Circle 2.0 - Your App Business in a Box

Welcome!

Congratulations on starting your journey in building your sustainable App Business. No more delays, no more worries, no more excuses!  Get from Zero to Hero. Just do your homework each and every day for 15 days and you’ll have 3 games on the App Store in no-time!

This first module is a beginners guide. It takes you step by step through the process you will use to build your App Empire. We will go through them slowly this time. It will take 10 days to complete. Once you finish this Module you will be ready to take your App Business to the fast lane.

Prerequisites

Before we begin make sure that you are ready for “takeoff”. Here are the things that need to be in place:

• You need to have a Mac – You can publish iOS apps only in an OSX environment. If you do not already have a Mac consider buying one or using a service like MacInCloud
• Xcode – All iOS apps are built in Xcode. Download and install Xcode from here. It’s free. (note: it will take a while to download and install because it is a few GBs)
• SpriteBuilder – All of Rebeloper source codes are built with the help of SpriteBuilder. SpriteBuilder was a free app on the App Store. As of 2016.01.12. SpriteBuilder is no longer available on the Mac App Store, but you can still download it form here.
• Enroll in the Apple Developer Program – You may develop and test iOS apps but if you do want to publish them on the App Store than you will need to be enrolled. It’s $99/year and you can enroll here.

Start your journey today!

To-do List

1. Download Whack Till You Can
2. Create the images for your main character
3. Add the character to your game in SpriteBuilder

Useful Links

• Download SpriteBuilder from our Dropbox folder
• Gimp – Free photo editor for Mac
• Pixlr – Free online photo editor
• Photoshop
• Sketch

Download: Whack Till You Can

Summary

In this lesson you are going to dive into adding some more images. After that you are going to create your very own BMFont. Finally you will tweak some elements in SpriteBuilder.

To-do List

1. Create the images for the “simple” gameplay
2. Create a custom BMFont
3. Change a label color in SpriteBuilder

Useful Links

• bmGlyph
• Glyph Designer
• Dafont – Fonts
• FontSquirrel – 100% Free For Commercial Use Fonts

Summary

In this lesson you will learn how to enable the “Level System” and how to add your images for it. It’s a short lesson, but a lot of images to make: 15.

Summary

Today you will create your most important asset: the app icon. It’s the first contact with your users so consider making it the best. Than we’ll be talking about the Default images. Finally you will add your very own music. In the meanwhile I’ll show you a neat little trick. Sounds like a plan!

To-do List

1. Create 1024×1024 icon
2. Create project (smaller) icons
3. Change the Bundle Display Name
4. Find the perfect music for your game
5. Add the music to your project
6. Add music attribution

Useful Links

• Apple HIG Icons
• Incompetech – Music for your game

Summary

How will you make money? With ads.

Today we are going to set up your first Ad Network: AdMob. Specifically we are going to create a banner ID.

To-do List

1. Sign up for AdMob
2. Sign into AdMob
3. Create an ID
4. Add the ID to your project

Useful Links

• AdMob

Summary

Chartboost is the King in mobile game ads. Let’s set it up so it may boost your revenue.

In this lesson you will learn how to create your IDs in Chartboost. Than you will populate your “More Apps Page” if you have other apps. Finally you will add your app to a Campaign.

To-do List

1. Sign up / Sign in into Chartboost
2. Create a new app
3. Copy your IDs into your Xcode project
4. Set up the “More Apps Page”
5. Add you app to a Campaign

Useful Links

• Chartboost

You need a backup plan in case Chartboost is not working well enough. This is where Supersonic Ads comes in.

UPDATE: As of May 1st, 2016 Supersonic Ads has joined ironSource. This doesn’t impact anything on your part at all. Just remember that from now on SupersonicAds is ironSource. You can Sign up /Log in into ironSource here.

Note: We have added Fyber as another alternative Ad Network. You can sign up for Fyber here.

Summary

In this short lesson you are going to learn how to create a Supersonic Application Key.

To-do List

1. Sign up / Sign in into ironSource (Supersonic)
2. Create the Application Key
3. Copy the Application Key into your project
4. Sign up / Sign in into Fyber
5. Create the Fyber App ID and Security Token
6. Copy the Fyber IDs into your project

Useful Links

• Supersonic Ads (affiliate link) – Earn some extra dollars to advertise your app
• ironSource (Supersonic Ads) Login
• Fyber Login

Summary

Today we are all Developer Center. We are going to set up everything that is to be set up there.

To-do List

1. Log in into your Developer Center
2. Create and install your Certificate (needs to be done only once)
3. Create an App ID
4. Add your App ID to your Xcode project
5. Create a Distribution Provisioning Profile
6. Link the Profile in the Xcode project
7. Optionally add your test device (needs to be done only once)

Useful Links

• Apple Member Center

Summary

This will be a long day. We are going to set up everything that needs to be set up in iTunes Connect.

To-do List

1. Log in into iTunes Connect
2. Create a new app
3. Set up App Information
4. Set up Pricing
5. Create the In-App Purchase ID
6. Add it to your Xcode project
7. Create the Game Center Leaderboard ID
8. Add it to your Xcode project
9. Create and add your screenshots
10. Add Description, Keywords and Support URL
11. Add Icon, Version, Copyright and Rating
12. Link your In-App Purchase ID
13. Link your Game Center Leaderboard ID
14. Add the App Review Information

Useful Links

• iTunes Connect Login

It’s submission time. Let’s do this!

Summary

Finally the day has come to submit your app for review. Today we are going to finish the setup of your project. Than we are going to upload it to iTunes Connect. Finally you are going to submit it for review.

EDIT: In early May 2016 Apple announced that it has cut down review times to one day. That is a considerable move from Apple since review times in our experience have always been between 10-14 days. The official average waiting days was 8.8 till this awesome change. Thank you, Apple!

To-do List

1. Do final setup of project
2. Archive
3. Upload to iTunes Connect
4. Wait for it to process
5. Submit fro Review

Useful Links

• iTunes Connect Login

Congratulations on submitting your first game! You are ready to take your business to the fast lane. Let’s do it!

By now you are all familiar with the process. In this module you will repeat what you did in the last 10 days, but now much faster. In fact you will submit your next game in 5 days. Start your first lesson now!

Summary

This is your first day, but I will not go easy on you. We will dive right into the middle of it.

To-do List

1. Download Gatherer
2. Create the images for your main character
3. Add the character to your game in SpriteBuilder

Useful Links

• SpriteBuilder
• Gimp – Free photo editor for Mac
• Pixlr – Free online photo editor
• Photoshop
• Sketch
• bmGlyph
• Glyph Designer
• Dafont – Fonts
• FontSquirrel – 100% Free For Commercial Use Fonts
• Incompetech – Music for your games

Summary

In this lesson you are going to add the other images for the “Level System”. Than Add your icon and Default images.

To-do List

1. Add your “Level System” images
2. Create 1024×1024 icon
3. Create project (smaller) icons
4. Change the Bundle Display Name

Useful Links

• Order a Reskin from Rebeloper
• Buy Cool Designs from the Rebeloper Store
• Apple HIG Icons

Summary

Today you will set up all your ad networks. Challenge accepted!

To-do List

1. AdMob Setup
2. Chartboost Setup
3. Supersonic Ads Setup

Useful Links

• AdMob
• Chartboost
• Supersonic Ads (affiliate link) – Earn some extra dollars to advertise your app
• Supersonic Ads Login

The day has finally come! Today you will submit your second app.

Summary

In this lesson you are finally going to submit your second app. All within a 5 days timeframe. Congratulations!

To-do List

1. Do final setup of project
2. Archive
3. Upload to iTunes Connect
4. Wait for it to process
5. Submit fro Review

Useful Links

• iTunes Connect Login

Congratulations on submitting your second game! This is just the beginning. Here are some bonus lessons to help you along your app business journey.

Summary

Don’t panic. It happens to all of us. In this lesson you are going to learn how to handle app rejections. To the Resolution Center!

To-do List

1. Take a look at the feedback of the Review Team
2. Fix the problem or reply to the issue
3. Bump up Build number
4. Archive
5. Upload to iTunes Connect
6. Wait for it to process
7. Submit fro Review

Useful Links

• iTunes Connect Login

Summary

Congratulations! It’s been a long journey but you have finally a proud owner of an app on the App Store. Let’s celebrate by setting up the final things in the ad networks dashboards.

To-do List

1. Final setup for AdMob
2. Final setup for Chartboost
3. Final setup for Supersonic Ads

Useful Links

• AdMob
• Chartboost
• ironSource (Supersonic Ads) Login

Welcome to the your third source code. Go ahead and download it now!

Summary

This is your third code, so you should be able to easily reskin it. If you get stuck go back to the previous lessons and take a look at them for guidance.

Also as of "Update California" you now have access to 9 more source codes for free. That's 12 games in total!

Want to take your app business to the next level?

Summary

Here’s a business plan to follow.

To-do List

1. Get 10 source codes (EDIT: with Update California you get 9 more source codes – see previous lesson)
2. Make 10 themes
3. Upload 100 reskins to the App Store
4. Rinse, repeat

Useful Links

• Rebeloper Contact