7 posts tagged with "apps"

SHIP LOG: Backseat Games - Store 1.5.1 - live Oct 31

Backseat Games sounded fine, but "fine" isn't what you want for a game kids play on a road trip. Version 1.5.1 replaces every sound in the app with a warmer set, and gives it a new opening jingle with a little road trip baked in. Apple approved it fast, and it went live on Oct 31.

What happened​

• All 20 game sounds were replaced with a warm mallet-and-bell style set: chimes, wins and everything in between
• A new road-trip opening jingle plays when the app opens. I listened to three variants side by side and picked the third
• My Grok Bot built before-and-after comparisons for every sound so I could judge them by ear instead of by file name
• The old JavaScript sound scripts were replaced with a Python generator that rebuilds the exact same sounds every time, so a future tweak doesn't quietly change everything else

Before and after​

Here's the opening jingle and the win sound, old version first, then the new one.

Opening jingle

Before:

After:

Win

Before:

After:

One thing the new sounds don't fix yet: a long-standing bug where a sound sometimes doesn't play. It's on the backlog.

Building the app was the fun part. Getting anyone to notice it is the next one. This week Backseat Games went out to its first reviewers, with everything they need to try the whole app.

What happened​

• All three holiday themes (Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas) were approved in App Store Connect
• Every in-app purchase now has reviewer codes, so a reviewer can unlock the full app without buying anything
• The first pitches went to Kids App World, GeekDad and Appysmarts
• The Backseat Games privacy page got a permanent statement that the app has no ads, analytics or tracking, and now covers the theme purchases too
• My Homol Works Grok Bot drafted the pitches and I approved each one before it went out

SHIP LOG: Memento Mori - Store 1.1.0 - live Oct 29

Memento Mori 1.1 is live. It took two tries, and the first try taught me something about App Store Connect I won't forget.

What happened​

• I checked 1.1 end to end in TestFlight before submitting
• Apple rejected the first submission: the new in-app purchase hadn't been submitted along with the build
• The lesson: a brand-new in-app purchase has to be attached to and submitted with the app version that uses it, not on its own afterward
• I fixed it, resubmitted, and 1.1 went live on Oct 29

SHIP LOG: Memento Mori · Store 1.1.0 · headed to the App Store

Memento Mori has had no ads since launch. Version 1.1 is the first step toward it paying for itself: a few small, non-personalized banner ads, and a one-time $3.99 Remove Ads purchase for anyone who'd rather not see them. This morning I saw a real ad running in the app on TestFlight, so 1.1 is headed to the App Store for review now.

What's in 1.1​

• Banner ads on This Week, Memoir and Stats — Calendar and Dreams never show ads
• A one-time Remove Ads in-app purchase for $3.99, plus Restore Purchases under Settings → Ads
• Ads are non-personalized, and everything else still stays on your phone
• A little goal-UI polish along the way

How it came together​

• RevenueCat handles the purchase and entitlement, on top of StoreKit; I set up the IAP in App Store Connect, the RevenueCat product and offering, and baked the RevenueCat iOS key into TestFlight builds
• AdMob serves the banners; the app was approved in AdMob this morning and the first live banner ad unit is wired in through a TestFlight environment variable
• AdMob needs to verify the developer website, so I published app-ads.txt right here on homol.work
• Most of this was a back-and-forth with Cursor in my Memento Mori workspace ("is RevenueCat a website?" was a real question I asked)

What's next​

Submit 1.1 for review, then double-check Remove Ads and Restore on the store build. I'll post again when it's live.

Memento Mori on the App Store — 1.1 with the ads and the Remove Ads option arrives once Apple approves it.

SHIP LOG: Backseat Games · App Store 1.5 · Built with Cursor

Backseat Games 1.5 is live on the App Store — Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas looks you can buy separately, plus Hangman that finally matches the rest of the doodled roadside.

Right after 1.4.0 went live, the next train was seasonal: families should be able to buy a full holiday look before travel. Classic stays free. Each season is its own one-time IAP — preview in the Store, buy once, apply anytime in Settings.

What’s new in 1.5​

• Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas theme packs — home heroes, sky bleeds, seasonal logo beats, critters, and holiday bingo icons
• Each pack is a separate IAP; Classic remains the original road-trip look
• Hangman moved off formula line draws onto doodled sprites, so misses feel playful and the figure can wear the season (hitchhiker, skeleton, pilgrim, snowman)

Holiday looks​

Hangman that can wear a season​

Go play​

Backseat Games on the App Store

Free to download and join. Classic theme is always free. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are optional one-time unlocks. More on the Backseat Games home, privacy, and support pages.

SHIP LOG: Backseat Games · App Store 1.4.0 · 2026-10-16 · Built with Cursor

Backseat Games 1.4 is live on the App Store — two new road-trip games on the host board, Hangman Solo that feels like the rest of the car, and a five-sign hero that finally matches what you can play.

What’s new in 1.4​

• Hangman and Color Catch join License Plates, Sign Game, and Travel Bingo — five games on the roadside signpost
• Hangman Solo with Easy / Medium / Hard from a local word list, cream road-dash letter tiles, and a hitchhiker drawing that grows as you miss
• Host chrome painted so the new games read as real signs, not stickers

The polish pass landed on TestFlight earlier this month (Hangman roadside solo); today that train is on the public App Store.

Go play​

Backseat Games on the App Store

Free to download and join. One-time host unlock if you want to run the lobby. More on the Backseat Games home, privacy, and support pages.

SHIP LOG: Memento Mori · App Store · 2026-10-01 · Built with Cursor

Memento Mori is live on the App Store — a private life-in-weeks calendar for seeing your 90 years clearly, setting three goals each week, and staying present without handing your data to the cloud.

What it is​

Your life as a grid of 4,680 weeks. The ones you have lived, the one you are in, and the ones still ahead — not to alarm you, to help you choose how to spend this week.

• This Week — three goals: work, friends & family, personal
• Life calendar — mark meaningful weeks, add notes and reflections
• Dreams — a life list you can break into steps
• Memoir — weekly reflections that accumulate as you go
• Home Screen widgets — life progress, goals, and dreams-vs-time without opening the app
• Private by design — data stays on your device; export a backup anytime

Version 1.0 is free — no ads, no IAP.

Why it shipped now​

App Store prep started earlier this summer: Skia calendar, brand-coin widgets, hub pages on Homol Works, then a long stretch of review hardening (widgets, SF Symbols chrome, post-tutorial boot). Today it clears the last gate — it’s actually downloadable.

The Memento Mori home on Homol Works has the screens, the widgets shot, privacy, and support. The App Store listing is where you install it.

Go try it​

Memento Mori on the App Store

If a widget goes stale, a reminder misfires, or something feels wrong for how you reflect — email me from the support page. v1.0 is a beginning, not a victory lap.