I Released My First iOS App at 60 — Here’s What I Learned as a Solo Developer

Hi, DEV Community!

I'm a 60-year-old solo developer from Japan.

I'm not a professional software engineer.

My day job is in general affairs at a waste collection company, where I handle things like payroll, social insurance, workplace accidents, and internal computer systems.

Over the years, I experimented with VB6, Kotlin, Flutter, and other technologies — usually learning whatever I needed as I went.

And in August 2026, at the age of 60, I finally released my own iOS app on the App Store.

It's called MoveMaster AI Dance Analyzer.

And recently, it passed its first 100 downloads.

For many developers, 100 downloads may sound tiny.

For me, it meant something much bigger.

It meant that something I had imagined, designed, struggled with, built, and released by myself had actually reached 100 people.

Why I Built MoveMaster

I've been involved in street dance for many years.

When practicing dance, I often had this experience:

"I'm doing the same movement as the instructor... so why does mine look different?"

AI pose visualization and motion traces help reveal how the movement changes over time.

You can watch yourself in a mirror.

You can record yourself on your phone.

You can watch the video again and again.

But sometimes you still can't figure out what is actually different.

That became the starting point for MoveMaster.

Instead of simply watching practice videos, I wanted a tool that could help dancers see the difference between movements.

So I started building one.

What MoveMaster Does

MoveMaster is a video analysis and practice app for dance and sports.

Some of its features include:

• Side-by-side video comparison
• AI pose / skeleton visualization
• Automatic synchronization
• Slow-motion playback
• Mirroring
• Motion traces
• Body alignment guides
• A/B repeat
• Music waveform display
• Practice tools for memorizing choreography
• Video annotations with text, lines, and arrows

AI pose visualization and motion traces help reveal how the movement changes over time.

The latest feature I added is Annotation.

For example, instead of thinking:

"Something looks wrong here."

you can pause the video and write directly on it:

"My center of gravity changes here."

or:

"This arm starts moving too early."

You can draw directly on the video and leave visual notes for your next practice.

The idea is simple:

See → Notice → Record → Practice → Compare again

I'm especially interested in how technology can help turn vague physical sensations into something we can actually observe and learn from.

Building It Without Being a "Real Engineer"

One of the biggest psychological barriers for me was this:

"I'm not a real engineer."

I didn't have a computer science degree.

I didn't spend my career at a software company.

There were many things I simply didn't know.

So my development process often looked like this:

1. Have an idea.
2. Try to implement it.
3. Fail.
4. Search for the reason.
5. Ask AI.
6. Try again.
7. Break something else.
8. Fix it.
9. Repeat.

Not exactly elegant. 😅

But something interesting happened.

AI dramatically changed what I could attempt as an individual developer.

Instead of stopping at:

"I don't know how to do this."

I could continue with:

"I don't know how to do this yet."

That difference was huge.

AI didn't magically build the product for me.

I still had to decide what to build, understand the problems, test ideas, fix bugs, rethink the UI, submit the app, deal with App Store requirements, and keep going when things didn't work.

But AI shortened the distance between an idea and an experiment.

For someone like me, that changed everything.

Then I Turned 60

In Japan, 60 is still an important milestone in working life.

My employment situation changed, and my salary dropped significantly.

So I had to think seriously about what I wanted to do with the next stage of my life.

One option was simply to accept that things would gradually get smaller.

Less income.

Fewer challenges.

Fewer new things.

I decided to try the opposite.

I wanted to build.

I wanted to learn.

And I wanted to see whether a small app made by one person in Japan could reach people around the world.

That's one reason MoveMaster now supports 18 languages.

I don't know how far it will go.

But that's exactly why I want to try.

The First 100 Downloads

MoveMaster recently reached its first 100 downloads.

It's not a viral success story.

There was no huge launch.

No massive advertising campaign.

No famous influencer suddenly promoting it.

I shared it with people I knew.

I wrote articles.

I posted videos.

I talked to dancers and instructors.

I kept improving the app.

And little by little:

1 download.

Then another.

Then another.

Eventually, 100.

That number taught me something.

My first milestone: 100 downloads on the App Store.

The first users don't appear because your app exists.

You have to keep finding ways to communicate why you made it and who it might help.

I'm still learning how to do that.

My Next Challenge: Shipaton 2026

Now I'm taking on another challenge.

I'm entering Shipaton 2026, organized by RevenueCat.

Honestly, entering an international app competition at 60 wasn't something I imagined myself doing a few years ago.

But that's part of the fun.

MoveMaster is already released.

Real people are using it.

I'm still improving it.

And now I want to see how far I can take it.

Why I'm Writing on DEV

Until now, most of my writing has been in Japanese.

But MoveMaster supports 18 languages, and I realized something:

If I want my app to reach the world, I also need to step outside Japan myself.

So this is my first post on DEV Community.

I'd like to share what I'm learning about:

• Solo app development
• Flutter
• AI-assisted development
• App Store releases
• RevenueCat
• Video processing
• Building products from your own hobbies and problems
• And starting a new chapter as a developer at 60

I still have a lot to learn.

But maybe that's the point.

You don't have to know everything before you start building.

Sometimes you build because you don't know what's going to happen next.

And at 60, I think that's a pretty exciting place to be.

Thanks for reading.

If you're also building something on your own — especially if you started later in life — I'd love to hear your story.

MoveMaster AI Dance Analyzer

Available on the App Store.
Built in Japan with Flutter, and available in 18 languages.

App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/movemaster-ai-dance-analyzer/id6759160605