Kitty on the iPhone & iPod Touch

iKitty & iTouchKitty

Since Apple unveiled the AppStore, we've received a lot of mail asking us if we're working on Kitty Spangles Solitaire for the iPhone and iPod Touch, or if we're considering it.

The short answer is: yes, but not immediately.

The longer answer: we'd love to see Kitty on the AppStore but we're going to take our time and do a proper job of it. It's no secret that too many of the products released through the AppStore to date have been rushed in order to make the store's deadlines (not to mention a fast buck). Frankly, there are many products listed on the store that shouldn't be.

We've always taken pride in our creations here at Swoop, and we take the time necessary to make quality, stable, fun games for the Mac community. Once released, we want to continually refine and improve our games. The reality is that making a polished product takes a lot of time, and the process cannot be rushed.


AppStore Musings

The AppStore is a good first step by Apple but we'd like to see it mature somewhat before we use it. For example, there's no decent way to make available both a demo version and a full version of an app through the store. As it stands, the customer pays his or her money, and then tries out the app. I certainly don't want to be buying applications before I've even had the opportunity to try them! That's why, for our Mac OS X games, we provide customers with ample opportunity to play the games and test their features before making a purchasing decision. We would like to see the same thing apply to AppStore purchases.

Apple appear to be going after impulse buyers through this system, and the pricing of the apps seems to reflect this. We're not interested in offering Kitty at bargain-basement prices in a race to the bottom of the market. We think Kitty is better than that. Although it may benefit Apple to have low prices, or standardized prices like they do with music and movies, we'd prefer to have a relationship with our players based on value for a quality product.


Meanwhile...

We're getting close to the release of Kitty Spangles Sudoku!  Our time is now spent polishing the game and getting all the details right. We'll be posting screenshots soon, so keep an eye out.

Also, we're planning the next major release of Kitty Spangles Solitaire. We intend to include new games and higher resolution card graphics. If you have any ideas or suggestions for Kitty Solitaire 4, now would be a great time to let us know. 

As always, we'd love to see Kitty translated in to other languages. If you're fluent in both English and another language and would like to volunteer your skills, please contact us.