**Win Free TanZen Copy, Find Out After the Jump!**

Our second inaugural “Developer of the Month” is:

Craig Kemper, TanZen (Free; Paid)

Man oh man, how can I forget the man behind the very addicting and soothing TanZen game! <Currently has the Master’s Mode Red Banner plastered over the icon, YES! Master’s Mode is difficult and fun!, HINT: Buy Now!)

Stumbling Upon Craig and TanZen

Here’s a little funny story regarding how I met Craig. TanZen was originally priced at $2.99. Craig put it on sale for $0.99 and every one went gaga over it. When the sale ended, I noticed these 1 star reviews saying Craig duped them with the price increase when from the get go, Craig told everyone it was a sale price. A couple of months after this incident, I contacted Craig to check up on his sales and he told me the $0.99 price point actually worked better for him and his game… I felt better.

Continue reading to find out how the game went from idea to execution + find out how to win a FREE TanZen Copy for yourself…

What is TanZen?

TanZen is an iPhone offering of the classic Chinese tangrams. The game originally came with a sandy relaxing gray background and soothing green tile piece colors (now with additional Blue and Purple tiles!). Craig recently put out a big update for the game that included sounds (optional) and Master’s Mode to name a few. In Master’s Mode, the player has to complete the puzzle without the silhouette in the background.

TanZen Normal Mode

Master’s Mode

…sounds difficult? Heck yeah! This new feature adds maximum replayability to the game. The sound addition eleveted the game even higher. It was soothing without sound, now it’s pure iPhone gaming nirvana! Also, Craig is rather very solid regarding new puzzle releases almost every couple of weeks so you won’t feel left out.

Inspiration

Exactly how did the game come about? The answer is somewhat amusing and enlightening:

“In my day job, we have daily meetings, where everyone discusses what they did since the last meeting. Our company put a couple sets of tangrams on the meeting table, which many team members would play with during the meetings. After seeing those every day for a couple of years, it was one of the first things that came to mind when I was tryingto come up with a game idea.”

The Release

It took Craig about four and a half months plus around $750 development cost (+ $99 AppStore App Submission fee) for the game to get released. Everything was worth it though since the sales exceed Craig’s expectations about 50 folds, and “even though it’s been around for nearly six months, it still sells hundreds of copies of every day”. TanZen was ranked highest at No. 12 in August of 2008, No. 28 two months later.

What the future holds…

So you guys are wondering… what will be the second and may i say HIGHLY anticipated Craig release?

“With any luck, the next game will be out sometime in February. It’s a puzzle game, and is meant to be a sister product to TanZen, as it lives in the same Zen universe. People who like the look and feel of TanZen will feel right at home!”

There you have it guys! Ian A4 (Scoops, Hanoi and Textropolis) and Craig (TanZen) are our inau TEER gural developers of the month!

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FREE TanZen Copy

EDIT: Big apologies to Craig for accidentally putting Ian’s name on the instruction below.

Please comment away below regarding Craig, his game or even this article. TWO comment authors will be chosen at random. Contest Closes January 23. 12AM.