Original Summary

On 31 August I had an empty project. On 10 September I pressed Submit for Review, and on the 14th The Galaxy We Made was in the App Store: a small, calm colony builder for iPhone across Earth, the Moon and Mars, with a beginning, a middle and two endings. One purchase, no ads, no accounts, fully offline. Built and released by one person. How the eleven days went Day 1: the skeleton. A grid, terrain, five buildings, a power simulation, a save file. Not a game yet, but everything the game stands on. Days 2–4: the economy. Ore as the currency, population as the constraint, knowledge as the second stockpile, a tech tree, three worlds and freight between them. This is where it became a game, and where most balance decisions were made and then remade. Days 5–8: the things you notice without being able to name them. A voiced advisor, music, a day and a night, a crew you can actually see walking around, and every building remodelled because the first ones read as pictograms. Days 9–10: the story. A start screen, missions that explain themselves, milestones, and finally an ending. The game had no end until the second-to-last day, and it showed. Day 11: the store. Screenshots, texts, an icon that holds up next to the screenshots, a price with a reason, privacy answers, the submission itself. A full day. Plan for it. What I would tell myself on day one Ship the smallest game that has an ending. A tester said it in one sentence: "what now?" A game that simply runs on is not finished, however much is in it. Write down the why, not just the what. One file with every decision and the reason behind it. It is the file you will read most, and it stops you relitigating the same choice a week later. Build instruments before you need them. A scripted bot that plays the game at machine speed told me the last technology was priced so that nobody would ever reach it. Automated checks for the rules, a way to stage any scene, a way to pull single frames out of a screen recording. Every one paid for itself within a day. Play it on the phone every evening. Not the simulator. The phone, sound on, in the hand you will hold it in. Most of what I fixed was found that way and would not have been found any other way. Cut what you cannot defend. The store text used to promise "an evening". A number about time is a promise the player measures against, so it went. Treat the store as a milestone of its own. Screenshots, icon, texts within Apple's limits, privacy answers, price. Give it a day. Stop. There is a moment after which another week of polish teaches you less than a week in the store. Mine came the day the icon looked right at 60 pixels. Links App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6808201480 Website with screenshots: https://thegalaxywemade.com The long version of the eleven days: https://medium.com/@c.koch/eleven-days-to-a-colony-what-i-learned-shipping-my-first-ios-game-153dc439dc5b Every rule in the game and the reason behind it: https://medium.co

  • 情报分类：硬件与数码
  • 分类依据：内容涉及硬件、数码产品或通信卡
  • 信息来源：Reddit · SideProject
  • 发布时间：2026/9/19 04:13:25