Whenever I start a project, I eventually find myself obsessing over every little detail. Flyby is no exception. The truth is: Flyby was largely ready for release for over a month before it actually launched. So why did it take so long to release it? Were there any bugs or features that caused problems? Was App Store Review a nightmare?
The Problem...it's me?
If I may, I'd like to journey away from Flyby for a brief moment, and share a story about one of my dearest hobbies: filmmaking. When it comes to filmmaking, I obsess over every detail on screen. The image needs to be perfect, without error. This obsession has resulted in delayed releases, a complete re-think of a project, or, in some cases, cancelling it all together. The same applies to app development.
In the past I've mentioned something called "The O13 Standard," which encapsulates the way One Thirteen approaches software development, filmmaking, monetization, and privacy. This standard that I've created for One Thirteen helps me keep the project's scope in check, but also ensures that several quality thresholds are met before release. This is typically a good thing, but for Flyby, it turned into paralysis. Release Paralysis, if you will.
Breaking Free
Getting stuck in your own head is never fun, and I was spiraling in mine for weeks over Flyby. I was obsessed with details that no one would ever reasonably notice, and wound up becoming a little too fixated on the 3D world. A trick I've used before to help end the cycle of progress/no-progress is the simple deadline. It sounds cliche, but once a firm release date was set, everything else started to fall into place.
App Store Review
Despite my hesitations and refusal to submit to Apple until it was more-than-ready, Flyby's App Store Review process was entirely painless. An initial rejection cited errors in Flyby's App Description. Once those changes were made, I resubmitted everything using the same thread/submissions. Two days later, Flyby was approved for takeoff.
Return to Home
Getting Flyby off the landing pad and into the air took a little more than I initially expected, but at this point, that may not be surprising. The biggest hurdle Flyby ever faced throughout development was, well, me. I suppose that's a good thing, because it ensured Flyby is of high quality, but it also introduced complacency and laziness. And some fear.
Regardless of the feelings leading up to and immediately after release, I couldn't be more proud of Flyby and the way it incorporates so many different data sources, features, and settings. And this is only the beginning.
This post marks the end of our Flyby Development Logs, but this isn't the last time you'll be seeing posts about Flyby...
Until next time, Nick out.
One More Thing...
Flyby's first major update, Version 1.1, is now available! Alongside performance and bug fixes, Version 1.1 introduces a new dynamic weather system for Free Flight, 3D drone scanning, Locale collections, new widgets, and more!