SMART LOTTO Dev Log #1 — December 2020: Why a Lottery App?

December 16, 2020, 12:22 PM

I still remember that moment. The first build uploaded to TestFlight.

That was the beginning of my first iOS app. Swift, UIKit, two weeks of development. And the subject was the lottery.

Why a Lottery App of All Things

When I was learning iOS development and wanted to build something real, I had three criteria:

Not too technically overwhelming
Something that real people would actually use
A genuine pain point I could address

I searched for lottery apps on the App Store. There were plenty. But most of them were almost identical: generate a random set of six numbers, show the latest winning numbers. That was it.

The gap was visible. People who take the lottery seriously don't just want random numbers. They want to apply conditions — "at least 3 odd numbers," "sum between 100 and 150," "always include 7." No app offered that.

That observation became the idea.

Build It in Two Weeks

I wasn't aiming for polish. The plan was: build something that works, ship it, see what happens. Run the cycle fast.

I defined three core features:

Statistics — Visualize number frequencies and patterns from all historical Korean Lotto draws
Condition-based generation — Set odd/even ratio, sum range, fixed/excluded numbers
Lucky store finder — Map of nationwide lottery retailers with 1st-prize wins

These three would be enough to stand apart from every existing app.

Swift UIKit, Two Weeks

Looking back, it was an audacious timeline. I wasn't fluent in Swift yet, and I was trying to implement networking, a local database, maps, and charts within two weeks.

Somehow it worked. The deadline created focus. Build only what's necessary now, defer everything else, make it run.

December 16, 2020, 12:22 PM. First TestFlight build.

The App Store submission passed review a few days later. Version 1.0.0. It's at 1.2.4 now — but that first build is what created SMART LOTTO.

Next: the data architecture challenge, which was the hardest design problem in the whole app.