Inspiration
The app was started to solve a single problem that I faced. I see a reel/video of an interesting game that I want to play it. But while scrolling I just scroll to the next reel and then forget about the game. I tried to save screenshots of the reels to keep a reminder. But they just get lost in 100s of other screenshots, and remembering the context from a single screenshot doesn't work all the time. Then I came across Shipaton and a related category (Influencer Award - Gaming) and this gave me the push to finally build the app that I was procrastinating from very long time. It also solves another problem of mine: When I get time to play games I get confused what exactly to play so I added a feature in the app to suggest me games based on how much time I got. I was pretty sure that it's not just me who faced these problems, there are many more gamers. So that is where the inspiration came from.
## What it does
Sunk Cost is a backlog app that tells you what to play.
Saving a game: If you see a game on TikTok, Instagram or YouTube, just hit Share and pick Sunk Cost. It keeps the link for you to later revisit and search the game
Your pile. Save all your games and track your progress for each. Mark the games as finished once you have completed the game.
Tonight. This is the main screen. Tap how much time you've got, and the app will suggest you games to play from your library based on that.
Finishing and rating. Log how long you played a game. When you finish a game, it asks for a score out of ten, roughly how long it took, and one line on whether it was worth it. And See your un-played games list getting smaller.
Sharing. There are four cards you can post, like Backlog of Shame and your Top 10. You can also share your whole pile as a link that opens in any browser. If your friend has the app too, you can compare piles: whose is worse, what you both own, and what they've finished that you haven't even started.
How we built it
I built the App using Flutter, mainly focusing on Android release. The app used Revenuecat SDK for handling in app subscriptions and payments. I'm using revenuecat paywalls so that I can update them at any time. The app stores data in a local database in the mobile using SQLite through Drift. We use One signal to send different types of notifications. For getting the actual Game data I'm using IGDB API by hosting a server using docker on my VPS.
Challenges we ran into
The main challenge was to get the app through google play review. Google play requires 14 days of closed testing before we can apply for production access. And I had to do it twice as they were not satisfied by my first closed test. I had to find 20+ testers to test my app for google to consider it for production.
The other issue was to handle shared links from other apps, This needs to be handled on the Platform side instead of Flutter so I also had to write some android specific code.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
- 50+ users signed for Sunkcost waitlist at sunkcost.app
- Sunkcost supports saving links from any other app with just one tap. So that your doomscrolling isn't affected
- Sunkcost has a feature through which you can compare your progress with your friends, including who has completed a game and who hasn't
- It gives share cards which you can use to showcase your gameplay hours and your top games
What we learned
- The Play store review process is very slow and we should prioritize it
- Keep the notifications to minimum so that users don't feel it like a Spam.
- Show the paywall at a time which provides the most value to user.
What's next for SunkCost
The next immediate thing I want for Sunkcost is to be released on IOS, I also have plans to let the users sync their data across multiple devices.
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