The Emotional Rollercoaster of the First Launch

So I'm a bit of a mess right now.

I think this is pretty reasonable.  After all, I've just launched my first real (by which I mean "for profit") game on the App Store since going independent about half a year ago.  It took too long to make, but it's a pretty fun little game in the end and I'm proud of it.

Or I was proud of it.  Then I submitted it to Apple for review.  And then, every little flaw caused me to panic.  Every thought was how it wasn't good enough, and how I was doomed, and how I have no idea what I'm doing, and so on.  Not to mention getting worried about taxes, managing the profits, paying revshare, and other "real life" issues.

And then it went from Waiting For Review to In Review, and for a while I had to focus on teaching myself to breathe again.  After a near-miss death by asphyxiation, I spent even more time panicking and worrying.  I literally have never been more stressed in my entire life.

But peace came when In Review became Processing For App Store and finally, Ready For Sale.  But that was short lived as discovery of various tax forms and agreements which needed to be done for app sale came to light, and processing of said forms took forever, and... well, you get the picture.

Finally, though, it was up on the App Store.  But now my stress refocused on sales, statistics, social networking, marketing, sending promo codes to review sites, and somehow, an even larger focus of updates to get in the game for a v1.1 release.  At first I kept refreshing iTunes Connect's Sales and Trends section, but apparently that doesn't update fast enough, so I started watching the ranking of the app on the Top Paid iPhone Apps list (where it is currently hovering around 152 or 153).  There was a brief moment when it jumped to 85, but a refresh and it was back to 153.  I still don't know what that was about, and probably never will, but it was not good for my health, I tell ya.

But you know what? It'll be okay.  I have friends who are retweeting and playing the game.  It's not the end of the world if it doesn't become a smash hit, though I'd love for it to be featured or at least put up in the New & Noteworthy section (although I have no idea how that gets done, or if there's anything I can do to help it along). It's finished (though there is an update planned), it's available, some people are buying it, and it's only day one.  It can only get better from here.

And I still have the high score on the Game Center leaderboards.

Please consider purchasing Flew the Coop and helping ease Jason's troubled heart.

You can read more of Jason's blogging at http://blog.jpkgames.com