100 Installs!

I’m super excited to see that Diggem hit a milestone of reaching 100 installs.

Thanks to my family and friends that contributed to some of those installs. This is a truly awesome journey. I added a dedicated page to the game, which includes a change log for those curious on the engineering side what’s going on. There are also other really fun aspects of game development that I want to share.

First, while I’m very happy to reach my first 100 installs, I do recognize there are many other important metrics to track. Currently I’m watching data on retention and a few interactions. I believe that there are still a handful of features to implement to offer a better experience while playing and also more data to guide me.

Next, besides time, I’ve also put a small investment into visual assets and advertising. What shocked me is how effective the advertisement platforms are. I created a “easy button” campaign using Google Ads and from that I’m getting a steady flow of installs. Those installs are currently offering me the insight that “this game still not good enough”. While I know some could see this as  discouraging, I love that I have a tool that will give me visibility on whether I’m moving in the right direction.

Finally, I hit a snafu, I lost the password to my keystore due to a series of unfortunate circumstances. Google does have a process to get you back and running but I won’t be able to submit another update until the 14th. I’m super thankful that this process exists, because it seems as though prior to 2017, people had to orphan their old app and create a duplicate.

Thanks for reading this, I’m super excited about this adventure! Let me know if you have any words of wisdom or ideas to share!