Two official iPhone apps for Pathfinder have hit the App Store. iCrit is their Critical Hit Deck in app form, and iFumble is the same for their Critical Fumble Deck. Both are $1.99.
On the one hand, our group uses the critical hit deck and it’s convenient to have it in app form. On the other hand, these are overpriced – $1.99 each as separate apps? For what is simply a fortune cookie random generator app? Combining them into one “deck app” that they’d release more content for later, or doing $.99 each, would be more reasonable. And also, I think it’s safe to say everyone had been expecting more out of the app launch. It was talked about first what, more than a year ago? And the talk of technical delays – I hope that’s some other app and not these, because these are a weekend’s work for any Objective C programmer.
Not having used it, the UI also concerns me – though at first glance it looks just like the deck, it looks like it might take more than one touch to draw cards, which would make me sad – I don’t want to select things then hit “clear,” I just want to touch the screen to get a draw, touch again to get a draw, etc. I wonder if it supports their rules like “Weapon Focus gets to draw two and pick best.” Not that it has to, but if I have to draw a card, clear it, and draw another to look at two and pick then it’s already harder to use than the physical deck.
I was waiting for what I thought the iPhone apps would be… But I don’t think I’m going to spend $2 for an app form of a deck I already own with zero functionality other than randomly drawing a card, and similarly that’s too high for “well I’m not sold on fumbles but it might be interesting…” My phone is app-cluttered enough, if their model is going to be “one little app per product” I am not sure how relevant they will be to me.
Geek Related 
P.S. No one wants to hear the Android people crying, give it a rest already.
I’m not going to cry, but I would say that putting all of your eggs in one basket when every piece of marketing research I can find shows that the Android OS is gaining and will soon exceed Apple’s market share. Not only that, but why alienate customers? I could understand focusing on 1 OS if you are selling it to the dominant force in the market (think Windows vs Mac), but that is not the case here.
And it is not just Paizo who have released an iOS exclusive app. Troll Lord Games just announced the Castles and Crusades version of the iCharacter Sheet by Digital Adventures (though there is at least a Windows PC version as well). It is just a trend that, in my opinion, needs to change.
I look at the price a bit differently. If I bought the physical versions of these decks, they would each cost me $10.99 each. In that sense, you are saving $9 buying the iOS apps.
I also think too many people have gotten conditioned to the $0.99 app price point as what every app should cost when many of these apps are worth a slightly higher price.
I do agree that I’d prefer this to be a single deck app, though I have no problem with them charging me per deck. I feel they are due some premium for my use of their creativity in creating the decks. Another interesting option is to go freemium; put out the deck app with one or two decks for free and then charge for the add-on decks.
Granger, you make an excellent point about the 99 cent app conditioning. I also think that positioning at $1.99 gives them the leeway to run it on special for 99 cents in the future if they wish. Either way, $1.99 is still within the realm of the impulse buy though for what you get it is pushing the value envelope.
In breaking news, I bought the Critical Fumbles deck app on a lark last week while running Reavers. It’s good, I like it. I didn’t buy the critical hit one since I have the deck for reals.
Hi, I know this is an old post but for you and anyone else looking, I created an app (basically over the weekend) that generates critical hits and fumbles AND it’s free.
I actually am waiting for the newest version to be reviewed by Apple which allows you to add your own hits and fumbles to the app. I hope it will be available this week, if not it will be next week.
Here’s a link to the app in the App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/critical-hit-fumble-generator/id823306659?mt=8&uo=4
Ah, it’s at least on topic spam so I’ll allow it! 🙂
🙂 I guess I was spamming. Thanks for allowing it.
In other news, there is no other news, I guess Paizo decided to leave the mobile space for good.