As I said before, iOS and Android version of Piano 3D required a new UI and UX, because the Windows Store app’s design was ugly, just default gray controls from Unity 3D. Fortunately, I have a friend who agreed to help me with the visual appearance of the app. So in the summer of 2016 we started working on requirements and first wireframe prototypes.
This post is about the process of defining and discussing requirements of the new UI and the challenges we had.
Today we are talking about iOS non-renewing subscriptions and Unity IAP. I implemented such feature in Piano 3D and the process was not straightforward at all, so it is worth to document it here. Again, in this article we are talking exclusively about iOS, Play store subscriptions are different and this info is not relevant to Android development.
What is subscription?
Subscription is a type of in-app purchase (IAP) that allows you to provide some services/content/features for a limited period of time. For example, full access to streaming service (Spotify, Netflix), ad-free access to piano tutorials (Piano 3D), access to a premium collection of photos or videos etc.
The key point here is that users can buy subscriptions multiple times, that makes them a bit similar to consumable IAP. There are two types of subscriptions in AppStore: auto-renewable and non-renewing.
So I’m in the process of marketing Piano 3D and since I don’t have any budget left, the only option is to create more content.
So check this 10x speeded up video of development (don’t forget to subscribe to Piano 3D youtube channel):
I have finally released Piano 3D worldwide on both iOS and Android.
Download iOS version here, and Android version here.
This post will be the first one in the series about Piano 3D, it’s development and design processes, marketing and distribution.
Today we are talking about the history.
Piano 3D Timeline
April 2014 - first commit in git
April 2014 - first release in Windows Store
May 2014 - scrolling and scaling added
May 2014 - started working on tutorials
June 2014 - new interface using new Unity UI
August 2014 - synth added
June 2015 - fifth release for Windows Store
September 2016 - started working on new UI for iOS and Android
July 2018 - worldwide release for iOS and Android
The History
It’s all started in 2014. It was my third year at Software Engineering department as an undergraduate student and writing my own application sounded like a good idea to improve my skills and get some real-world experience. I only had a quite old Windows-based pc so developing for Windows was my only choice at that time. Fortunately, Microsoft had just released Windows 8 with the new app store and, correspondingly, the new app type they called “Metro” applications. I mostly program in C#, so it wasn’t quite hard for me to start developing my applications, moreover, a local company called DCT with Microsoft support hold a competition of best Windows 8 apps, which was also a motivation.
