Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I thought it would be worthwhile to do so. I wanted to address a few things, talk about plans for 2011, and solicit your feedback on a priority list for 2011.
Starting from nothing and building my Android app "Fantasy Football" over the course of 6 weeks was a crazy experience. I put in a ridiculous number of hours in planning, developing, and supporting it. Far more than I ever expected to. I had high hopes in terms of implementing all of the functionality I possibly could. From the very first release, I took a very iterative approach to adding new features and they quickly piled up in just a few weeks. With each feature came hundreds of emails asking questions and seeking support when things weren't quite right.
What I realized was that supporting something used by thousands of people, that worked with such a highly configurable product like MFL, is a very time consuming task. So, I focused on hardening the core functionality the app provided. I always had the main goal of providing a perceived value of $2.99 to customers. That's the point after all. I want someone to see my app in the Android Market, see what it does, and think it's worth $2.99 of their hard-earned money. I definitely think I hit that mark in 2010 and the reviews and positive personal emails I've received were very much in line with that.
In October, everything calmed down in terms of support as the application had begun to mature and I took many extra steps, mostly unseen through the UI, to make it less likely users would have issues when using the app. I felt good about where the app was and I was rather exhausted from 2 months of working all day, then coming home to work another 4-5 hours on the app. Happy with where the app was, the value it provided, the reviews and emails I was getting, I took a much needed break from day to day development on the app. I felt good about what I was giving fantasy football nuts, such as myself, for $2.99.
Now, I did continue to keep a wish list of items from various sources and this thread alone has been the best source of requests I've received. MFL has improved their API since the fall and I plan on implementing the features they've introduced, but I also intend to implement other ideas brought up here and other places. The huge benefit I have, and therefore my customers have, is that I'm not starting over for this year's app. The 2010 app was opened up just over 430,000 times from Sept-Dec 2010. That's a lot of hours put into proving the core of the app works and letting me think about adding to it, and not worrying about fixing arising issues from it.
I've already started the development cycle for the 2011 app for a number of reasons. Mostly to get well out in front of Sept, to not be rushed like I was last year when I wrote the first line of code for the entire application in early August and had a fully functioning application just a few weeks later. I couldn't keep up that pace again, I guess I'm getting old.
But also, because MFL has added some great stuff to their API around their draft system. I've recently published a version of the app for 2011 that gives you a real-time view of your draft. It shows you who's been drafted, at which position (1.02, 2.10, etc), who's next, and which spot your team drafts at next. This view updates in real-time, so there's no need to refresh the screen for updates. When it is your turn to pick, you'll get an Android notification letting you know. The application manages a background service that starts when your phone boots up and checks the MFL servers every 30 minutes, for each league you have registered with the app, and sees if you're up. If so, you'll get a notification letting you know so and which league you're up for. Also, when it's your turn, you'll have the opportunity to make your draft pick through the app as well. I plan to make the update interval configurable so if you need quicker updates than 30 mins, you'll be able to do that. That, in addition to everything the app did last year, is already together and available for 2011.
I want to say I still have the list of requests everyone has already made and I've been putting them in an order to complete, for those that I can implement. If you want to keep those coming, please do, and I'll gladly add them and prioritize based on how many of the same requests I'm getting and how much of an impact they appear to be. In fact, it might be an interesting idea to make that list public via Google Docs. I'll need to think about that and see what makes sense.
So to finish up this monster essay I've seemingly just written, thanks for your support in 2010 and helping me make my app better by suggestions and feedback. I fully intent to raise the bar in 2011.