This is a guest article written by freelance programmer Ville-Matti Hakanpää

In this brief introductory tutorial I will go through some basic aspects of Facebook application development. The work itself is basic app programming, but it's a whole new world and environment. If you have a wonderful idea, Facebook can work as a great distribution channel for you. Heck, even a bad idea can get some attention fast!

Start out with the most basic of questions, though: what makes a good app?

That's the first and most common question people are asking or they should be asking. The best way to start when you're trying to decide what to develop is to look through all the other applications what are inside Facebook already. Facebook applications are listed and rated by users, so there's a feedback loop there too that tells you the kind of things people find useful and engaging.