources for becoming a game analyst, journalist, or PR person. Those are all disciplines that are not unique to games.

I would keep abreast of the industry news and be active in the community. Reading Gamasutra and being a member of the IGDA would be a good start. The IGDA has chapters all over the country that meet regularly; join one of them and get to know the professionals in your area.

You will want to make a name for yourself as someone who understands your field as it relates to video games. A great way to do that is to blog. Blog about game journalism. Write editorial pieces and publish them yourself. Write about marketing in the game industry.

The prerequisite to writing is that you need to know about your topic. So a marketer is going to have to understand marketing and a journalist about journalism.

Resources for Everyone

The IGDA has a special Breaking In section. It looks about the same as when I was looking for information so I don’t know how updated it is. Their Web Links in the Resources section has information for everything you can imagine.

Ernest Adams is a well known industry veteran who speaks about breaking into the industry. He has a book titled Break Into The Game Industry–I bought and read that book. He would be the de facto expert on the subject as he has probably written the most about it.

Industry Expos

I always wanted to go to E3–Electronic Entertainment Exposition. It was my dream as self-proclaimed game journalist. I never did get to go and it is now a shell of its former self. E3 is no longer the extravagant spectacle that it used to be.

E3 isn’t open to the public and only people who are affiliated to the industry are allowed to get in. I don’t know exactly what qualifies and what doesn’t. Working in the industry would certainly qualify–I would hope.

The other big industry gathering is GDC–Game Developers Conference. GDC is really where business gets done. A lot of industry players attend. Where E3 is more of a show for big game companies to demonstrate their new titles to the press, GDC is where the attention is on the game developers.

It is always good to experience an industry event for yourself. Those who love games will always find it incredibly pleasant to be in such an environment. There are other small conventions and shows that take place as well.

One in New York annually–didn’t happen last year due to some economic issue–is Digital Life. I was there every year since I found about it. You almost always end up leaving the show with some free stuff–shirts and other promotional materials. Who doesn’t like free stuff?

On the west coast there is the E for All Expo. Like Digital Life, E for All is really for the fans. You mainly go there to try out the new things that companies are offering. Doesn’t hurt to stay up to date on the new happenings in the industry!

Last Words of Inspiration

There is no road map for getting into the industry. Unlike other professions like lawyers and doctors where you know you need to go to law school or medical school, no such sure-fire route exists in the games industry. I think that it is one of the great advantages to the industry.

At heart, we are still a bunch of kids playing with toys. We make things that are fun. We entertain. We are open. We don’t have massive barriers to entry. It is the diversity of the people that has led to our growth and innovations.

No one can come up with a set of steps that you need to take to end up at an EA or Activision. All you really need is a love of games and persistence.

Why Starbucks is Losing Market Share

Author: Tommy Leung | 10.21.2008 | Category: Business, Life, Marketing

I had mentioned my switch from Starbucks to Dunkin Donuts for my usual coffee a while back. Since then, I had actually started buying coffee from Starbucks again. For the most part, it wasn’t the same pleasant experience I had remembered from when they were a company to be modeled after. The product was better and the staff was friendlier. I don’t know what Starbucks’ is doing since its fall in stock price and reduction of expansion but, it isn’t making things better.

The quality of the coffee appears to have gone down significantly. I have received less than preferable temperature for a regular tall coffee more than once. The Starbucks I remember always had their coffee at a certain temperature and the staff were well-trained to make sure that happens. The new pike roast is just not as good as what Starbucks used to have.

Last week, I had went into a Starbucks to accompany someone who was actually buying a cup of coffee. I had went to Dunkin Donuts prior and bought a medium cup of coffee and a bagel with cream cheese. We entered this Starbucks and the staff behind the counter proceeded to heckle me about the Dunkin Donuts’ product I was holding. It would have been friendly teasing if the barista had not suggested that they provide me with a paper bag with place my DD in as to not embarrass Starbucks when I walk out–how insulting.

The barista should leave the marketing to the marketers. Due to the barista’s faulty misplacement of brand image over customer service, I have since told many friends and acquaintances about this story. And now, I have made it available to the internet. This whole social network thing is a rather powerful means of spreading a message.

I am unlikely to buy coffee from a Starbucks again in a long time and I would suggest that when you have the option of Starbucks or some other coffee house, go with the latter. A company that is no longer operating in a fashion that justifies its price should be punished by decreased revenues and market share.

From Starbucks to Dunkin Donuts

Author: Tommy Leung | 07.07.2008 | Category: Business, Marketing

A few months ago I stopped buying my coffee from Starbucks and started going to Dunkin Donuts. I don’t know what exactly prompted me to do that. I had been buying Starbucks coffee for years and would specifically look for Starbucks when I wanted coffee. It might have had something to do with the economy going south–do I pay for gas and food or expensive coffee? Starbucks was also going through–and still is–a rough patch. Their stock price was down and the company had plans to close a great number of stores.

Then came their new marketing campaign. I’m not sure about Starbucks stores outside of New York City, but they started putting up little signs on every Starbucks that said something to the effect of having the best neighborhood coffee. Starbucks was trying to go back to their original image of small and local. I find that rather difficult in NYC when there is a Starbucks on every other street corner.

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Developing Facebook Applications

Author: Tommy Leung | 06.19.2008 | Category: Business, Internet, Marketing, Money

I’ve worked on several Facebook Applications since the beginning of the year and although none of them have been massively successful hits, I’ve learned a couple of things about developing Facebook Applications. Hopefully, I can share some of what I’ve learned and experienced. I’m not going to talk much about the technical development process but instead, more of the marketing and business aspects. I’m also going to try to not make broad assumptive conclusions based on my experiences but instead, share my experiences and give conclusions that I’m pretty confident in. Some of us are making applications because we want to share our great ideas with the world but, all of us would like to monetize our ideas–don’t lie, you know you do. :)

Facebook launched their application platform in the middle of 2007 and it has done very well since. Thousands of people have made applications for it and some businesses have sprouted from it. I was generally cautious of the Facebook Platform and did not look into it until mid-January of 2008. As of today, I have four active Facebook Applications that were developed solely by me and one other that I worked on. My applications aren’t drawing any significant number of daily active users–I don’t even have an application that has 1000 installs yet. The total combined user base of all my applications probably falls in around 1500 – 2000 installs. It isn’t impressive but, keep reading.

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