Developer of the world renowned Band [App Store], Guitarist [App Store] and Pianist [App Store], we got to ask Mark Terry CEO of MooCowMusic a few questions about iPhone development, and how it all started for him …
Enjoy …
How did you first get into software development?
As a kid I learnt to program by writing my own games on the ZX Spectrum and Atari ST, and so fell into a career of Software Development. I later found out it was possible to actually be paid to write video games, and spent a few years on that, culminating in the game “Driver”. I then moved on to Java development in the insurance industry, but the creativity bug must have still been biting because, shortly after jailbreaking my iPod Touch back in October 2007, I started writing iPhone apps.
Which of your applications do you think turned out best?
I personally like Guitarist, because I’ve spent a long time wondering how best to turn an iPhone into a guitar, ever since the first version of Guitarist back in March. Although they’ll never rival the real thing, we’re starting to see with all these music apps (not just my own ones) that the iPhone has a place in the music creation process. And of course Guitarist was the first app that I wrote from scratch using the SDK (and actually having a proper API reference guide and toolset), so I’ve been able to achieve a lot more with it than the earlier apps.
Do you ever find yourself using your own apps?
Funnily enough, I get really involved with them during the creation process, and then, as soon as they are released, I tend not to touch them again unless I do a further update. Perhaps that’s just due to the burn-out of the testing phase, or perhaps I’m just not that musical and I exhaust my limited musical talent in composing the demo tunes.
Do you have any new music applications in the works?
I’ve several ideas for the future, but I don’t want to reveal anything just yet. I spent months half-jokingly talking to the press about making a harmonica app just to try to get people to stick their phones in their mouths, and then someone beat me to it. Sadly it seems that the key aspect to getting sales in the App Store is not to write a quality application, or even a complex application, but just to get there _first_. I think this explains a lot about the sate of some of the apps out there.
Would you ever be interested in making a non-music app?
Well I’d love to write a game, but I’m such a perfectionist that I’d probably end up spending months on it, and it would never sell enough to justify the time. Realistically from my experience in the App Store, a two man-month development period is about the limit at the moment due to the store being flooded with simple and cheap gimmick apps bottoming out the prices. Besides, I think that my talent lies in creating interesting user-interfaces (such as the “12 bar blues” instrument in Band), rather than games.
Lastly, What do you do in your spare time?
My time is currently taken up almost entirely with work and looking after my kids, so my spare time is usually spent crashed out in-front of the TV.
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RazorianFly would like to thank ‘The Apper‘ for providing us with this interview. The Apper decided it would suit more to be posted on RazorianFly.
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