

Show HN: Monster Coloring Book, my first App just launched. What do you think? - zarprey
http://www.monstercoloringbook.com

======
tomerico
If sales won't go so well, or if you would like to try a different marketing
approach, you might consider this:

Instead of asking for money upfront, you should give the app for free with a
few sample monsters. Then you can provide the full package with in-app
purchase. The logic behind it is that it will be easier to convince the
parents to pay for it, after their kids love it. Another reason - with a $2.99
price point, it will be hard for you to hit the top list, which has the most
influence on your sales. But you could charge that in an in-app purchase
without affecting your listing in the free apps.

If you decide to do it, make sure to ask the user to upgrade in strategic
locations (For example, after they launch it several times, after they finish
all the paintings, etc.)

Good luck!

~~~
marakas
I am not convinced that kids will nag their parents enough to make them pay to
upgrade - I suspect most parents will just be happy to let their kid play with
the free version.

~~~
crgt
We worry about this as well, actually. In fact it's been interesting to get
the comments pushing back on IAP, because our concern to date has been that we
gave away too much content for free. What's interesting about that Flurry
article I linked to is that it's a fraction of the market that's driving the
majority of the IAP revenue...so even if most parents don't go for the in-app
purchase option, the ones that do should (we hope!) help us keep our lights
on.

~~~
marakas
Have you considered going straight for the paid option ( ie. no free content )
and seeing how much demand you have? I think the app looks a lot better than
most of the stuff already out there, and the price point would reassure
parents that they are getting a high-quality product for their kids.

~~~
crgt
We've tried a premium-only approach with previous apps and we've gotten
feedback that our users like the option to try before they buy - which is what
led us to IAP.

Also, when we've tried a premium-only approach our apps have been made
available for jailbroken devices within a couple of weeks, with little chance
to directly monetize these pirated free copies of our apps. See, for example:
[http://theikidsblog.com/blog/2010/11/30/arr-there-be-
pirates...](http://theikidsblog.com/blog/2010/11/30/arr-there-be-pirates-in-
these-parts/)

This time around our approach was to build a premium product, price it
accordingly and let people try it out via the free version. It's hard to know
what the best way to handle it is - but that's definitely part of the fun of
the wild west of mobile apps these days..and as I mentioned in an earlier
comment, the freemium model seems to have a lot of traction..

------
huhtenberg
I have a gentleman who is into this sort of thing and I've played through most
of AppStore apps with him. They fall into exactly two categories - shorter
games that are shallow in their content with low re-playability and longer,
more elaborate games for older kids. And I can tell you with certainty that
3-5 year olds is an under-served market.

With regards to the app (the paid version of it) - it looks promising, but the
test subject is napping. Three things though -

(a) the app is lagging heavily on iPad 1. For example, clicking on the ? icon
scrolls the page up in jerky increments, it looks like the app is really
struggling.

(b) the music selection is a no-go. For one, I doubt the classics will fly
with my kid, and for two - it will most certainly annoy the hell out of my
wife and myself.

(c) the "purchase more" hooks - I appreciate why you have them, but as a rule
of thumb I will do my best to avoid any apps that have in-app purchases.
Having for-a-fee options always leads to "what is that?", "why can't I press
this button?" and so on and on. This is a not so subtle form of parent arms'
twisting by an app developer and I as a parent passionately hate it.

On a more constructive note regarding (c) - add a single option in a config
menu "hide all related to real money" _or_ let me buy ALL you optionals at
once (full unlock) _or_ explain exactly how the accumulation of monsterbucks
works. Nothing else would do. Let me reiterate how I really _really_ don't
like my child being used as a leverage for milking me for follow-up purchases.

~~~
crgt
Thanks so much for the feedback. Always nice to get a counterpoint to the
sunshine and roses you hear from friends, family and the like.

Regarding:

a) Performance. Very disappointing to hear that you are experiencing lag. We
did extensive device testing on iPad 1, and while we can't get the app to
perform like it does on iPad 2 (SJ wasn't kidding about 7x graphical
performance on the iPad 2), we did think we had gotten it to a stable, smooth
operating state for the original iPad. Sounds like that's not the case for
you. Would you be willing to let us know whether you downloaded the free or
the paid version? And what version of iOS are you running? We'd love to
address any issues you're seeing, but any further info you can provide is very
helpful for any fine tuning.

b) Music. It's a funny thing, very much a matter of taste. My kids (age 2,4)
love the music. In fact, the three of us had a huge dance party to the Brahms
piece from the app to celebrate launch. Sorry it's not your thing. We would
have loved to include some music from Philip Glass, but we couldn't work out
the licensing. Any suggestions on what you would like to hear?

c) In-App Purchase. Very familiary with your sentiment regarding IAP. That
said, the freemium model seems here to stay - see for example:
[http://blog.flurry.com/bid/67748/Consumers-Spend-Average-
of-...](http://blog.flurry.com/bid/67748/Consumers-Spend-Average-of-14-per-
Transaction-in-iOS-and-Android-Freemium-Games) And while there is a (vocal)
group of folks that don't like this model, there are lots of people out there
that are OK with it - and this is the market we've chosen to serve, in part
because they pay. That said, for those parents out there that really dislike
IAP, Apple does offer the ability to disable it from the device settings. This
was enough for us, but if we continue to get this kind of feedback, we can
relook at it.

Finally, I'm assuming that you don't go to carnivals, stores, malls, or
anywhere else with your kids where they might be tempted to ask you for more
of something that they like? Sorry for the snark with this last comment, but
it's hard to hear complaints about asking for money for our hard work as
anything other than a devaluation of the work itself. Parents don't blink at
19.99 for a new Lightning McQueen toy, but asking for half that amount for
something of significantly greater entertainment value via IAP is somehow
wrong? I struggle to get my head around that. But perhaps more of the
community here can help me make sense of that POV?

Again, thanks for all the feedback, both positive and negative. Take my
response with a grain of salt - there's a good chunk of my blood, sweat and
tears in this baby..hard to detach from the criticism..

~~~
huhtenberg
> _Parents don't blink at 19.99 for a new Lightning McQueen toy_

For one, I am not one of these parents. For two, Lightning McQueen toy is not
sitting in a middle of my living room. Feel the difference, as they say.

On a tangential note - I am willing to pay $15-20 for your app if it comes
with no strings attached. Would this be worth a try for you? Package it as
"Deluxe" edition and see how it goes. You might be surprised how many people
hate in-app purchase model (which is not a _freemium_ by the way, it's more of
a much despised _trialware_ ).

~~~
crgt
Love the idea of a Deluxe version. We had actually discussed it, but we were
worried about diluting our audience across three versions of the app - it's
hard to chart in the App Store if you split your audience three ways.
Honestly, it's hard to chart period.

Once the dust of launch settles, we'll very likely revisit this suggestion.
Our aim is to get our content in the hands of kids (of all ages!) that will
enjoy it...and to make enough money to keep doing what we're doing. Your
suggestion is perfectly compatible with that.

As for LMQ not being in your living room...well he is in mine. He's on my TV,
in the drive-thru, everywhere...I understand your point, but my point is that
I think that IAP is uniquely villainized for doing something very similar to
what a lot of other industries have been doing for awhile - building on a
branded experience and trying to make money by delivering additional value.
But again, you are right - many people share your take, and a deluxe version
could help to serve that crowd.

Thanks again for taking the time to share your thoughts on the app and related
issues. Very helpful.

~~~
_mrc
The difference is the LMQ toy doesn't come with a button to buy another one.

------
strager
I don't have an iOS device, so I can't comment on the app itself.

The flavour the site's design adds is excellent. Major props for that.

I think it'd be cool if the background was `position: fixed;`.

I also really like the social aspect on the site ("Super awesome monsters
created by our community."). I think a "monster of the day" would be an
excellent way to get people motivated and involved (as sort of a competition).

Judging from the video, there doesn't seem to be an undo button in the app.
Seems like one should be there.

Sadly, the site loaded slowly for me (~15 seconds; I'm on a low-bandwidth
connection), and in that time, things were shifting position and some text was
unreadable.

~~~
zarprey
Thanks for your thoughts. I'll definitely look into the slow loading of the
site. We've been trying to get everything together so quickly we probably
didn't optimize it as much as we could have. I'll go back through and try to
fix that for sure.

Undo isn't in the app right now but it's on the list for a future update.

~~~
ZoFreX
I'm literally about to go to bed so I can't reply quickly, but if you want
some tips on speeding up your front-end, my contact details are on my profile.

------
watmough
That looks great.

It would be great to have a baby mode, where tapping the screen did a random
coloring, and maybe played a sound.

My daughter isn't two yet, but she really likes to swipe at photos and make
them go from side to side.

------
ForrestN
The site design at least is very beautiful, congratulations! I especially like
all of the extra content you've added, the store, the "freebies", etc. My only
idea to make it even better would be eventually writing some kind of subtle
animation into the monster, or alternating the monster for different sections
of the site.

To pay HN back for all the feedback and buzz, consider writing up a blog post
about the process, and how sales and marketing go. I, at least, would love to
read about it and learn from your experience.

~~~
crgt
Great idea!

~~~
crgt
This should end up as a good case study - we just got featured on the front
page of the App Store. Thanks again to HN for the support. Will let you know
how things go from here..

------
minikomi
Silly suggestions from an ex kindergarten teacher:

\- let the kids record a "sound" to go with the monster

\- a "hairy" brush set.

~~~
zarprey
Some good ideas here, thanks!

------
guynamedloren
I almost never share things like this on Facebook, but I shared Monster
Coloring Book. I don't even own an iOS device, but the execution/design seems
spot on. I see this becoming highly successful - congrats!

~~~
zarprey
Thanks, really appreciate the help spreading the word.

------
ecaroth
Congrats on the release - Love the design, looks very easy and fun to use!

------
BasDirks
"Monster Coloring Book is like fingerpainting without the mess."

Mess is good! :D But it looks fun and the monsters are nice.

Tip: increase the contrast of your navigation items. My parents/grandparents
can't read that too well.

Also: maybe aim your pitch at the user instead of the parent a bit more.

------
jshen
I'm not sure who your intended audience is, but the UI is very hard to use for
little kids. You have lots of text based UI elements, and they have to click
to a page to change the brush, then click on 'color' to go back to their
drawing, etc. You pop up text dialogs asking them if they want to save their
drawing before they can change monsters, and there is some kind of 'balance'
which I have figured out yet.

Maybe your intended audience isn't little kids, but if it is you should make
the UI simpler and not require reading skills.

------
smiler
One thing to consider (and I'm not in the colouring book market), but....

Are you planning other colouring books? Some parents may not want their kids
colouring in monsters and may prefer other types of colouring in.

Little girls might want to colour in princesses with lots and lots of pink...

Are you going to focus on monsters forever or are you going to expand it?

~~~
crgt
This app is going to stay focused on Monsters - but we will consider branching
out with other coloring apps if we have enough success here to warrant it.

------
jamesteow
It'd be awesome if you set up a system where people can press a button and
have you send a killer color printout (for a premium fee)

~~~
zarprey
That's actually something we've talked about but haven't worked out the
logistics of yet. :)

------
hermanthegerman
Nice design! The examples colorings look a bit too much like done by an
illustrator though, is this targeted for kids ?

~~~
zarprey
Thanks. It's targeted for kids of all ages.

------
soulbow
Great app, I've been playing with it on my iPhone 3GS for a few minutes.

The only suggestion I could offer is to make the text in the help sections a
little larger. On this non-retina display, it is hard to read.

~~~
zarprey
Thank you and thanks for the feedback, we'll definitely look into that for the
next update.

------
liedra
Really fun! I quite enjoyed going back to my childhood and colouring in :D
Only one small problem - the app regularly crashed after attempting to "buy"
patterns.

eta: it was patterns, not stickers.

~~~
zarprey
Sorry for the crashes - any chance you could let me know what device you are
using it on?

~~~
liedra
Oh, sorry for delay in response, but original iPad. It was the full version
too.

------
marakas
Beautiful design, lovely idea, I will be downloading this tonight. Do you have
any plans for localizing it to other languages ? ( I think it would be a
successful app in Japan )

~~~
zarprey
Thank you, we are definitely thinking about localizing.

------
raster_blaster
This looks great!

I would be worried to use that name though.

~~~
crgt
why?

~~~
fragsworth
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_Cable_Products#Trademar...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_Cable_Products#Trademark_and_patent)

I wouldn't change the name of your product based on these lawsuits, though.

~~~
crgt
Hm. Well, we did also consider the name Monsters Ink, but stayed away because
we didn't want any trouble. Seems hard to tie your shoes these days without
someone filing a lawsuit.

------
qsun
Why is the Facebook like button on the lightbox of video rather than the front
page? After I closed the lightbox, I tried to find the `like' button but
failed.

~~~
zarprey
Whoops. Good point, when we swapped the site from the holding page to the
launched state we forgot to add that back. I'll have to fix that.

------
zarprey
Thanks for all the kind words everyone. We're really excited about this app
and appreciate the help spreading it around as well as the
feedback/suggestions.

------
marcamillion
Love this.

Is this an iOS app, i.e. written in Objective-C? Or is this a web app, written
in HTML5, JS & CSS?

~~~
zarprey
Thanks! It's an iOS app written in Objective-C.

------
trbecker
Very nice. Excelent idea, and it looks beautiful. If you had a +1 or like
button, I would have clicked both.

------
zemariamm
I love the design,congrats! Although I don't have an iOS device to test it on

------
bdickason
Great video, liked it enough to share it with a few friends on FB.

~~~
zarprey
thanks! really appreciate the help spreading it around.

------
broot
Site design is really great, really well done Zarprey!

------
tednaleid
Looks great! Just bought it for my almost 4 year old.

------
jbot29
Congrats on the launch.

------
ed209
very sweet, good work! Hope it does really well for you.

------
azsromej
well done, I like the design

------
mkramlich
neat idea. good luck!

------
czzarr
wow, really nice!

------
jsavimbi
Very cool. I'm jealous of you right now and I hope it sells well.

