Charging Money For Apps

[craigix]

No. All comments should be kept, no matter how old. Automatic removal of comments would just provide a simple way to get rid of any criticism.

I like the idea about having comments for old versions having a slightly darker background, or something.

I'm going to make a bar which says 'These comments were for a previous version' and the older ones go under that.

Keep ideas coming as it is quite awkward to add in new features once it's up and running, although i'm trying to leave 10 unused variables in each file for future use. (maybe I should make that definable... hmmm... what could possibly go wrong...)

 

[Klaus]

Keep ideas coming as it is quite awkward to add in new features once it's up and running, although i'm trying to leave 10 unused variables in each file for future use. (maybe I should make that definable... hmmm... what could possibly go wrong...)

What?! I can't think of any reason for unused variables at all...

 

[dflemstr]

No. All comments should be kept, no matter how old. Automatic removal of comments would just provide a simple way to get rid of any criticism.

I like the idea about having comments for old versions having a slightly darker background, or something.

I'm going to make a bar which says 'These comments were for a previous version' and the older ones go under that.

Keep ideas coming as it is quite awkward to add in new features once it's up and running, although i'm trying to leave 10 unused variables in each file for future use. (maybe I should make that definable... hmmm... what could possibly go wrong...)

Err... files? You ARE using a *relational* database, right? right?

EDIT: also, is there any chance of getting a REST API for this beast so that alternative frontends can be created for it (like a Pandora-local app store application)?

 

[Kramy]

Can't be bothered finding the right thread, so here's all my suggestions:

The main info pane (list of apps with description) should probably have tabs on it. That way you can click on "Newest", "Search Results", "Most Popular", "Highest Rated", "[GameName]", etc. to flip the main part of the page to whatever you're interested in. I'm a fan of categories on the left.

I'd design a way to shutdown & upgrade before putting it into production. There will be unexpected changes... there always are.

You need a way to link related downloads, not necessarily from the same author. Ex: Fancy TD Demo and Fancy TD, or N64 emu and N64 render plugin.

Then you could even do stuff like create a game "Free TD List" that all free TDs are welcome to link to. Nothing to download, but there would be dozens of icons to follow. It'd take some of the burden off the search system.

 

[darien]

I think a percentage is more fair than a fixed cost. At a fixed cost, you could essentially fix prices as passing on the store costs to the buyers. This is ironic because if a developer scales their price anyways out of awareness of the percentage, it'll still cost more to the buyer, but at the same time I think it will make devs more conscious about their pricing choices.

I'm just wondering how you guys will handle apps that are just impossibly huge in size. As for ratings. I don't think that will be much of a concern if everything picks up and we get our own Pandora sections on sites like IGN etc...

Which reminds me, as a developer, I'd like to be able to send free 1 use download tokens to reviewers without paying for my own game. Also are we on the honor system as far as DRM goes and people sharing accounts?

 

[Rayek]

EDIT: also, is there any chance of getting a REST API for this beast so that alternative frontends can be created for it (like a Pandora-local app store application)?

I second this, mainly because I don't necessarily want to open a web browser every time I want to get an update or new software.

Also, with a web interface, is it possible to enable an auto-update feature for the software you've downloaded? That's another concern with using a web-based app store. I'm used to OpenSUSE which just lets me know occasionally that things are being updated and I don't really have to do anything. I wouldn't use it for most Pandora apps, but having the option to turn on auto updates would be nice to have for the pay apps or non-game ports when the devs decide to release bug fixes or extra features.

If this can't be done with a web-interface, I'd be all for an alternative frontend.

 

[craigix]

Right now you can call a perl script with arguments to get what you want.

 

[Vorporeal]

<snip>

Paying for ports is another good idea. Maybe he can get Osmos ported.

About Osmos... I worked this past summer with one of the guys who developed Osmos (and he's aware of the Pandora and is quite interested in it). A port of Osmos isn't out of the question, IIRC.

 

[craigix]

A port of Osmos would be most amazing.

 

[DasFool]

I bought Osmos during the Steam black friday sales. Great game and runs rather well on my netbook which would imply it is light on resources. I'd pay to have it in a portable format.

And about the application updates, even just a notification would be enough to make me happy. After that all I'd have to do is replace the pnd with the updated one and if all goes well, my old settings kept in the user directory wouldn't need any changing.

 

[Klaus]

Right now you can call a perl script with arguments to get what you want.

May I ask in what format the data is delivered? XML, JSON?

 

[Rockthesmurf]

The AppStore sounds fantastic, I am whole heartily behind it and a split of 75/25 in developers favour also sounds good to me. Look forward to seeing it online!

Steve

 

[Dead1nside]

IF you buy an application you should have re-download rights if you revisit the application page. Also, I think when it comes to GPL applications I still don't mind donating/paying in certain cases but I think it should be your policy to link to the source as well.

 

[Aimless_E]

IF you buy an application you should have re-download rights if you revisit the application page. Also, I think when it comes to GPL applications I still don't mind donating/paying in certain cases but I think it should be your policy to link to the source as well.

Agreed on both points. Though it would be nice to setup a authentication mechanism to count the number of downloads based on how many people download a program not how many times its downloaded.