Show HN: Monster Coloring Book, my first App just launched. What do you think?

If sales won't go so well, or if you would like to try a different marketing approach, you might consider this:<p>Instead of asking for money upfront, you should give the app for free with a few sample monsters. Then you can provide the full package with in-app purchase. The logic behind it is that it will be easier to convince the parents to pay for it, after their kids love it. Another reason - with a $2.99 price point, it will be hard for you to hit the top list, which has the most influence on your sales. But you could charge that in an in-app purchase without affecting your listing in the free apps.<p>If you decide to do it, make sure to ask the user to upgrade in strategic locations (For example, after they launch it several times, after they finish all the paintings, etc.)<p>Good luck!

I have a gentleman who is into this sort of thing and I've played through most of AppStore apps with him. They fall into exactly two categories - shorter games that are shallow in their content with low re-playability and longer, more elaborate games for older kids. And I can tell you with certainty that 3-5 year olds is an under-served market.<p>With regards to the app (the paid version of it) - it looks promising, but the test subject is napping. Three things though -<p>(a) the app is lagging heavily on iPad 1. For example, clicking on the ? icon scrolls the page up in jerky increments, it looks like the app is really struggling.<p>(b) the music selection is a no-go. For one, I doubt the classics will fly with my kid, and for two - it will most certainly annoy the hell out of my wife and myself.<p>(c) the "purchase more" hooks - I appreciate why you have them, but as a rule of thumb I will do my best to avoid any apps that have in-app purchases. Having for-a-fee options always leads to "what is that?", "why can't I press this button?" and so on and on. This is a not so subtle form of parent arms' twisting by an app developer and I as a parent passionately hate it.<p>On a more constructive note regarding (c) - add a single option in a config menu "hide all related to real money" <i>or</i> let me buy ALL you optionals at once (full unlock) <i>or</i> explain exactly how the accumulation of monsterbucks works. Nothing else would do. Let me reiterate how I really <i>really</i> don't like my child being used as a leverage for milking me for follow-up purchases.

I don't have an iOS device, so I can't comment on the app itself.<p>The flavour the site's design adds is excellent. Major props for that.<p>I think it'd be cool if the background was `position: fixed;`.<p>I also really like the social aspect on the site ("Super awesome monsters created by our community."). I think a "monster of the day" would be an excellent way to get people motivated and involved (as sort of a competition).<p>Judging from the video, there doesn't seem to be an undo button in the app. Seems like one should be there.<p>Sadly, the site loaded slowly for me (~15 seconds; I'm on a low-bandwidth connection), and in that time, things were shifting position and some text was unreadable.

That looks great.<p>It would be great to have a baby mode, where tapping the screen did a random coloring, and maybe played a sound.<p>My daughter isn't two yet, but she really likes to swipe at photos and make them go from side to side.

The site design at least is very beautiful, congratulations! I especially like all of the extra content you've added, the store, the "freebies", etc. My only idea to make it even better would be eventually writing some kind of subtle animation into the monster, or alternating the monster for different sections of the site.<p>To pay HN back for all the feedback and buzz, consider writing up a blog post about the process, and how sales and marketing go. I, at least, would love to read about it and learn from your experience.

Silly suggestions from an ex kindergarten teacher:<p>- let the kids record a "sound" to go with the monster<p>- a "hairy" brush set.

I almost never share things like this on Facebook, but I shared Monster Coloring Book. I don't even own an iOS device, but the execution/design seems spot on. I see this becoming highly successful - congrats!

Congrats on the release - Love the design, looks very easy and fun to use!

"Monster Coloring Book is like fingerpainting without the mess."<p>Mess is good! :D But it looks fun and the monsters are nice.<p>Tip: increase the contrast of your navigation items. My parents/grandparents can't read that too well.<p>Also: maybe aim your pitch at the user instead of the parent a bit more.

I'm not sure who your intended audience is, but the UI is very hard to use for little kids. You have lots of text based UI elements, and they have to click to a page to change the brush, then click on 'color' to go back to their drawing, etc. You pop up text dialogs asking them if they want to save their drawing before they can change monsters, and there is some kind of 'balance' which I have figured out yet.<p>Maybe your intended audience isn't little kids, but if it is you should make the UI simpler and not require reading skills.

One thing to consider (and I'm not in the colouring book market), but....<p>Are you planning other colouring books? Some parents may not want their kids colouring in monsters and may prefer other types of colouring in.<p>Little girls might want to colour in princesses with lots and lots of pink...<p>Are you going to focus on monsters forever or are you going to expand it?

It'd be awesome if you set up a system where people can press a button and have you send a killer color printout (for a premium fee)

Nice design! The examples colorings look a bit too much like done by an illustrator though, is this targeted for kids ?

Great app, I've been playing with it on my iPhone 3GS for a few minutes.<p>The only suggestion I could offer is to make the text in the help sections a little larger. On this non-retina display, it is hard to read.

Really fun! I quite enjoyed going back to my childhood and colouring in :D Only one small problem - the app regularly crashed after attempting to "buy" patterns.<p>eta: it was patterns, not stickers.

Beautiful design, lovely idea, I will be downloading this tonight. Do you have any plans for localizing it to other languages ? ( I think it would be a successful app in Japan )

This looks great!<p>I would be worried to use that name though.

Why is the Facebook like button on the lightbox of video rather than the front page? After I closed the lightbox, I tried to find the `like' button but failed.

Thanks for all the kind words everyone. We're really excited about this app and appreciate the help spreading it around as well as the feedback/suggestions.

Love this.<p>Is this an iOS app, i.e. written in Objective-C? Or is this a web app, written in HTML5, JS &#38; CSS?

Very nice. Excelent idea, and it looks beautiful. If you had a +1 or like button, I would have clicked both.

I love the design,congrats! Although I don't have an iOS device to test it on

Great video, liked it enough to share it with a few friends on FB.

Site design is really great, really well done Zarprey!

Looks great! Just bought it for my almost 4 year old.

Congrats on the launch.

very sweet, good work! Hope it does really well for you.

well done, I like the design

neat idea. good luck!

wow, really nice!

Very cool. I'm jealous of you right now and I hope it sells well.