Comments on: Making a living (gladly) as an iPhone freelance programmer http://www.indiepinion.com/steffenj/making-a-living-gladly-as-an-iphone-freelance-programmer/ Inspiring And Liberating Game Developers Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:37:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Steffen Itterheim http://www.indiepinion.com/steffenj/making-a-living-gladly-as-an-iphone-freelance-programmer/comment-page-1/#comment-22756 Steffen Itterheim Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:36:10 +0000 http://www.indiepinion.com/?p=1532#comment-22756 I think it's rather straightforward for an indie dev: pick a platform you're comfortable with, and that's relevant enough (ie not a total niche). If your goal is to rack up your portfolio then visibility and demand for developers working on that platform is another plus. Personally I would recommend the Corona SDK because it's relatively easy to make apps, and at first you might want to make as many "small but cool" apps as possible to have something in your hands, something to show to others. You might even want to scour the job platforms like odesk to work on smaller, possibly underpaid jobs just to get some money back. But to be honest if you get paid $500 to do an app you could as well make your own app and earn $50 a months, possibly more. Over time, that's going to be worth a lot more than an underpaid job. I think it’s rather straightforward for an indie dev: pick a platform you’re comfortable with, and that’s relevant enough (ie not a total niche).

If your goal is to rack up your portfolio then visibility and demand for developers working on that platform is another plus.

Personally I would recommend the Corona SDK because it’s relatively easy to make apps, and at first you might want to make as many “small but cool” apps as possible to have something in your hands, something to show to others. You might even want to scour the job platforms like odesk to work on smaller, possibly underpaid jobs just to get some money back. But to be honest if you get paid $500 to do an app you could as well make your own app and earn $50 a months, possibly more. Over time, that’s going to be worth a lot more than an underpaid job.

]]> By: Robert Muwanga http://www.indiepinion.com/steffenj/making-a-living-gladly-as-an-iphone-freelance-programmer/comment-page-1/#comment-22755 Robert Muwanga Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:22:51 +0000 http://www.indiepinion.com/?p=1532#comment-22755 I am a recent graduate in computer science with moderate programming skills. Indeed nothing is worth more than getting sufficient experience before one embarks on a freelance career. But considering the way things are now particularly in different parts of the world, its quite hard to get experience through the normal 'job' route especially when no one is hiring. In such a situation and in your opinion, how would one be able to gain the necessary experience and confidence to try and jump start his freelance career, and how does one decide the platform and language to jump into? Why choose to let's say develop on the windows desktop platform rather than the Mac platform for example? How does one make these tough decisions when choosing his first platform? I am a recent graduate in computer science with moderate programming skills. Indeed nothing is worth more than getting sufficient experience before one embarks on a freelance career. But considering the way things are now particularly in different parts of the world, its quite hard to get experience through the normal ‘job’ route especially when no one is hiring. In such a situation and in your opinion, how would one be able to gain the necessary experience and confidence to try and jump start his freelance career, and how does one decide the platform and language to jump into? Why choose to let’s say develop on the windows desktop platform rather than the Mac platform for example? How does one make these tough decisions when choosing his first platform?

]]> By: Steffen Itterheim http://www.indiepinion.com/steffenj/making-a-living-gladly-as-an-iphone-freelance-programmer/comment-page-1/#comment-20672 Steffen Itterheim Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:13:18 +0000 http://www.indiepinion.com/?p=1532#comment-20672 Personally, I feel I need not to rely on making my own App Store apps. I find it more satisfactory to target the developers directly. After all, that's what my job was for the past ten years. Yes, I made games but most of the times I enabled and supported others to create the game we were making. I would only develop and release and app or game on the App Store if I want to do that app for a particular extrinsic reason. For example, if I'd simply be totally interested in the subject matter, like building an epic old-school Ultima-style RPG world with location-services enabled Mini-MMO gameplay (eg people in your area can team up). If I'd be into that, I'd make it and not care about the revenue. If I need to be sure I can base a living off of something, I would shy away from depending on a restrictive platform (eg the App Store) and a market that's flooded (eg. the App Store) and hard to connect with your audience (eg. the App Store). The same can also be said about the Android App Store, Xbox Live Indie games, and so on. Personally, I feel I need not to rely on making my own App Store apps. I find it more satisfactory to target the developers directly. After all, that’s what my job was for the past ten years. Yes, I made games but most of the times I enabled and supported others to create the game we were making.

I would only develop and release and app or game on the App Store if I want to do that app for a particular extrinsic reason. For example, if I’d simply be totally interested in the subject matter, like building an epic old-school Ultima-style RPG world with location-services enabled Mini-MMO gameplay (eg people in your area can team up). If I’d be into that, I’d make it and not care about the revenue. If I need to be sure I can base a living off of something, I would shy away from depending on a restrictive platform (eg the App Store) and a market that’s flooded (eg. the App Store) and hard to connect with your audience (eg. the App Store). The same can also be said about the Android App Store, Xbox Live Indie games, and so on.

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