After over eight months of development I am overjoyed to announce the launch of Magic Kit, a major new update to my popular Magic Stage app.
This blog post is a behind-the-scenes look at the production of the app. If you're new to Alakazapps you might be interested in checking out the Magic Kit features page or watching all the performance videos.
This mammoth update began, in a way, in early January 2012. For a while prior the elements of a particular magic technique kept poking my brain. I won't spoil the secret for any non-performers, but just after the Christmas festivities it formed into a trick called Bookshelf.
The idea, like all the best, is simple. You present a normal looking book reader app called 'Amazing Classic Books'. On the shelf are three well known classic books. Romeo and Juliet, Wuthering Heights, and Great Expectations. The spectator chooses a book then you impossibly reveal an actual page from the book they chose. I worked really hard to make the trick look natural. Performing the trick got great reactions.
I started to integrate the trick into my existing Magic Stage app and during the process had a realization - the app need to be rebuilt. From scratch.
Okay, so it wasn't just integrating the new trick. I'd been contemplating a redesign for a while. Partly based on my own desires for the app and partly based on the pile of feedback I'd received. It was definitely something about the simplicity of the new trick that kicked me into gear.
I started Magic Stage version 2 with a set of design goals. Some were behind the scenes implementation details such as an easy way to add new tricks. Many where new user facing features invented to make Magic Stage a really powerful magicians tool.
Given the major impetus for the redesign it perhaps seems obvious that the apps interface would adopt a 'shelf' styling. While the redesign did start as a shelf metaphor, and indeed end in such a way, I tried many different approaches. The shelf style worked so well because it translated seamlessly between the smaller and larger iOS devices.
Perhaps my favourite new (and much requested) feature is what I call 'Performance Mode'. See there's a bit of a conundrum when it comes to creating a magic app. I want to create something that visually appeals to me as a lover of magic. There's a certain imagery and styling. I also want something the doesn't scream "this is a magic trick" when I'm performing. Performance Mode is just that. Tricks that you enjoy performing can be favourited and then displayed in a minimalist view at the touch of a button. It looks really cool too.
The other big feature is the tutorial system. In previous versions all tutorials where packaged as self contained movie files - text and live-action videos. This was not ideal because it results in needlessly large videos files (encoding still text into a video is pretty wasteful). It's also not interactive. With the new tutorial system each step is its own video accompanied by text which is part of the app. At your own pace you can swipe through each stage of the tutorial, easily re-watching the live-action explanation.
As the app developed it started to look and feel more like an essential tool for performing magicians and so, quite late in the day, I changed the name to Magic Kit. This wasn't an easy choice. Changing an apps name means you have to a) change all marketing material b) risk losing discoverability. Ultimately I decided that Magic Kit better represented the app and that was more important than the reasons for sticking with the old name.
Magic Stage is now Magic Kit. A simple change the belies the massive amount of improvements brought to the app.
I hope you enjoy the new features and magic tricks. There will be more magic added before 2012 ends so Magic Kit will just keep getting more useful.
