I’ve reached an interesting branching point in my iOS app: I don’t know if it’s worth finishing or not. Over the past couple months, I’ve made quite a lot of progress: the app is 100% functional, with 3 modes, and 4 themes. It’s partially localized, bug free (as near as I can tell), stable, fast, and in general, it looks pretty good. In fact, all that’s left is to polish the UI and put the alternative themes behind a paywall – and I may stop here.
When to call it quits
Even though the app is probably 95% done, I think this is where I’ll leave it.
- I’ve learned a lot about SwiftUI and app dev, and while I love the language, I hate Apple’s developer experience with a passion. Xcode is painfully slow, and their documentation constantly feels incomplete and lacks examples, leading to wasted hours.
- My plan was to place the additional themes behind a paywall to see if I could break even with the cost of the account. I spent a good 8 hours trying to figure out how to implement in-app purchases because none of Apple’s dev documentation mentions that you must have your account and app fully registered with them to accomplish any experimentation.
- I also intend to register an LLC to be the public owner of the software and account so it’s not tied to my personal Apple ID. This adds more to the required ROI, and I want to make sure I don’t accidentally get into tax troubles.
- None of the above is that big of a deal, except there’s still no guarantee my app gets published – if Apple decides I’ve broken some obscure rule, or that my app is too similar to the other dice rolling apps out there, that’s months of wasted work.
- Frankly, I’m frustrated with Apple’s handling of virtually everything to do with their App ecosystem and I’m not sure I want to be in that ecosystem right now, or if I’d rather build for the web.
- I’m not sure I’m actually willing to sign up for long-term code ownership of a product and take on the burden of bug fixes, OS updates, and so on.
I’m not definitely call it quits on this – just examining my priorities. I actually have a much more interesting app idea for fitness and habit tracking bouncing that is more interesting. And I’ve got a backlog of game design prototypes I’d like to build out – and I miss just ‘creating art.’ And ultimately that’s what this is all about – learning and having fun. And if I learned what I can, and I’m not having fun, maybe this is a good place to call it.