One Is Not None Preorder Is Live!

The title says it all. After a six week beta period where over a thousand games of Magic: the Gathering have been played using One Is Not None, preorders for the official launch are live! The app will release Monday, April 7, 2025. The beta process saw way too many changes to list, but here are some notable improvements that were made thanks to all the amazing the feedback:

• Commander damage now syncs with life totals (can be disabled)
• Secondary counters like commander tax and poison appear on the main life counter screen so the information is visible at all times
• Players are automatically knocked out upon reaching 0 life, 10 poison, or 21 commander damage (can be disabled)
• New customization options around app behaviors like the speed of the random player chooser and the color of the center icon
• 20+ bugs identified and fixed

It's been an incredibly productive beta period, and while I'm nowhere near done with the app, I finally feel ready to share it with the world at large.

I would also like to take a moment to thank some folks. This is my very first independently developed app and I couldn't have done it without so much love and support from lots of folks. First and foremost is my wife. Without her support, guidance, and occasional bit project management, this app would never have seen the light of day. However, I never would have even started if I hadn't been inspired by my newborn son. Watching him learn and grow made me want to broaden my horizons which finally gave me the push I needed to build and release my own app.

That said, the process of building something from nothing has at times been challenging, so I wanted to give special thanks to folks who supported the app in various ways.

• Benji Debnam, who graciously donated time and design expertise to help me achieve the final polish of the app's initial version.
• Matthew Skiles who nailed the app icon's design on the very first try and went above and beyond to make it customizable.
• My buddy Chris, who doesn't build iOS apps or play Magic but was always there to listen to me talk.
• My friends Sean, Jim who test drove the app with me and gave me great feedback.
• All of my beta testers. It's because of you all that I've been able to make the app what it is, and I'll be continuing to rely on you as I add new features to the app.

To all of the folks listed here, and certainly some that I forgot, thank you. You've helped make one of my dreams come true.

One Is Not None: Beta Updates and Gratitude

tl;dr: To everyone who’s tried out the app, and especially those who have submitted feedback, thank you! I’ve shipped some highly requested features like commander damage → life total syncing, and fixed a bunch of bugs. This release I had to make a fundamental change to the database so you might see a crash on launch, but this is a one-time thing. Delete and redownload the app and you’re good to go.

Thank You!

The response to my announcement last week has been incredible. After launching One Is Not None into a public beta, I've had hundreds of folks sign up to be beta testers. Many of you have already sent tons of feedback and I'm so ecstatic that there are people with an appetite for a new app on the scene. Thank you to everyone who has expressed interest and support, and thank you especially to my beta testers who are helping me make this app as good as it can be.

Also, if you wanted to follow along with news and developments, I’ll always be posting on this blog, but you can now also follow me on BlueSky @thehonkingsmith.com as well as on Mastodon @thehonkingsmith.

This past weekend, I released the first update to One Is Not None and there's a ton to check out if you’ve got the beta:

New Features

The new secondary counters shown on the main screen.

• Commander damage now syncs with life totals (highly requested!) You can turn this off by tapping on the gear icon then Customize on the top left.

• Secondary counters like commander tax, poison, and energy now appear on the main life counter views. Currently I'm using text labels for them but I'm looking into using icons for the labels instead to make it cleaner and more compact.

• You can now reorder players by tapping on the "Change Order" button at the top of the player configuration section.

• The first player chooser animation now has three different modes. "Speedy" is the new default and is, well, speedier than the animation before. For those that liked the suspense, the previous animation continues to exist as a "Suspenseful" option, while "None" is the option that eliminates the animation altogether. You can change this setting in the Customize menu.

• There's a new option for the gear icon to be a neutral gray instead of color-matching the life counters. You can find this option in the Customize menu.

Bug Fixes

• iPad users should now be able to use the "Reset Game" and "Clear All Settings" buttons. They previously didn't do anything.

• Some users had difficulty consistently hitting the secondary counter button on the main view (the little black circle button with the sliders). I've increased the size of the tap target slightly to help with this issue, but let me know if it's still a pain point.

• When using partner commanders, the app will now correctly show two separate commander tax trackers. Currently they're not differentiated in label or anything, but I'm thinking about how to improve that.

Heads Up

One thing I think is important to call out is because I messed up a bit early on in the development process, I had to fix something I was doing incorrectly with the database. This means that, this one time only, you might see a crash on startup, and your configuration options will not be preserved after installing this version. If I've done my job right, this shouldn't ever happen again. If you do see a crash, delete and redownload the app from TestFlight and everything should go back to normal.

Thank you again to everyone who has expressed interest in the app! I'm working hard so that the app will see a public release as soon as possible. As always, feel free to drop me any feedback you have at feedback@thehonkingsmith.com.

Announcing: One Is Not None

I'm really excited to announce the app I've been working on. It's called One Is Not None and it's a life counter for tabletop Magic: the Gathering games.

The standard four-player layout for a game of Commander.

Why a life counter app?

There are other apps like it out there, but for one reason or another, I've found them lacking. I set out to build an app fulfilling the following:

1. Extremely reliable user experience, from user input to data persistence and everything in between.
2. Beautiful and minimal aesthetics with animations that help build a mental model for how the app works.
3. Comprehensive feature set to be able to track anything that might happen in a game of Magic: the Gathering.

I won't claim to have nailed every endeavor perfectly, but I am filling a void that I believe exists in the life counter app landscape.

What sets this app apart from others like it?

The Look

Some apps have a very rich feature set, but they are an eyesore on the table. When so many people love to bling out their decks and have beautiful playmats, these awkward looking apps ruin the vibe of the table. One Is Not None has a minimal aesthetic with beautiful animations that set it apart from the rest of the pack.

Additionally, the app ships with a gorgeous icon in a slew of customizable colors by the wonderful & talented Matthew Skiles. The icon fully supports iOS 18's tinted icon mode, so it'll match the color of your device if you have that setting enabled. Here's the default icon, as well as a small sample of the alternative colors you can choose!

Reliability

Other apps have a beautiful aesthetic but unreliable user interaction. They'll have swipe gestures and taps mapped to the same area of the screen, so unless you tap on the screen perfectly without moving your finger side-to-side at all, your tap will be rejected because the app will think it registered an unsuccessful swipe. These swipe gestures also make features undiscoverable making it hard for players using the app for the first time to grasp how it works. There are no hidden features in One Is Not None, and all user inputs are stable and reliable.

Feature Set

Finally you have the apps that have a decent aesthetic and reliable user interaction, but they're almost always missing features. Some of them can't track more than one "secondary" thing at a time, like poison or energy. Other times they have no concept of commander damage which, much to Ben Brode's dismay, is an important part of the game. While Magic players are no strangers to tracking ad hoc numbers with dice or pen & paper (even I do it sometimes), it can be helpful to have a tool on your table that has the built-in ability to track all these things. One Is Not None delivers the ability to track every aspect of Magic, from poison to partner commander damage to monarchy. Even the brand new speed mechanic from Aetherdrift is being added to the beta as this post is published.

Who is this app for?

Magic has many formats, and while One Is Not None can work well for any format, it's focused on providing the best experience for Commander players since that's the format I play most often.

Is it out yet?

The app is currently in beta testing! I've opened up 50 spots for the most eager of you to join and test it out. If there is enough interest, I may open more spots. If you've never beta tested an iOS app before, you'll be prompted to download Testflight which is the official beta distribution mechanism from Apple.

To join the beta, follow this link! https://testflight.apple.com/join/bRxMengR

Conclusion

I'm so stoked to finally be announcing this app. I've just recently become a dad and this is something I've been working on in my free time between parenting and working. At the risk of sounding cliché, it's a little bit of a dream come true to release my own app into the App Store. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and please let me know what you think! You can always leave me feedback by emailing feedback@thehonkingsmith.com.