Category Archives: Nook

Nook App Store shutting down

NookFrameThe Nook app store is shutting down in a little over a week. I have four games available on the Nook, and this will be your last chance to purchase them for this platform.

Any apps previously purchased will remain available to be redownloaded, but will not receive any more updates.

For a while, app sales on the Nook were really good, and even outpaced sales through Google Play. However, those days are now long gone and sales on the Nook have been close to zero for most of the past year. The store shutting down is not much of a surprise.

Update released for Xploding Boxes

Nexus4Xploding Boxes has been updated to version 5.6 in BlackBerry World, Google Play, the Amazon app store, the Nook app store, the Windows 8 app store, and the Windows Phone app store. This update adds 10 new levels to the game, giving the game a total of 520 levels.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game where the goal is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level presents a different look and number of touches, requiring a different strategy to solve.

The game itself, and the first 25 levels are available for free, while a one time in-app purchase can be used to access the rest of the levels for just $2.99 while still maintaining your progress from the free levels.

Links & Information

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More Levels for Xploding Boxes

ShapeItAppXploding Boxes has been updated to version 5.5 in BlackBerry World, Google Play, the Amazon app store, the Nook app store, the Windows 8 app store, and the Windows Phone app store. This update adds 10 new levels to the game, giving Xploding Boxes 510 levels overall.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game where the goal is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level presents a different look and number of touches, requiring a different strategy to solve.

The game itself, and the first 25 levels are available for free, while a one time in-app purchase can be used to access the rest of the levels for just $2.99 while still maintaining your progress from the free levels.

Links & Information

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Xploding Boxes reaches 500 levels

Z10Xploding Boxes has been expanded to a total of 500 levels. Version 5.4 in now available in BlackBerry World, Google Play, the Amazon app store, the Nook app store, the Windows 8 app store, and the Windows Phone app store. In addition to the new levels, this update also improves the touch sensitivity on BlackBerry 10 phones, and adds additional menu options to the game play screen on Windows Phone.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game where the goal is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level presents a different look and number of touches, requiring a different strategy to solve.

The game itself, and the first 25 levels are available for free, while a one time in-app purchase can be used to access the rest of the levels for just $2.99 while still maintaining your progress from the free levels.

Links & Information

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Xploding Boxes updated with Windows Phone support

wp_ss_20150324_0002Xploding Boxes has been updated to version 5.3 in BlackBerry World, Google Play, the Amazon app store, the Nook app store, the Windows 8 app store, and the Windows Phone app store. This update adds 10 new levels to the game, and also adds support for Windows Phones for the first time.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game where the goal is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level presents a different look and number of touches, requiring a different strategy to solve.

The game itself, and the first 25 levels are available for free, while a one time in-app purchase can be used to access the rest of the levels for just $2.99 while still maintaining your progress from the free levels.

Links & Information

Xploding Boxes gets another 10 levels

IMG_20150206_175129_cropXploding Boxes has been updated to version 5.2 with ten additional levels. This brings the total number of levels in the game up to 480.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game where the goal is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level presents a different look and number of touches, requiring a different strategy to solve.

The game itself, and the first 25 levels are available for free, while a one time in-app purchase can be used to access the rest of the levels for just $2.99 while still maintaining your progress from the free levels.

Links & Information

More levels for Xploding Boxes

Nexus4Xploding Boxes has been updated to version 5.1 with 10 all new levels. In addition to the new levels, this update includes some bug fixes for the Android and BlackBerry 10 versions of the app, custom highlight colors on BlackBerry 10.3, official support for the Amazon Fire TV Stick, as well as updating to the newest in-app purchase API’s for the Google Play store. The app also continues to support classic BBOS, Windows 8.1, and the Barnes and Noble Nook.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game where the goal is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level presents a different look and number of touches, requiring a different strategy to solve.

The game itself, and the first 25 levels are available for free, while a one time in-app purchase can be used to access the rest of the levels for just $2.99 while still maintaining your progress from the free levels.

Links & Information

Xploding Boxes all new in version 5

Z10Version 5.0 of Xploding Boxes adds new levels and new features and can be downloaded for BlackBerry, Android, Nook, and Windows 8. This is the first major revision of this app in over two years, and includes a ground-up rewrite of the BlackBerry 10 version of the app, newly added support for the Amazon Fire TV, and ten brand new levels.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game where the goal is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level presents a different look and number of touches, requiring a different strategy to solve.

The game itself, and the first 25 levels are available for free, while a one time in-app purchase can be used to access the rest of the levels for just $2.99 while still maintaining your progress from the free levels.

New for BlackBerry 10

The app has received a complete rewrite for BlackBerry 10 phones, and is now a fully native app written in BlackBerry Cascades. Meanwhile the gameplay screen has been redone in OpenGL to maintain a resolution independent experience that looks great on high-resolution phones such as the BlackBerry Passport. In addition to the Passport, this new version of the game also supports the newly available P’9983 and the soon to be launched BlackBerry Classic.

Xploding Boxes version 5 also automatically syncs all of your game progress to your BlackBerryID so that going forward you can switch to a new BlackBerry or reinstall the app without having to worry about backups.

New for Windows 8.1

In addition to the new levels, users of the app on Windows 8.1 will find the game to be reoptimized for their OS, with greatly improved support for split screen views.

Xploding Boxes on Amazon Fire TV

In addition to the phones and tablets, Xploding Boxes is also now available on the Amazon Fire TV where it can be played with the remote.

Links & Information

App sales plummeting for the Nook

A little over two years ago when I first began selling Android apps, the Barnes and Noble Nook was a powerful player. While this store did not get the same attention as Google Play and Amazon’s App Store, for many months I had more sales through the Nook Bookstore then the other two combined. This came as a bit of a surprise, but has certainly not lasted.

Once accounting for over 70% of Android app sales for me, the number has been on a long term downward trajectory and has been below 10% for most of 2014. The below chart shows the percentage of Android sales of Ebscer apps through the Nook Bookstore.

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A few factors have contributed to this. First, the Nook (while often updated) has not kept pace with the other tablets on the market. More importantly Barnes and Noble has mostly given up on their platform, choosing the bundle Google Play on some of their newer devices, and have recently just launched the confusingly named “Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 Nook” as they try to get out of the electronics business altogether.

However, if you are still interested in buying some apps for your Nook visit barnesandnoble.com/s/ebscer.

More levels for Runaway Trains

Level205Runaway Trains has been updated to version 2.7 adding an additional ten levels to the game. The game is now up to 210 total levels and is available on BlackBerry World, Google Play, Amazon AppStore, and the Nook bookstore.

About Runaway Trains

Runaway Trains is a colorful strategy game for all ages where you must route the trains to the proper station. Each level progresses in difficulty and presents an unique puzzle which you must solve by finding a way to guide the coloured trains causing a collision or running out of track.

This is done by touching the intersections to toggle the open path of the tracks. If at any time the trains crash or end up at the wrong station, you will have lost and have to try again.

Links & Information

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Android app on Google Play

Developing apps for Five Years…

Today marks the five year anniversary of my career as a mobile app developer. On May 31st 2009 I sold three copies of Pixelated Plus for less than nine dollars. Five years, and few million downloads later, I have come a long ways since then.

As I enter year six, pretty much everything has changed since when I began. I just hope that five years from now, my apps can see the same rate of improvement that they have seen over the past five years…

Xploding Boxes updated to version 4.11

cropXploding Boxes has been updated to version 4.11 in the BlackBerry, Google, Amazon, Windows, and Nook app stores. This new version adds levels 441 through 450 to the game.

It is important for BlackBerry 10 users to upgrade and run this version of the app at least once in order to ensure that their game progress will still be available on future updates to the game. Version 5.0 of Xploding Boxes will bring some major changes to the BlackBerry 10 version of the app and will be unable to read data from versions prior to 4.11.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game for BlackBerry, Android, Nook, Windows 8, and BlackBerry 10 where the goal of the game is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level gives you a different number of touches, and requires a different strategy to solve.

The game itself, and the first 25 levels are available for free, while a one time in-app purchase can be used to access the rest of the levels for just $2.99 while maintaining your progress from the free levels.

Links & Information

Xploding Boxes gets 10 new levels

Nexus4Xploding Boxes has been updated for BlackBerry, Android, Nook, and Windows 8. Version 4.10 adds ten new levels to the game, bringing the total number of levels up to 440.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game for BlackBerry, Android, Nook, Windows 8, and BlackBerry 10 where the goal of the game is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level gives you a different number of touches, and requires a different strategy to solve.

The game itself, and the first 25 levels are available for free, while a one time in-app purchase can be used to access the rest of the levels for just $2.99 while maintaining your progress from the free levels.

Links & Information

Update to Xploding Boxes

cropXploding Boxes has been updated to version 4.9 with ten brand new levels. Additionally this update also includes a redesigned (and larger) menu button for the Android versions of the app.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game for BlackBerry, Android, Nook, Windows 8, and BlackBerry 10 where the goal of the game is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level gives you a different number of touches, and requires a different strategy to solve.

The game itself, and the first 25 levels are available for free, while a one time in-app purchase can be used to access the rest of the levels for just $2.99 while maintaining your progress from the free levels.

Links & Information

Three years of Xploding Boxes

This past weekend, Xploding Boxes celebrated its third Birthday.

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The game has grown dramatically over the past three years, from a start of 100 levels to the 420 different levels that the game has today. On BlackBerry World the game has 1886 reviews and is averaging four out of five stars. Additionally, while the original version of the game only supported BlackBerry OS, the game has since been rewritten in order to also support the BlackBerry PlayBook, BlackBerry 10, Android, Kindle, Nook, and Windows 8.