Many would say we should have done this from day one.
Better late than never, eh? On Tuesday, September 20, 2011, a brand new, free version of Stealth Bee Jam will become available in the iTunes App Store.
App Store link to Stealth Bee Jam (Free Version)
Now before you get concerned that this free version is some scaled-down, half-functional, Stealth Bee Jam on training wheels, we want to assure you this is not the case. Stealth Bee Jam is, and will always be, a full-featured, slammin' jammin' app with all of the functionality you know (or will know) and love.
The free version comes with one song, Melt My World, a rock song that will give everyone a taste on what it's like to jam. And it's the full song too, not a truncated sample.
Oh, and the paid version's price is dropping from $2.99 US to $1.99, and still comes with three songs (two installed plus one free to download.)
We're also about to launch a new song, but more on that in our next post.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Holy Cow! It's been over two months since our last entry?
Boy time sure does fly around here. How can it have been over two months since the last blog post? What gives?
We're happy to write that things are still jumping here at Stealth Bee Studios. We're about to announce some exciting new things this month.
No details yet, but soon.
And we're putting the finishing touches on a brand new song.
Stay Tuned.
We're happy to write that things are still jumping here at Stealth Bee Studios. We're about to announce some exciting new things this month.
No details yet, but soon.
And we're putting the finishing touches on a brand new song.
Stay Tuned.
Friday, June 17, 2011
The Song Remains the Same
We are currently in the process of creating a version of Stealth Bee Jam for iPhone and iPod Touch. The changes to the application itself will need to account for the smaller screen size of the iPhone and will have an impact on way you jam to the songs.
Along with the changes to the application engine itself, the songs must be modified to accomodate the new form factor as well. For instance, we currently present all three instruments, each having 18 Riff buttons and 11 Single Note buttons. If we were to squeeze all that on an iPhone screen, you'd need a magnifying glass to see the buttons and fingertips the diameter of a #2 pencil.
So to accomodate this, we're choosing the best 12 Riffs and 7 Single Notes from each instrument to present on screen. And you will swipe the screen to move between instruments and the looping tracks. Ironically, we had this UI designed waaay back when we started, only to switch gears and develop the iPad version first.
The need to retool the songs presented the opportunity to clean up the way we put the songs together in the application. No secret, but we use an XML file to describe how each Riff, Note, and Loop is played in relation to the foundation of the song. Generating this XML file is a delicate dance to ensure data integrity as well as the fidelity of the song. Over the course of development, the method for generating the song XML files have had its share of patches and hand-coded exceptions -- all this makes for a not-very-reproducible process and one that is prone to human error.
It took some deconstruction, reconstruction, trial and error, and a lot of head-banging-on-the-desk, but we were able to streamline the process enough so that now if we have to make an adjustment (for instance tweak the volume of a Riff) it's no longer a 90 minute trip down frustration lane. In fact, regenerating a song's XML now takes less than 10 minutes and is pretty much error free.
The big benefit is, going forward, new songs will be even easier to code up.
Along with the changes to the application engine itself, the songs must be modified to accomodate the new form factor as well. For instance, we currently present all three instruments, each having 18 Riff buttons and 11 Single Note buttons. If we were to squeeze all that on an iPhone screen, you'd need a magnifying glass to see the buttons and fingertips the diameter of a #2 pencil.
So to accomodate this, we're choosing the best 12 Riffs and 7 Single Notes from each instrument to present on screen. And you will swipe the screen to move between instruments and the looping tracks. Ironically, we had this UI designed waaay back when we started, only to switch gears and develop the iPad version first.
The need to retool the songs presented the opportunity to clean up the way we put the songs together in the application. No secret, but we use an XML file to describe how each Riff, Note, and Loop is played in relation to the foundation of the song. Generating this XML file is a delicate dance to ensure data integrity as well as the fidelity of the song. Over the course of development, the method for generating the song XML files have had its share of patches and hand-coded exceptions -- all this makes for a not-very-reproducible process and one that is prone to human error.
It took some deconstruction, reconstruction, trial and error, and a lot of head-banging-on-the-desk, but we were able to streamline the process enough so that now if we have to make an adjustment (for instance tweak the volume of a Riff) it's no longer a 90 minute trip down frustration lane. In fact, regenerating a song's XML now takes less than 10 minutes and is pretty much error free.
The big benefit is, going forward, new songs will be even easier to code up.
Monday, May 30, 2011
What happens when you drop your price to Free?
Interesting. Our foray into the realm of distributing Stealth Bee Jam for Free this weekend was very eye-opening. We peaked at #20 on the list of Top Free iPad Music Apps, which was totally unexpected.
Leading up to the weekend, we really had no idea what to expect. We thought we might distribute a few hundred copies. But apparently, Free is a really compelling offer.
Putting on our Marketing hats, we did do some advance promotion for our sale. Last Monday, we sent out an e-mail to press contacts informing them of our price drop. We also employed our social networks on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc to tell our friends and followers about the sale. Unfortunately, we have little idea as to what drove users to seek out Stealth Bee Jam. True, the price drop was also picked up by a number of App Store feed sites like AppShopper.com and FreeAppAlert.com. And we were fortunate to be mentioned among five other apps in a Mac|Life.com posting:
http://www.maclife.com/article/news/price_drop_scrabble_sentinel_3_homeworld_fx_photo_studio_and_stealth_bee_jam
We would love to learn how people who downloaded Stealth Bee Jam over the weekend discovered the offer, but we have absolutely no sourcing data, whatsoever. So we really don't know what worked and what didn't (though we suspect the Mac|Life coverage was a huge contributor.)
And so, as the Memorial Day Weekend winds down, we have much more work ahead of us in the coming weeks and months.
Leading up to the weekend, we really had no idea what to expect. We thought we might distribute a few hundred copies. But apparently, Free is a really compelling offer.
Putting on our Marketing hats, we did do some advance promotion for our sale. Last Monday, we sent out an e-mail to press contacts informing them of our price drop. We also employed our social networks on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc to tell our friends and followers about the sale. Unfortunately, we have little idea as to what drove users to seek out Stealth Bee Jam. True, the price drop was also picked up by a number of App Store feed sites like AppShopper.com and FreeAppAlert.com. And we were fortunate to be mentioned among five other apps in a Mac|Life.com posting:
http://www.maclife.com/article/news/price_drop_scrabble_sentinel_3_homeworld_fx_photo_studio_and_stealth_bee_jam
We would love to learn how people who downloaded Stealth Bee Jam over the weekend discovered the offer, but we have absolutely no sourcing data, whatsoever. So we really don't know what worked and what didn't (though we suspect the Mac|Life coverage was a huge contributor.)
And so, as the Memorial Day Weekend winds down, we have much more work ahead of us in the coming weeks and months.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Memorial Day Sale - Stealth Bee Jam Free
Hurry, the sale runs through May 30.
And if you happen to like the app, consider rating Stealth Bee Jam and writing your review in the App Store.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
A funny thing happened on the way to Stealth Bee Jam for iPhone
Originally designed for iPhone
When we first conceived of Stealth Bee Jam (or whatever we called it way back when) the iPad was not yet even a rumor. Our product features and iPhone user interface designs were carefully mapped out and painstakingly reviewed. We had a full on UI spec that detailed all of the flows.
For example here's a wireframe of the Song List screen.
We also had a pretty extensive set of full color screen layouts that was to provide the basis for the visual design. Here's an early Jam Screen mock up.
But everything changed when the iPad was announced in January. We decided to switch gears and revamp the product to make its debut on the iPad. You can see the design evolution of Stealth Bee Jam for iPad in this YouTube video:
Now we've come full circle and we've finally resumed development of the iPhone version - only now we have to support both Retina and Regular displays.
Surprisingly, when we revisited the user interface specification we did originally designed for the iPhone, we were surprised that we really didn't have to change very much. Of course we leveraged some interface concepts that we incorporated into our iPad version, but at least 80% of the original iPhone mock ups made it into the final product spec.
Here's a current mock up of the Song List screen.
Hopefully, Stealth Bee Jam for iPhone will be taking its place in the App Store real soon.
When we first conceived of Stealth Bee Jam (or whatever we called it way back when) the iPad was not yet even a rumor. Our product features and iPhone user interface designs were carefully mapped out and painstakingly reviewed. We had a full on UI spec that detailed all of the flows.
For example here's a wireframe of the Song List screen.
We also had a pretty extensive set of full color screen layouts that was to provide the basis for the visual design. Here's an early Jam Screen mock up.
But everything changed when the iPad was announced in January. We decided to switch gears and revamp the product to make its debut on the iPad. You can see the design evolution of Stealth Bee Jam for iPad in this YouTube video:
Now we've come full circle and we've finally resumed development of the iPhone version - only now we have to support both Retina and Regular displays.
Surprisingly, when we revisited the user interface specification we did originally designed for the iPhone, we were surprised that we really didn't have to change very much. Of course we leveraged some interface concepts that we incorporated into our iPad version, but at least 80% of the original iPhone mock ups made it into the final product spec.
Here's a current mock up of the Song List screen.
Hopefully, Stealth Bee Jam for iPhone will be taking its place in the App Store real soon.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Not the same 'ol song
We're in the process of finalizing a brand new Stealth Bee Jam song, named "Distant Skies". It's a bit of a departure from our currently available songs in many ways.
First, it came together very quickly.
It was a combination of song structure, experience, and inspiration that led to Distant Skies being developed in record time. As our fifth song, we have evolved our development process (excluding the creative music-making) into a well oiled machine. Everything from creating new instrument riff buttons to selecting background images and generating the meta-data (the behind the scenes settings that controls the jamming) is by now, a well oiled machine.
Second, it's a little spacey, but with a beat.
One might disparagingly call it "New Age Music", or perhaps more flatteringly, "Electronica" (that's the genre category we're going to use.) There's a lush backdrop of synthesizers and driving percussion and some lead instruments that might surprise you. The three instruments are Koto, a Japanese stringed instrument, Pan Flute, and a lead synthesizer.
Third, almost all loops are independent.
Jamming on Distant Skies should produce some very distinctive songs as you can really customize the background track to your heart's content by turning loops on and off at key points in the songs. Want a background track that is virtually all Taiko drums? How about just some ebbing and flowing of spacey sounds? Well the possibilities are 10c9 (if my highly suspect high school math serves me correctly.)
Distant Skies will be appearing in the Stealth Bee Jam "More Songs" screen soon.
First, it came together very quickly.
It was a combination of song structure, experience, and inspiration that led to Distant Skies being developed in record time. As our fifth song, we have evolved our development process (excluding the creative music-making) into a well oiled machine. Everything from creating new instrument riff buttons to selecting background images and generating the meta-data (the behind the scenes settings that controls the jamming) is by now, a well oiled machine.
One might disparagingly call it "New Age Music", or perhaps more flatteringly, "Electronica" (that's the genre category we're going to use.) There's a lush backdrop of synthesizers and driving percussion and some lead instruments that might surprise you. The three instruments are Koto, a Japanese stringed instrument, Pan Flute, and a lead synthesizer.
Third, almost all loops are independent.
Jamming on Distant Skies should produce some very distinctive songs as you can really customize the background track to your heart's content by turning loops on and off at key points in the songs. Want a background track that is virtually all Taiko drums? How about just some ebbing and flowing of spacey sounds? Well the possibilities are 10c9 (if my highly suspect high school math serves me correctly.)
Distant Skies will be appearing in the Stealth Bee Jam "More Songs" screen soon.
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