The Alien Buddies Have Landed – On Cafe Press!

This Just In:

The Alien Buddies have landed on Cafe Press!

That's right, we're having so much fun with our cute and quirky App Store friends, we decided to open a store to share and wear them!

Have a "New and Noteworthy" baby to shop for?

No problem!

Or maybe you just want your BFF on a shirt!

If you're looking for your favorite Alien Buddies on a plethora of products, we've got you covered!

Just look for Artgig on Cafe Press and follow the signs.

And it's 20% off right now with coupon code NOEL20.

As our Alien Buddies are fond of saying...

Sweet!

Artgig Cafe Press Store

Shake-a-Phrase App v.1.3 - a Peek Under the Hood & a Party Invite!

Our latest Shake-a-Phrase update, v.1.3, went live in the App Store yesterday.

What you get:
Improved vocabulary and a better Starter theme!

(You can stop here, or read on if you want a peek under the hood and a party invite...)

When we first came up with the idea for Shake-a-Phrase, we thought the content would be relatively cheap - we were wrong.
We started with an open source dictionary but the definitions were lousy and not age appropriate so we ended up rewriting all of them.
With each update and testing, we take a good hard look at the overall quality of the phrases generated, along with user feedback, and make improvements where we can.
If someone is offended by a phrase due to a word in the mix like "drunk" (adj) - we take note and edit the dictionary for the next update.
We've been adding words, tweaking definitions, and deleting words to keep the fun, random silly stuff, but minimize the completely nonsensical phrases so you get a higher percentage of quality phrases.

Since Shake was released, we've been going theme-by-theme to tighten up, and make each theme as strong as it can be.
We updated Monsters for Halloween, and Fairytales for Thanksgiving.
The Sports theme was a big effort because many of the words in our dictionary take on a different meaning in the context of sports - so we gave Sports a separate dictionary.

For this update, we overhauled the Starter theme.
It's been long overdue - the Starter theme has been a bit like the wild west with lots of object nouns in the mix.
So we reclassified some words to make them location nouns ("on the bike", instead of "with the bike"), deleted some words, and we added a whole bunch of new people nouns for more human interaction.

It's not the kind of thing where you can easily point to any one thing and say "that changed" - but rather an overall sense that things are just better.
That's quality.

And tomorrow, you can download Shake-a-Phrase for just .99 (50% off) for the Appy Holidays Party.
We'll be there with Benny and our Alien Buddies hanging out under the mistletoe, giving away promo codes and getting into the punch.

Stop by for great app deals and giveaways from lots of fantastic developers:

Appy Holidays Party!

Enjoy.

Lots Shakin' at Artgig Apps!

I was going to say it's a bit of a stew today at Artgig Apps but a stew isn't nearly fast or exciting enough - it's more of a salad, one that is tossed together quickly but expertly, and comes together with just the right balance of complimentary flavors.

And avocados.

I love avocados.

As lunch quickly approaches, we're buzzing, making final launch preparations for our new Pre-K and Kindergarten educational app, Alien Buddies.

The Final build goes out to testers tonight and we're planning to submit to Apple next week so  (fingers crossed) we can be in the App Store by the end of the month!

Speaking of testers, we've got some really good kids, parents, and teachers working this app over and giving us great feedback and ideas, and I cannot thank them enough.

This app has been a lot of fun to build because it hits a sweet spot for lots of little kids I know and the testing gives us great confidence that we've got something special to share with you and your children.

And let's not forget about our other apps - Shake-a-Phrase and Being Benny were both updated last week!

We love tinkering with Shake-a-Phrase - every time we crack the hood we can't help refining and improving the vocabulary for the best possible user experience.

We also added some slick new sharing features, so you can share your favorite phrases by SMS or take advantage of the iOS 5 Twitter integration to tweet all about it.

And we're not done tinkering!

The chefs at Artgig Apps added an extra dash of holiday sprinkles to the Fairytale theme for some festive fun with phrases, and we'll be pushing yet another Shake update this week (v. 1.3) - so stay tuned!

We really want to hear from you, so please drop by our Facebook page and/or leave an app review for us in iTunes - all of our apps have a direct review link to tell us what you think.

Some of the changes we just made to Shake-a-Phrase are a direct result of user feedback!

We've also been hearing from a lot of teachers about using Shake-a-Phrase in the classroom for creative writing exercises, so we're serving up some stories to inspire your own school lessons!

Check out "Shaking Up The Classroom With Shake-a-Phrase," on the Shake website, to read about a 3rd Grade class using the Monster theme to shake up some spooky Halloween tales.

Whew!

I'm starving!

Shaking Up The Classroom With Shake-a-Phrase

How We Roll

What was all that white stuff that blanketed our town and crippled the Artgig command center for nearly the entire week?

It's too soon to say the "s" word out loud, but this week was a trip down Artgig memory lane.

Once upon a time, before Artgig got all fancy with a brick and mortar studio, we all worked from home.

As legend has it, way back in the days before Skype, the Artgig gang would meet around town, alternating between the diner and Jean Jacques, when we all needed to be in the same place to discuss really important things – like becoming a brick and mortar business.

When we arrived for work Monday morning and found a tree had knocked down the building power line, we assumed it would be a minor disruption and it really wasn't so bad taking Halloween off to spend with the kids.

Four days later, it had turned into a beard growing contest between me and Jim (I won), and I was ready to fire my one and a half year old co-worker for continuously ignoring my orders to stop eating my Wacom stylus.

Despite the challenges of work and home lives colliding, amazingly, I am happy to report we reached a new pinnacle of production before power was finally restored yesterday.

It seems with less pressure to do things like shave and bathe, our app output actually increased!

In a few short days we cranked out a nearly-final Alien Buddies app build, a sweet Shake-a-Phrase update with new words and sharing features, and a Being Benny update.

All while juggling client projects and grocery shopping duties!

That's how we roll here at Artgig.

Check out Artgig Apps