John Polacek

Chicago Web Developer

Engineering manager and frontend lead at Howl

My product recommendations at shop.howl.me

Shipping open source on Github

Follow me at @johnpolacek

Match The Letter Update

Originally published on 3/6/2012

People have been asking about my Match The Letter game, so I thought Id make a quick update post about it. I created Match the Letter in order to get familiar with developing native mobile apps. Having done so, Ive since become more interested in doing web apps and general web design and development. My main reason for choosing to target the browser is to get greater reach. These days, virtually every internet-enabled device with a screen has a browser. Obviously, there are cases where going native makes sense, for games and apps that require access to native device functionality.

So, given my change in focus, and the fact that I have no apps on the iOS market for which I am charging money, I decided not to renew my Apple Developer License. Apple charges its developers $100 each year, and if it is not paid, all the developers apps are pulled from the iTunes store. Therefore, Match the Letter is no longer available if you have an iPod, iPhone or iPad.

Google however is much more reasonable. They charge their developers a one-time fee of $30. Therefore, you can continue to get Match The Letter on your Android devices.