Two months ago, I relaunched Strategery. As I wrote in that piece, the iOS game launched in 2009, got press — including from me, at Macworld! — and became a hugely popular hit.
But the original (brilliant) developers moved on, and the app hadn’t received an update since 2017… and it didn’t work at all on iOS 27. I built a new version of the game from the ground up, contacted the original developers, and acquired Strategery from them. Read the aforelinked story to get the full details.
So — what’s happened two months later?
It’s been exciting. I’ve heard from many, many happy players, thrilled that Strategery has attention again, excited by some of the new features I added, and pleased to see it adapted to support the latest iOS devices.
I also got a brand new logo for the game from the Iconfactory, and I love it. Over Halloween, I had custom, Halloween-themed maps. (Will there be more themed maps? Yes.)
I knew going in that users don’t love change. I didn’t start from the original classic game; I built a new version. That meant the app looks and feels different, even though I worked with the original developers to keep the game’s spirit and rules alive. The review bombing in the App Store was, like a Vin Diesel film, both fast and furious.
In some cases, there were bugs that needed addressing! I’ve now released more updates to the app than it had in its first eight years of existence. In other cases, people simply didn’t like my approach to the game.
The original developers and I had set and achieved a goal: We wanted to release the Strategery update on the day that iOS 27 got its public release, so that users wouldn’t encounter the app not working. Because of that approach, though, many users were left wondering why the hell did this game change overnight, since they didn’t have the experience those of us on the iOS betas did, of the game no longer working at all. To many players, then, I didn’t rescue Strategery; I ruined it. Oops.
From launch, the Strategery update included an Easter egg: Tap and hold on the game’s logo on the main menu, and you’ll launch the original version of the game, which Claude Code helped me get functional on iOS 27. Over time, I added an explicit option in the game’s settings to default to the classic mode.
It pains me a bit that review bombing took Strategery’s near 5-star rating down to — at this writing — 3.9. I’m not prompting for reviews in the app, either. (Nor did I write this post to beg for 5-star reviews, but, you know, feel free.)
Another core decision we made with relaunching Strategery was we kept it the same actual app, and the update was free to anyone who owned it, which included many thousands of players who bought the app for $1 sixteen years ago.
Here are some numbers, because transparency is fun.
At this writing, 1,900 more people bought the app. Eighteen requested refunds from Apple. And, in true acts of kindness and generosity, 154 people used the in-app tipping feature to send a few dollars my way, which continues to blow my mind.
I’m human, so yes, the negative reviews bum me out. Not just selfishly, either; I don’t want to disappoint folks — I want them to enjoy the game they’ve loved, and perhaps I should’ve made the legacy version even more prominent.
But I’m also delighted by the happy feedback I’ve gotten from many players. I’m delighted to work on such a beloved app, and to pay tribute to a game that brought me tremendous joy for all these years.
