Since the development of my next project has passed its first half (and it is near completion I think, but I cannot say this for sure), I think time has come to begin announcing what it is. It is an iPhone game.

First of all let me explain why I consider this to be my real first project. There are three reasons:

• I actually have two applications pubblished, so why should this be the first one? Speaking of implementation times (that differ from the pubblication ones), Heicos came first. It was a project I started some years ago with another person, that abandoned the project after a while (I talked about it in more details on my blog). The app was an idea of his, even if the implementation is totally mine. I will explain someday what the consequences of this choice are. For now I just say that I never considered it fully my project, even if I was the only one working on it.
  Startrail came out all by itself. It started as a little exercise on some Mac OS X technologies, was first released as a freeware and then its success made it a real project. So this third progect is actually the first coming out entirely from my mind and depending solely on my decisions.
• I always loved games. I spended lot of my teenage time playing videogames and always dreamed of creating one. This will not be a complex game as I always wished, but this is my first real game and I'm writing it all alone, so this is as much as I can do, for now. I hope that someday I will have the resources to create more complex games.
• My second love (in computer science) is artificial intelligence. This is the field in which I specialized in my graduation years. Implementing this game allows me to "get my hands dirty", transforming the theories I studied in something that actually works.

Nearly a month has passed since I put this new website version online and released my Zone Diet management application, but things are not going as I imagined. When you start an online business like this one you learn very soon that getting exposure in internet is not the easy thing some people let pass on you.

I can't say that things are dim, though. I strongly believe I have a great product, which surely needs some polish, but that gives a good overall experience. If I look at website's statistics I can clearly see that it is getting very low visits. So it is not a product problem (even if Startrail is getting some preatty good success), but lack of exposure. Moreover visits must be targeted, because Startrail may be doing a good job attracting people, but those people are not necessarily interested in Zone Diet.

Dreams and values are good, and paired with good products and good customer support make a company a great company. I'm still convinced of this. But they are not enough to keep you in business, I'm learning this too. I know that it is still too early to say something, but I think it's better to aknowledge where lacks are early and address them quickly. Things are not as bright as someone out there makes you believe, but this is part of the game, I know it.

I still have some bullets to shoot before moving on something else (I will never give up!), so I will put apart the new project I was developing and I will direct all my efforts toward fixing some issues and developing a more effective marketing strategy. Wish me some luck!