Maybe there's no need for a icon. A short word like that is good if it's designed good.
The "fellowship of indie devs" is just too long and sounds like Lord of The Rings.
Yea.. its a stupid name.. I am in fact guilty being a fan of LOTR. lol!!
Indie Apps is nice and short. I agree.
But a badge/icon is needed.. to make an impact. heck we can put the icon in our apps as well.. something to certify us.. of .. er.. something..
I do think there's a need for a logo, and maybe a separate website, someone mentioned a Wordpress blog? What we can do to increase awareness is to promote the 'fellowship' (or whatever it ends up getting called).
An iPhone/iPad app (I love how people are already contemplating developing for the iPad ) for the 'fellowship' would have to be very well designed and captivate the users. An app that just lists apps made by other people would be boring, even I wouldn't download it for free!
I have doubt in making this app. even for free. Im not sure whether you read about the other developer who create an app to promote the art sales of his sister - it is being rejected by Apple because it does not have function for iPhone users. I think if we submit an app for our group, we'd probably be rejected too. But no harm in trying..
github private account is expensive and the collaborators are limited. Codaset is something that we may be able to afford. Codaset has more features than github.
I wasn't talking about web hosting but the source code hosting, which is Codaset, the Indie Apps Alliance already host the web. Unless if we don't want to join him. I suggest we should, because the name of the site is good enough.
Yes, the app would be free . So anyone will download it without hesitation.
I would advise that this should be a group account not rocotilos account. If he wants to maintain it, fine, that's great. But it shouldn't be specific to any member.
The account and the company name should represent the alliance.
If there is a need to contribute money, I cant do it, personal reasons. Well, not now at least. If suddenly my new apps hits jackpot, sure I will contribute, no problem. Just not now.
I dont mine joining with Indie Apps Alliance. The name is nice and catchy. This idea only came from me, but I do not necessarily control it. If any of you guys are able, then give it a go! Change name or whatever, I don't mind at all. As long as the main purpose is served - bring exposure to non spamming, serious indie devs - no matter how old he/she is, no matter how many people in the group is.
Yes, the app MUST be free. The app basically is a version of the App Store, minus the spapps. (spapps - new word for spam apps )
Yup, that's the problem. I guess, Indie Apps Alliance is the solution.
But anyway.....
There are at least 3 free publishing sites that I know of.
That doesn't really help much.. An iPhone app would. But it would be rejected most likely.
Writing code is not only about writing instructions to a machine / computer, but also about writing something that could be read, understood, and maintained by others. That's why, I like Cocoa.
Writing code is not only about writing instructions to a machine / computer, but also about writing something that could be read, understood, and maintained by others. That's why, I like Cocoa.
But how exactly is this going to generate more exposure?
Don't get me wrong, kudos to you for this project but I don't see where this could lead...yet...
Hi dna, actually if you read the whole thread you will get the answer.
At the beginning, I just want to help other indie apps devs in some small way that i can. I know probably not much at all - we just exchange links to put into our websites. So as of now, we are diverting the course towards Indie Apps Alliance.. a website that is going to be launched soon by a fellow forumer here. (the link to that website is somewhere in this thread, look it up).
My idea is just to make the indie (non spamming) developer stand out more in some way.. Big co's already have their BRAND status to keep them alive. We, indie devs have pretty much nothing, except our own polished app/games. The method to give more exposure to ourselves are limited though. However it seems quite a lot of people are trying to help indie devs as well, as evident in this forum, and also in other forums.
What can I say, I was searching on google for "indie apps alliance" just to see if somebody was talking at all about the project I'm working on and I found this thread (with sooo much partecipation, I'm entusiastic!).
A little update on the status of the project: the website is almost ready, I need to finish polishing up and adding a couple more features. I'm working on it during my free time between part-time working and college. Before the end of February it will be definitely ready.
But this is only the first part of the project. The main part is played by what I called "The IAA Network". I'm developing a set of APIs that will allow indie developers to advertise each other in an open and fair system. I developed 80% of the system already, but I recently contacted Apple (hoping that they will answer me) to make sure that I'm not creating something that will cause rejection on their part. The network is built replicating the behavior of the app store (list of apps, touch to get details, screenshots, videos), but you people know of Apple is often against "replicating content on the app store". Which I think it's not really the case, because the network provides a list of apps that is different than the app store, and includes some nice new features (lite version linking and view video feature). So I hope to receive soon the "go" to keep working on the remaining 20% of it. If they reject it I will have to modify the layout of it, which will probably mean I'll have to add 30% more work to it to re-design a good part of the graphics.
I really like the red icon, but to make it consistent you should make it light blue; that's the main color the website is going to have.
I decided to create this Alliance because I believe that big corporations are taking all the spotlight; I think that if we gather together a decent number of good developers and apps we can create something extraordinary. There are hundreds of indidendent developers out here that have good design and programming skills, but alone we're striving to emerge. Together I believe things could change.
Last edited by pierotofy; 02-03-2010 at 05:35 PM.
Reason: type error
Just a quick question though, do you accept all indie developer to join? Or a certain criteria must be passed (like, er.. non spam developer.. etc?)?
A review process will evaluate every single app submitted to the alliance and only those that are of higher quality and are not spammy will be accepted. More details on the criteria that will be enforced to make such review will be posted on the website on the launching day. At the beginning I will be the only reviewer, but as I'll get to know better the future member of the alliance I will put my trust on some of them if the work load will start to increase. The system is designed to support user roles, so I can assign any member to be a reviewer at any time. Same thing works for the moderators of the forum I'm setting up.
I decided to create this Alliance because I believe that big corporations are taking all the spotlight; I think that if we gather together a decent number of good developers and apps we can create something extraordinary. There are hundreds of indidendent developers out here that have good design and programming skills, but alone we're striving to emerge. Together I believe things could change.
I really support your effort and thanks.
Realistically, there are more independent developers than there are designers collaborating with these developers. Which explains that most websites of these developers are not well-designed. Because lots of them are not web developers / designers.
I understand the pain of building a good and polished website, and it's something that developers like myself are not that good at.
This also correlates to the pain of building an app that requires lots of non-programmable graphical resources.
I hope that the "design" part and "exposure" part of this website could help developers.
Writing code is not only about writing instructions to a machine / computer, but also about writing something that could be read, understood, and maintained by others. That's why, I like Cocoa.
Last edited by mnemonic_fx; 02-04-2010 at 10:26 AM.
So is the Fellowship having any effect on your sales/exposure? I'd like to join if I may, that is if you find my Apps worthy? Current crop are diversion apps, but I'm presently working on some serious stuff as well and have totally resisted the urge to spam the first few apps.
mlo, the fellowship is just a linkback basically. I am not sure whether it create more sales or not.
Actually I thought of writing a press release for the fellowship. But since we are diverting the course to join Indie App Alliance, i cancelled about doing it.
It needs to get bigger.. but manageable. I have no experience in managing a big site with big contents..
I have doubt in making this app. even for free. Im not sure whether you read about the other developer who create an app to promote the art sales of his sister - it is being rejected by Apple because it does not have function for iPhone users. I think if we submit an app for our group, we'd probably be rejected too. But no harm in trying..
The IPNZ App does little more than promote apps created in New Zealand and that was accepted by Apple.
It is also an RSS reader for the feed from their website. (maybe this is the added value that that has function for iPhone users).
If we have a website then we could do similar with the RSS feed showing new and updated apps.
Rocotilos, would you be interested in some kind of link share between this Alliance/Fellowship and TheApperator? Or do you (or does anyone else) have any other ideas about how TheApperator might partner with this alliance? (See this thread for ongoing discussion about TheApperator if you don't know what I'm talking about).
I just received a survey request from apple i would advise everyone to fill it out if you received a survey invite to express our opinions about spam apps maybe someone in apple will then listen.
I listed app visibility as poor and it asked what action could be done to fix this and i put.
Quote:
Limit the number of applications which a developer can submit in a day or month.
Small and startup dev companies just don't get the exposure we deserve despite the amount of time and effort we put into developing our games. I am definitely supportive of your project!
Please, keep everyone updated on your progress!
Quote:
Originally Posted by pierotofy
What can I say, I was searching on google for "indie apps alliance" just to see if somebody was talking at all about the project I'm working on and I found this thread (with sooo much partecipation, I'm entusiastic!).
A little update on the status of the project: the website is almost ready, I need to finish polishing up and adding a couple more features. I'm working on it during my free time between part-time working and college. Before the end of February it will be definitely ready.
But this is only the first part of the project. The main part is played by what I called "The IAA Network". I'm developing a set of APIs that will allow indie developers to advertise each other in an open and fair system. I developed 80% of the system already, but I recently contacted Apple (hoping that they will answer me) to make sure that I'm not creating something that will cause rejection on their part. The network is built replicating the behavior of the app store (list of apps, touch to get details, screenshots, videos), but you people know of Apple is often against "replicating content on the app store". Which I think it's not really the case, because the network provides a list of apps that is different than the app store, and includes some nice new features (lite version linking and view video feature). So I hope to receive soon the "go" to keep working on the remaining 20% of it. If they reject it I will have to modify the layout of it, which will probably mean I'll have to add 30% more work to it to re-design a good part of the graphics.
I really like the red icon, but to make it consistent you should make it light blue; that's the main color the website is going to have.
I decided to create this Alliance because I believe that big corporations are taking all the spotlight; I think that if we gather together a decent number of good developers and apps we can create something extraordinary. There are hundreds of indidendent developers out here that have good design and programming skills, but alone we're striving to emerge. Together I believe things could change.
How about the others? All agree with this blue icon? If agree, then I'll replace the fellowship.png with this one (so you don't have to update the HTML).
) for the 'fellowship' would have to be very well designed and captivate the users. An app that just lists apps made by other people would be boring, even I wouldn't download it for free!
and the collaborators are limited. Codaset is something that we may be able to afford. Codaset has more features than github. 
)
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