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My iOS app that teaches you what a tesseract is and lets you manipulate it in 3D and 4D. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-fourth-dimension/id504201783?mt=8

My iOS app that teaches you what a tesseract is and lets you manipulate it in 3D and 4D. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-fourth-dimension/id504201783?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-fourth-dimension/id50420... It blows my mind that people still find out about this app and happily buy it every day even though it occupies such a small geeky niche.

SimHacker 13y ago
I'm really looking forward to your next iOS app, Fiasco -- it looks awesome. I hope you don't get sued for Scrabble kicking Tetris in the face, or by Stanslaw Lem's estate!
midas007 13y ago
Seems to violate the premise of "the dumber the app, the more popular it will be." Awesome.
- johnydepp 13y ago
  "The dumber the app..." works almost everytime. I launched a conceptually great app which was a complete failure: https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/gravity-byte/id504372023?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/gravity-byte/id504372023?mt=... Then launched a card game which is a decent success..
  - TruthSHIFT 13y ago
    Gravity Byte may be a great app. But, it does not make a great first impression. You may want to try to give the app a more cohesive art direction. For example, in the app screenshots, I see 4 different fonts. Also, the game graphics don't really grab my attention. Keep in mind that most people are judging your app almost entirely by the screenshots.
  - evilduck 13y ago
    You could probably turn that around rather easily by paying a good designer or graphic artist to produce some professional looking assets and reskinning the game.
  - jbrooksuk 13y ago
    It's a shame, the icon for Gravity Byte looks really nice, but then the screenshots put me off instantly.
Cyph0n 13y ago
That looks so cool. I'm glad it brings in a good amount of money.
atox 13y ago
Heard about this app when it first launched, such an original idea. Would you feel comfortable telling us the number of sales in 2013?
- drewolbrich 13y ago
  The Fourth Dimension generated $17,600 during 2012, the year I launched it. The majority of that was driven by reviews the app got. In 2013 it made $3900, or $325/month, and seems to be holding at that rate of income. The only work I did on the app in 2013 was about two days making it work correctly on iOS 7. It's not huge money, but it's far more than my expectations, which were on the order of $500 total over the lifetime of the app. I posted a breakdown of the first three months of reviews here: http://www.fourthdimensionapp.com/first_three_months/ http://www.fourthdimensionapp.com/first_three_months/ My next app is a two-player Tetris/Scrabble mashup: http://fiascoapp.com/b http://fiascoapp.com/b My expectations for the word puzzle game are either $300,000, or zero. The wave function has yet to collapse.
mattgibson 13y ago
From the reviews, it sounds like the high quality of your explanations has made a small geeky niche far less small, geeky and niche. Bravo.
pavlov 13y ago
The app icon is irresistible.
- drewolbrich 13y ago
  Thanks. It was essentially my son's idea (age 5 at the time), and it was about a month after I designed the icon that I realized the "third eye" connection, as in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_eye http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_eye which made me love it even more.
Styn 13y ago
Cool! My mom showed this to me (she's a maths teacher) In fact it was the first app she ever bought! She just loves showing it to all her science colleagues! That really is an awesome app!
- drewolbrich 13y ago
  I love hearing stories like that, thanks. I never thought it would resonate with so many people.
svantana 13y ago
Nice! WRT to the icon, you should add stereoscopic imaging (red/green style) to geek out even further!
- drewolbrich 13y ago
  Near the end of the app, there is a cross-eyed stereo viewing mode that works pretty well, although it can be headache inducing for some people.
artmageddon 13y ago
I just bought a copy myself!
GameOfTrolls 13y ago
Had to buy. Great app.
vadman 13y ago
Wish you had an Android version :/ Kudos anyway, great idea and looks like a great execution as well!

SimHacker 13y ago

I'm really looking forward to your next iOS app, Fiasco -- it looks awesome. I hope you don't get sued for Scrabble kicking Tetris in the face, or by Stanslaw Lem's estate!

midas007 13y ago

Seems to violate the premise of "the dumber the app, the more popular it will be." Awesome.

johnydepp 13y ago
"The dumber the app..." works almost everytime. I launched a conceptually great app which was a complete failure: https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/gravity-byte/id504372023?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/gravity-byte/id504372023?mt=... Then launched a card game which is a decent success..
- TruthSHIFT 13y ago
  Gravity Byte may be a great app. But, it does not make a great first impression. You may want to try to give the app a more cohesive art direction. For example, in the app screenshots, I see 4 different fonts. Also, the game graphics don't really grab my attention. Keep in mind that most people are judging your app almost entirely by the screenshots.
- evilduck 13y ago
  You could probably turn that around rather easily by paying a good designer or graphic artist to produce some professional looking assets and reskinning the game.
- jbrooksuk 13y ago
  It's a shame, the icon for Gravity Byte looks really nice, but then the screenshots put me off instantly.

Cyph0n 13y ago

That looks so cool. I'm glad it brings in a good amount of money.

atox 13y ago

Heard about this app when it first launched, such an original idea. Would you feel comfortable telling us the number of sales in 2013?

drewolbrich 13y ago
The Fourth Dimension generated $17,600 during 2012, the year I launched it. The majority of that was driven by reviews the app got. In 2013 it made $3900, or $325/month, and seems to be holding at that rate of income. The only work I did on the app in 2013 was about two days making it work correctly on iOS 7. It's not huge money, but it's far more than my expectations, which were on the order of $500 total over the lifetime of the app. I posted a breakdown of the first three months of reviews here: http://www.fourthdimensionapp.com/first_three_months/ http://www.fourthdimensionapp.com/first_three_months/ My next app is a two-player Tetris/Scrabble mashup: http://fiascoapp.com/b http://fiascoapp.com/b My expectations for the word puzzle game are either $300,000, or zero. The wave function has yet to collapse.

mattgibson 13y ago

From the reviews, it sounds like the high quality of your explanations has made a small geeky niche far less small, geeky and niche. Bravo.

pavlov 13y ago

The app icon is irresistible.

drewolbrich 13y ago
Thanks. It was essentially my son's idea (age 5 at the time), and it was about a month after I designed the icon that I realized the "third eye" connection, as in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_eye http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_eye which made me love it even more.

Styn 13y ago

Cool! My mom showed this to me (she's a maths teacher) In fact it was the first app she ever bought! She just loves showing it to all her science colleagues! That really is an awesome app!

drewolbrich 13y ago
I love hearing stories like that, thanks. I never thought it would resonate with so many people.

svantana 13y ago

Nice! WRT to the icon, you should add stereoscopic imaging (red/green style) to geek out even further!

drewolbrich 13y ago
Near the end of the app, there is a cross-eyed stereo viewing mode that works pretty well, although it can be headache inducing for some people.

artmageddon 13y ago

I just bought a copy myself!

GameOfTrolls 13y ago

Had to buy. Great app.

vadman 13y ago

Wish you had an Android version :/ Kudos anyway, great idea and looks like a great execution as well!