Two days ago I quietly released Nebraska93, a county license plate game for anyone traveling through Nebraska.

I’m really happy with the way it turned out and thought I’d share some fun things about it:

• I drew the app icon, which is based on the state’s 1940 license plate design.
• I also created all of the icons and artwork in the app and gathered all of the interesting facts for each county.
• Nebraska93 was “in review” for only 12 minutes.
• The photo behind the Nebraska map on the app’s main screen was taken from my yard.
• The app uses AdMob to serve ads. If it really takes off (I mean really takes off), I’d definitely entertain the idea of rolling my own ads for local Nebraska businesses.
• I used third party libraries to create confetti and display in-app notifications. I also modified Marco’s IPInsetLabel for the “Did You Know?” facts on each county page.
• The basic county data (population, established date, county seat, etc.) is loaded into Core Data on the app’s first launch. The interesting facts about each county are in a separate plist so that I can easily add more as time goes on.
• The dynamic Nebraska map, circular progress indicator, and corn icon were all made in PaintCode.
• The “Discoveries” images were drawn with Affinity Designer and involved a lot of tracing with vector tools (except for the Walgren Lake Monster, which I made up myself).
• If Nebraska schools showed interest in purchasing the app, I’d remove ads, switch to paid-upfront, and then release an ad-supported “lite” version.
• One of my favorite things about the app is the little informational view that pops up when you tap an unlocked Discovery.

I think it would really be fun to collaborate with local elementary schools. All fourth graders learn about Nebraska history, so students could research the counties and send me their own fun facts which I could feature with their first name and/or school.

The next things on my to-do list are to make it available for iPad, improve accessibility, and re-take the app’s store screenshots without the ad banner (whoops).

Heartfelt thanks to all of you who have downloaded Nebraska93 so far (especially those who don’t live in Nebraska, lol)! If you have any questions about how anything in the app works, let me know. I always like it if my work can help other beginners in some way. And if you’re a beginner, let me just encourage you to explore app ideas that might benefit your local community. It’s a great way to gain experience and give back at the same time!