Grappetite

BACKGROUND

Can you offer a little background information on your company?

I’m a children’s book writer and a texts writer, but mostly I write children’s books.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your main goal or objective for working with Grappetite?

I met Gertjan van Laar three years ago. He knew me from social media like Twitter and he knows the books I’ve written. So he asked me, “Could we do children’s books apps together?” That sounded like a great plan because as a children’s book writer, the best thing you can do is have your story made into an app. I’ve written some stories including one about Harry Hamster. An illustrator made illustrations and we sent it to Gertjan, who is making it into a children’s app currently.

SOLUTION

What platforms will the app be available for?

iPhone and iPad as far as I know.

Can you provide a general cost estimate for the project?

Approximately $36,000.

When do you expect the project to be completed?

I hope it will be completed in about four weeks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How happy are you with the results so far?

Very happy. It’s going great, although I’ve only met Gertjan one time, we are communicating via email. When I have some new input or I see some things in the app that I don’t like or are incorrect, he is very fast to change it. He is communicative with me and the illustrator about what kinds of games we like. He is also communicative about what kinds of other languages we want to use so it’s great working with him.

Is there anything that you found to be unique or special with them compared with other vendors that you’ve worked with?

He’s the first vendor I’ve worked with. He’s very communicative and I can discuss anything about the app with him and he’s never hasty. He talks through everything about the process. For instance, some pages that I’ve written had too many words so he discussed with me what to delete. Some editors of magazines tend to work on their own and then you see your product in a magazine and say, “Oh, these are not my works.” But Gertjan respects the text that I’ve written and the goal that I have with this app. He’s inventing games that I’ve never thought of with his team, and I think it’s very funny.

Looking back on the project, is there anything that you would do differently a second time around, or think they could improve upon?

No, I’m very happy with their part.