TWIP: Velocispider

TWIP (This Week I'm Playing) is a reoccurring weekly post where I highlight a game or app that I have been playing recently. This won't necessarily be about new games, just ones that have my attention this week.

Fun retro styled arcade shooter with great music and a unique theme. It's a spider-dinosaur shooting lasers at aliens, what more do you need? I got this a few days ago when it was free, kinda feel like it deserves some money though. There is an IAP to unlock all the levels, I might purchase that just to support the developer.

Well...

You may have noticed the ads are gone from this site. I originally put them up for fun, just because it's so easy on a Blogger site to integrate Ad Sense. I've said before, the only cost for this site is  $10/year for the domain name, so it's not that expensive. But a little money on the side is never a bad thing, right?

I normally run AdBlock on my browser, and selectively whitelist sites that I want to support by showing their ads. I do this because letting all ad traffic onto your computer is, in my opinion, a BAD thing. You never know which ad might secretly install things on your computer, but I do recognize them as a valid form of monetization, as they help keep sites free for the user.

So what happened to the ads here? For about 11 months, I had very little activity with the ads, as I had expected. My account got to about $30, but I wasn't able to touch it until I banked $100. A few weeks ago, I mentioned this fact, and got a huge response from a few people. I saw my Ad Sense account reach over $80, then drop back to about $60 in a day or two. Then, two days ago I got an email that said my account had been suspended for fraudulent activity. I was mad at first, claiming that a sudden spike in traffic could be totally explainable and legitimate, only to later realize that the amount of money I was fighting for was insignificant. Such a small amount of revenue doesn't justify having ads on this site, especially for such a small audience.

So, back to basics, and random thoughts as I continue to trench through the iOS jungle. I've been busy with normal life stuff, but decided to pick up Avoid the Sqoid again, and make some more headway building this game. It's ultimately what I want to do, and getting more products out there will only help me get exposure and practice.

TWIP: The Last Rocket

TWIP (This Week I'm Playing) is a reoccurring weekly post where I highlight a game or app that I have been playing recently. This won't necessarily be about new games, just ones that have my attention this week.

This Week I'm Playing The Last Rocket by Shaun Inman. This game has been out for a while, but I recently picked it up and have been loving it. The 8-bit graphics easily drew me in, but the interesting new control scheme and deep puzzles have kept me busy.

Title Screen

In Game

The game is 'cute', has style, and the music is superb. There is even a 'sound test' section in the settings, something that retro gamers are familiar with and reminiscent for. Now-a-days you have to buy the soundtrack as a separate purchase, but with The Last Rocket you get the whole thing for free, accessible from the menu. It's good music too.

Gears!

The early puzzles look simple, but quickly ramp up in difficulty and requires thought and timing. I'm really impressed at a game that isn't following the norm lately of a free download with in-app-purchases for tokens or coins that lead to upgrades. This is simple a great game with plenty of levels, and a fair price.

Yesterday was fun

I made a couple of posts yesterday, and they must have been posted at the right time, and I hit a sweet spot with the ads, added $31 to my adsense account. I still haven't been able to cash out yet, need to hit $100 before that happens. I think I'll be blogging more in the future.

...and another thought

One idea that keeps floating around in my head lately, usually as I clock in at my day job, is that I should be making things that make me money even while I sleep, rather than getting paid only when I work. This mentality didn't cross my mind when I was younger and just started working. I always believed that you only get money for spending time working. This is great if you honestly love what you do, but this isn't the case for most people. Instead, one should spend their time making something that they can sell or something that perpetuates money for them. With the iOS/AppStore ecosystem and the spirit of indie gaming/development that has spurred in the last few years, I am at the perfect position to jump into an independent work-for-myself business. All I need is the tools and skills to make it happen.

Also, this is my 50th post in this blog. Yipee! So far this year I have banked about $30 from the ads on this site. The only cost for me is the domain name, which is $10 a year, so I've already paid for 3 years of this blog. Pretty cool, eh? Until you realize that you can't cash that out until you reach $100. So, click an ad or two for me so I can cash out!

Another year, another resolution & goal

I started this blog near the end of last year, with a goal to get an app in the AppStore and start my career as an independent developer. I didn't really have a plan on how to get there, just a few tutorials and my Macbook Pro. Reflecting on this past year, I realize that a lot has changed. Most notable, I upgraded to a Macbook Air.

Seriously though, I accomplished what I set out to do, but not the the extent that I had dreamed. That I still dream. I learned the basics of how to hobble an app together from various tutorials. I made about $25 from sales, and have about 1,500 downloads overall. Not a smashing success, but it's a start. And having done all this in my spare time, I am constantly curious about what I can accomplish if I had more time to put towards this part of my life. Ready for it?

So my resolution for 2012 is to continue learning and creating apps, blocking out dedicated time each week to spend on doing this. No more "I'll do that tomorrow" or "I'm going to spend my weekend playing Skyrim". I am hesitant to make a monetary goal for myself because I want to focus on the creation side of this game. I truly believe that the developers who do what they love (and love what they do) will create amazing apps that will sell themselves. I think I can reach this level in a year, building on what I already know.

I also want to blog more. @theonlylars mentioned on twitter that the best way to learn is to teach someone else. I have always felt that I don't really have anything to teach to others, so why bother writing out a tutorial. But I think coming at it from another angle, and writing the steps out to cement them in my head would be hugely beneficial for me, and possibly some beginners out there. This might also drive some more traffic to this site, which would also help out financially if I got a few more ad clicks. I really hate to have ads on my site, but for the time being it's a necessary evil.

So there's some blog for you. This all has been swimming around my head for the last few weeks as I stock shelves and pretend smile at the customers, trying with all my might to tune out the Holiday music. Had to get it out today. Thanks for reading =]

A Nice Bump

About two weeks ago I decided to bump up the price of quadrobounce! to $1 for a week, just to see if anyone would buy it. I'd been having a steady trickle of 4-6 downloads a day (I know, watch out world), and I thought if only one of those people per day bought my game, I could buy a can of coffee or something. No surprise, zero downloads for the whole week. BIG surprise, over two hundred downloads over the weekend after the price drop.

Click to embiggen

The price dropped back to free on November 12. I had 116 downloads on that day, and 109 on the following. They were all free downloads, but still kinda cool, eh?

I don't know if someone was tracking the price, or if some automatic system watches these price changes, but it's nice to see a spike like that. What I learned is that I need to get ads in this game immediately, because there are a large number of new players.

Free Time = Nonexistant

Movement on my experiment to be a free-from-the-working-man's-life software developer has cooled off recently. Skyrim has already taken up a bit of free time, and I haven't even had a proper weekend to play it. That starts tonight after my night shift.
I want to spend more time coding and designing apps. I want to go through tutorials, both for coding and pixelmator. I want to get lost in code and show off my apps to the world. I just can't seem to get motivated when other things get in the way, namely my ~40 hour a week job. I have a new schedule at said job that I think will help me out. I now have two days off in a row (Tuesday / Wednesday), and I'm hoping to block out a large chunk of time, each week, to devote to development. It won't happen this week because of Skyrim, but next week DEFINITELY!
I have been actively taking notes though on things I want to make. I keep my moleskine notebook close so that when an idea pops up, I can quickly jot it down.

Inspiring

All of this Steve Jobs talk lately, watching his speeches for the first time, and hearing so much about his life and the passion he had for creating a mark on this work has been moving and inspiring for people around the world. I can't stop thinking about 'living someone else's dream' and not following your own heart and desires for your own life. I think I feel that spark for making apps again, even stupid little games that are simply about fun.

Man, I've been lazy

Or busy, I can't decide. All I know is I haven't touched iOS stuff in a while (same old story). Working two jobs makes it hard to work on the hobby job.
I have another 'practice app' idea, one that I could easily deploy with some ads and an IAP to remove them. I also want to add adds to quadrobounce because I have about 1500 downloads of the free version so far. But I can't decide if it's worth screwing over the people who actually bought the game in the first place. I'll probably do it, but I'm hesitant.

Still alive, just lacking in free time.

Creative

Check out "The Adventures of Timmy..." (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-adventures-timmy-run-kitty/id463104059?mt=8&ls=1) in the AppStore. Not necessarily for the app itself, but for the artwork/screenshots. I love how they stitched together a larger landscape image from the five available, and added pieces that overlay across the borders.

Gives me an idea...

quadrobounce! is live

iTunes link. Nothing in the game has changed except the name, graphic assets and the icon. If you like the old stuff, don't update, otherwise grab the new version.

New version submitted

Hopefully I changed everything correctly. I changed the name of my first game to 'quadrobounce!', which doesn't quite roll off the tongue as smoothly as quadropong, but I guess I will get used to it. Unfortunately I will (probably) be waiting about a week for the review process to wrap up, but I will announce here when the game is available again.

I was going to make a whole new app id for this name change, but I was curious if I could get away with just changing all the visible references of the old name and just use the same bundle. This way, it would show up as an update for those who already have the game. I changed all the artwork too, as well as the icon, which I'm sad to say I whipped up in about five minutes. I'm not super proud of it, but honestly I'm ready to move on to other things. I feel like this game is hobbled together and barely compiling as is, mostly due to an upgrade in Xcode and cocos2d mid-project. I strongly advise AGAINST doing this. Serious headaches await if you try.

My next project is another quick simple game, but something that I haven't seen a ton of out there. It's original this time, but still pretty basic in gameplay. Something you could pick up and play for five minutes, then come back to in a few days to try and beat your score. You may have seen this enemy squid that I drew for this project on my Facebook page.

SQOID!!

He will play a big part in this game, but for now it's the only thing I've done with this project. Hopefully this game won't take as long as the last one.

Good news everyone!

I heard back from Atari today, and the response was actually pleasant. Apparently the only infringing aspect of my app quadropong was the name itself, and the inclusion of their trademark name, 'PONG'. Atari said they have no claims to the graphics assets or even the gameplay mechanics, so if I renamed my app and resubmitted it, there would be no further problems. Sweet!

This is a slight pain, and will take a few hours of work to change some graphics around, but I am worried that I will have to resubmit to Apple as a completely different app ID. I haven't poked around iTC yet to see if I can keep the same bundle ID but just change the name slightly. We'll see how big of a headache that side of this ordeal will be.

Which brings me to my next point, and an outreach to my dozens of readers; what should the new name be? I had some funny suggestions on Facebook from my friend Greg, including 'quadro-ping' and 'comparewithactiveingredientsinatarispongx4'. I kind of like the idea of a long ridiculous name like 'Happy Fun Four Sided Bouncing Ball Game', but a simple tweak like 'quadropUng' would be funny too. Any suggestions? Leave a comment or a tweet (@jonnysuave) with your ideas.

Well that was fun while it lasted (copyright infringement!)

I was notified by Apple a few minutes ago that they got a letter from Atari, demanding the removal of quadropong from their app store, stating it violated their copyright to the game/name "PONG". So of course I went through iTunes Connect and removed the app for now, but I am a little conflicted. Yes, they created this game like 40 years ago, and yes, they have a legal right to defend that name, but I can't help saying "COME ON!" A quick search for 'pong' in the app store brings up dozens, if not hundreds, of results for pong style games, some of which are designed to actually resemble the original game. Why are those still allowed in the store, for sale? Maybe they all got letters today too, I don't know.

I'm just doing this for a hobby. I'm one guy trying to make games, sorry for not being completely original on my first try. Guess I should take down my ticalc.org version too incase they see that.

So cheer me up and click on an ad or two, I'm might need some extra revenue soon. *pleaseDon'tSueMeAtari*

Now to test from the blogger app :)

No landscape support!? Instant fail. Loading blogger's "draft" page in mobile safari worked fine, though it's a little slow. At least I could type comfortably there. And why is this app SO ORANGE?

Testing posting from iPhone

I brought my laptop with me on vacation (one week in Tahoe for my brother's wedding), but I haven't had any urge to code. I just want to sit, and veg, and relax. I'm a little bummed because I was hoping a week away from my real job would give me some time to program, but all I want to do is rest by the pool. :)

Experiment failed (kind of)

I had heard some buzz about the 'upswing', or making your app free for a few days, then using that momentum to sell some copies after the free period. I made quadropong free for two days and had over 1000 downloads, which in itself is pretty cool in my eyes. After the return to $1 though I was back to zero sales for a few days. It's back to free and will stay that way. As I posted before I have some ideas that I might implement to try and capitalize on the audience I have now (at least until they delete it...), but as I've said before, I do this for fun not for the money. I'm just stoked that 1000 people are playing around with something I made.

Alternative ideas for monetization

While it would be great to be profitable from selling your software outright, it seems that many iOS developers are exploring alternative ways to make money from their apps. With the In App Purchase system it is possible to give a base app/game away for free, reach a much larger audience, and offer ways to pay for extra content or 'shortcut' purchases. When the barrier for entry is lower (or non-existant), customers are much MUCH more likely to try out an app, and with the right persuasion, will feel good about dropping a buck or two to the developer.

While my numbers are small, they still paint a pretty picture of this situation. In my first month in the App Store with quadropong at $0.99, I had roughly 30 sales and 40 promo codes used. The leaderboard on Game Center had 39 players listed, so assume that about half of the people use and sign into their game center account. Last night I dropped the price to free and posted about it on reddit, facebook, twitter and here. At the moment, there are 223 players listed on the leaderboard! I can't wait for the morning update to see how many actual downloads this translates to, but assuming from the numbers above it could be around 400. Now, this is exciting to me for two reasons. 1) More people are playing my game. I've never had an audience like this before with any programming projects I've done, and it's fun to watch the downloads climb, even if they are free ones. Which brings me to... 2) I have the opportunity to try some new pricing strategies. Now, I really want to be careful here, because there are some people who have paid for this app, and I don't want them to feel cheated. I don't want to just slap some ads on there and call it a day. So I've decided to design some kind of In App Purchase that will reward people who like the game, but won't cause any unfair advantages.

One idea was to have some powerups in the game, like slowing the ball down or making the paddles bigger for a short amount of time. These could be purchased and used during the game, sort of like the eagle in Angry Birds. The problem with this is that it would give an unfair advantage to those players who decided to pay, which would cause some skewed results on the leaderboards. Yes, I want to have integrity in scoring even in my small game. So this idea is off the table. So, how can I have something that isn't essential to the game but still gives the player incentive to buy? And how can I give payers and non-payers access to this content?

My idea is to design multiple graphical themes that can be purchased with real money or points accrued by playing the game. This adds a fun element to the game without drastically altering gameplay or giving any advantage to certain players. My idea is to keep an overall tally of the points earned during the game, and letting the player 'purchase' themes through some sort of theme browser, say at one theme for 1000 points. They also have the option to purchase a 'theme pack' for $0.99, which would include five themes at once. This way the player has the option to unlock the content quickly and support the developer, or play to unlock and enjoy the game for free.

This is a new venture for me, and an experiment as well. I will be hard at work on making these changes so my new project will have to be shelved for a bit. Oh, and in the last 2.5 paragraphs, 10 more players have showed up on the leaderboard, making the total 233 now. CRAZY!

Wow...

In just a few hours since that last blog post, the site got over 100 hits. Small potatoes, I know, but if each of those people had clicked an ad, it probably would have paid for my developer license for a year. How can I actually improve click-through rates without bombarding my page with ads?

quadropong is free!

I've decided to make quadropong free for a limited time. So far sales have been pretty lack-luster, and what I really want is for people to play my games. Financial overflow would be lovely, but it isn't why I started this project. I started pursuing game development because I love games. I've been playing video games for as long as I can remember (Final Fantasy on the NES is my first game btw), and I've wanted to make them for more than half of my life. I finally have a medium that, in my opinion, fully balances the homebrew / garage developer spirit with a chance to make some money, and have the time spent not feel 'wasted'. quadropong was my first venture into the AppStore market, a notoriously competitive and brutal place to try and make a buck. I had a lot of support from my friends and family, and I really appreciate everyone who threw a buck my way. It was a fun first week watching those numbers roll in, but at this point I'd rather have more people play and possibly leave reviews. Or come to this site and click some ads. :)

So, check out the iTunes AppStore page, send this link around, and check out my game if you haven't already. And stay tuned to this page, or my twitter stream, because there will be more coming soon.

Waiting for review...

I'm wondering if there is some secret I'm missing as far as when to submit an application or an update for review. All I changed in my first update, which I submitted almost a week ago, was the graphics and one line of code. I assumed that for updates the process would be faster, but I guess this is how things go. I've read plenty about how frustrating this process is, but now I see it first hand.

But I get it. I understand that this review process keeps (some of) the junk apps out of the app store, and provides a higher caliber of content for consumers. It makes a developer think before spending time working on a project, or making clones of all the popular games just to make a quick buck. I just wish it didn't take over a week to approve a bug fix.

First update

I submitted an update tonight for quadropong. It's mainly a graphics update, since I shipped with the placeholder graphics that I never got around to changing. I'm pretty happy with the look of the game now, check it out here. I really like the texture on the background, almost looks like carpet, and it really gives the game some depth. Now it looks like the paddles are floating on top of something, rather than in the void.
I also fixed (I hope) a bug where Game Center wouldn't authenticate a player if they left the game and came back without a restart (multitasking can be annoying sometimes). I think this bug may have cost some lost scores, which isn't fun when you finally get a good game going. We'll see if it crops up again, but I think I have it nailed.
I still want to add some more 'fun' to this game before moving on. I have three ideas for powerups, clickable buttons that pop up and float around that you can click on to help you score more points, but I want to figure out a way to add them without being too distracting. One is going to slow the ball down for a period of time, another will make the paddles bigger, and the third puts a wall up around the whole board, so you can't lose for a few seconds. I'm still brainstorming how to get these on the screen without being distracting, how to click them without losing control, and how they will effect the game when they go away.

I love Blogger but...

I feel like I'm cheating! Blogger makes this whole process too easy I feel. Last night I felt like the layout of the site was getting too cluttered, and the dark theme didn't really set the right tone, so I set about changing things around. It literally took 10 minutes to change the theme, remove the sidebar ads and get rid of the clutter. I feel like I have a brand new site with almost no work. Good for me I guess, because I don't have to relearn web-design to get something functional up and running.

Feed me!!

If you would like to subscribe to my blog's feed, so you can get updated whenever I post new stuff, you can do so with this link: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Suaveappscom. I use Google reader for all my RSS subscriptions, and I highly recommend it, but you can use any service you want to, it should work just the same. I will be blogging more in the future, so stay tuned.

late night thoughts

So far I've made $8.72 just from the ads alone on this site. That is almost enough to pay for the domain name for a whole year! I really don't know how to get more traffic to the site, but I figure that as long as I keep writing interesting things, people will want to read them, right?

I was inspired today by a post from idevblogaday.com. The post was titles "On being self taught", and really spoke to me and where I am in my development career right now. I would definitely check it out if you have some time, and would like to see what it's like being out in the wild and being self employed. I hope to be there someday, and it's great to read about developers looking back to a time that I can relate to now.

I made a list of goals today, but they are stuck in dropbox somewhere and I can't be bothered to get to the file. I am in the middle of transferring data over to my new Macbook Air, which I picked up today. I have been eyeing these machines for a while, and decided today that I was going to get one for myself and give my Macbook Pro to Shannon, my fiancé, so she has a computer to use at school. Win win :)

My first week in the App Store

Spoiler: not very exciting.

As you know I decided to release quadropong! at $0.99 just to test the waters and see if it would actually sell. Maybe this was a little premature, comparing it to the competition at this price level, but I was curious. And truthfully, I want this to be a financially successful activity as well as a fun one. At the very least, I want to make back the $99/year that it costs be in the developer program. If I make that, at least I won't be at a loss. I don't think that will be happening with this game. In the first week, I had 23 sales in the US, of which I get $0.70 each (so $16). I also had one sale in China, which gets me 0.65 CHF, whatever the heck that comes out to. I had a lot more downloads though because I was spreading out my 50 promo codes to sites like reddit and toucharcade, hoping to stir an interest in the game. 39 promo codes were used in 10 different countries, including Singapore, New Zealand all over Europe.

This is really cool. Regardless of sales, people all over this planet are playing a game that I made. I can't really explain this feeling. I'm proud, and worried about this little thing that I sent out into the world. It inspires me to make more things and see how they fare.

I've got a Facebook page for SuaveApps!

http://www.facebook.com/SuaveApps
will you "Like" my page? I'm not sure how much I will use this, but any exposure is good, right?

And one note on ads...

...I get it. Ads suck. I've had AdBlock on my browser for years, and have enjoyed a cleaner internet. Ads suck...for users. But they are pretty important for the person or team on the other end. I decided to turn them back on this blog for a chance to possible make a small amount of money. Seriously, all I need to $10 a year for this blog, since the hosting is free. All I have to pay for is the domain name. So, ads are back on, you have the option to block them if you choose (which I totally understand and support), but if you can help out with a click or two, I would GREATLY appreciate it.

My first game is UNLEASHED!

So I've already posted this on Facebook, Twitter, reddit, etc, and my lovely fiancé has blast texted everyone we know, but here's the official blog post about quadropong! Here is the link to the iTunes App Store where you can find my first game for only a buck! I've worked really hard on this game for the last 8 months, and while it's not completely finished (it never is...) I can proudly say this game is ready for a 1.0 release.

I found out that the app was approved on my bike ride to Trader Joe's, my regular job, and I almost did a backflip when I saw the push notification show up on my screen! I was so excited. I then proceded to tell everyone at work who has an iOS device that they should download it immediately. I got a ton of support from them too. It's an amazing feeling to see other people excited about something I've made. I haven't ever had the chance to show off any of my previous programming exercises; they've always been tools or toys for me to use. This is the first chance I've had to really show off to the world. It's a little scary, because it's been less than one day and I'm already getting some negative feedback (outweighed by TONS of positive feedback, mind you), showing me small things I overlooked or didn't test enough. I guess that is to be expected though.

I was planning on relaxing today, my day off, but I think I'd better do some more work on this app. :)

"In Review"

Someone at Apple is playing with my little pong game and deciding if I'm suitable to sell it in the App Store. I'm in a bit of shock over this whole situation, and keep seeing it as the beginning to something big. Life altering. Self sustainable. Hopefully :)

Come on Apple, REVIEW MY APP!

I'm getting anxious. I want to be a developer full time, but I can't see the payoff just yet. I know I'm just starting this adventure, but the real world responsibilities of rent and bills require me to have a real fucking job. Boo...

I submitted a build to Apple that, in my eyes, isn't perfect. But really, are our creations ever perfect? Done? No, I think there is always something that we want to change or add. But I needed to get something out there. Get a little exposure and experience with selling something I created. I decided to release quadropong without ads at the low low price of $0.99 because 1) I can't seem to get iAds working, and 2) ...I need to see some sales. Maybe this is selfish, but I figure I have invested a little over $100 (not counting my time) in this adventure and I would like to see some return. I'm curious to see how this simple game can fare against the giants out there right now. Can one person actually make some headway with his first app? Please?

Side note, things like comments, @mentions and ad clicks really motivate me. So go ahead, send me some love. :)

Almost ready!

I dreamed of having the most amazing, fully featured pong app ever created done in a year. I just started the eighth month of this experiment, and I can now see that my dreams have changed a little. I'm totally stoked to have at least SOMETHING to release soon, even if it isn't as great as I had wanted. The core game is done (with small tweaks to be made). The overall app is almost there, I just want to figure out GameCenter and iAd integration. But at the moment, I am really proud of what I've done so far, and I'm anxious to see how something so simple can fare in the App Store. I'm prepared for abysmal sales, but that won't discourage me from continuing this adventure. I have wanted to be a software engineer for a long time. I dream of the day I can work from home, at my own time, and have success that comes from my own two hands. Let's hope this works out.

Break is over.

I haven't touched any code in what feels like a month. I don't really know why, I just lost some steam and haven't had any motivation. Until today. I realized that I want to make something happen for me, have something with my name on it out there, and get this app finished. I have cut back some of the big plans for quadropong for the time being just so I can finish and have something complete to put out there. I have no doubt that I will be able to make my goal of getting this app in the AppStore by the end of the year. And after that's done, I already have ideas for my next project. Stay tuned.

TestFlight

In case you don't know about it, TestFlight is a great way to get beta builds out to testers. It's a little bit of work to set up, but the ease of managing builds, distributing them to testers, and getting feedback from them is amazing. I just started using it yesterday and I already love it.

More Graphics!

I am really enjoying making these graphics for this game, I think it's a little easier than the actual coding. Unfortunately I am at the point where I need to get back into the code and start implementing more features. Here's my latest video (it's a little blurry, even in full screen, but I can't do much about that):

I finally figured out how to capture just the iOS Simulator screen instead of the entire desktop. Smart, eh? I used a plugin found here that works great. I also found a jailbreak tweak called Display Recorder that can capture video on an actual device, but I JUST restored my iPhone to stock, and don't feel like re-jailbreaking (yet).

Icon.png

Been messing around today with VectorDesigner, trying to figure out all its quirks and make a decent icon. Here's what I have so far:

Not bad, eh? I'm sure I'll change it a few more times before I launch, but I think this looks pretty cool, and very "Apple" for now. It was a nice break today to work on graphics instead of code, but honestly most of my time was trying different vector programs out. I think I went through five different "free trials" before deciding to stick with VectorDesigner (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vectordesigner/id402376701?mt=12). It had all the features I need for now, and didn't have the poor reviews that all the others seemed to have. It's no Illustrator, but it will do for now.

Graphics update (kinda)

I found a cheap vector graphics program called DrawIt that I've been testing out (still in the 30 day trial). I was always struggling to draw something like sprites in Pixelmator (which I love), and needed something else. I did some searching and found that vector based editors are better for creating shapes and designs, while raster based editors are better for touching up photos, creating textures/layers, and creating more traditional 'art', like digital paintings. So, here are the results of a few hours of playing with DrawIt:

I also tried to draw a cat face:

Not sure how that one will come to fruition, but we will see. 

Address change

I changed the address for this blog because it's not about bonsai anymore. Update your bookmarks!

Things are progressing!

Another week, another video!

Feels like I made a ton of progress yesterday and today, but watching that video I realize I still have a LONG way to go before I'm ready to actually launch an app. I have the basic framework down for the game, but I have a lot of ideas that will actually make this somewhat attractive in the iOS market. Obviously graphics and music are going to change, I made these in about five minutes (ok more like 30, I'm REALLY bad at graphics...) just as placeholders.

My idea/plan for this game is to release it completely free. Ad free and no up front cost. I know this sounds crazy, because obviously people will pay good money for this high quality and necessary game, riiight? :) I'm looking at this game as a learning experience for me, and release it for free will greatly increase my exposure, my audience, and my feedback. The more people that play with this code, the better I think. I have some ideas for monetizing after release, possibly with additional themes or different gameplay modes. I'm not sure about how to implement this smartly, plus it's way to early to be thinking about this stuff, but I am. I like to have an end goal to work towards, but tend to forget about all the steps it will take to get there. All in due time, I guess.

I'd also like to take this chance to say THANK YOU for reading this blog. It's fun to watch the stats grow each month as I post more, and get a few more readers to the site with each post. Knowing that someone out there is watching my progress, asking questions IRL, and commenting (...) is a huge motivation for me. Stay tuned, more to come as always!

Quick rec...

Here's another site that breaks down Obj-C in an easy to understand manner:
http://designthencode.com/scratch/
Helpful if you are starting and feel overwhelmed, or need a refresher. I'm currently freshening up on subclasses.

Four paddles are go!

So in case it isn't obvious, or you didn't check out the link to ticalc.org I posted earlier, quadropong is a simple, single player pong game where the player tried to keep the ball from hitting any edge of the screen. There are four paddles, one for each side, and the player controls all of them. To make it less annoying, two paddles can be controlled at once. Check the video:

I don't have the ball in there yet, and the graphics are sadly very basic, but the framework is there. Obviously I'm using cocos2d to speed up the process of building this app, and it has been an amazing help. There are tons of tutorials and resources available for beginners and experts alike. Two notable websites that have helped me in the last few days are Ray Wenderlich's blog (http://www.raywenderlich.com/) and Mohammad Azam's article (http://www.devproconnections.com/article/mobile-development/create-iphone-game-cocos2d-framework-136107). Both sites are a great starting point for cocos2d.

Why I always keep my notebook close

Lately, no matter what I'm doing, I'm constantly thinking about this app. Frustrations and road blocks in coding that cause me to stop and move on to another activity (like replaying Final Fantasy X) stay in the back of my mind. Sometimes a solution will suddenly pop into my head in one of those slap-on-the-forehead kind of moments, and I'm glad to have a piece of paper and a pencil nearby to jot down the idea. I don't always have time to jump into the code at that moment, but having a place to log ideas and possible solutions is crucial.


Also, I haven't found a good way to take the kind of notes I take on the computer. I love the free open space of a piece of paper, and the ability to draw pictures with annotations and full sentences, without worrying about formatting. I highly recommend a good 'programming notebook' for everyone.

Removed Ads

Since the ads on this page were doing absolutely nothing ($1.35 since I started it...as the BONSAI blog), I decided to remove them. No point in wasting space with ads if they aren't generating any revenue. I was hoping that eventually I would be able to make a decent side income from app sales and ad revenue, but for now I'm just going to focus on learning this stuff and getting one app published, and worry about the money later. Or not at all. =]

coffee_dev.jpg

New Direction!

I had a moment of clarity/brilliance in the shower this morning (side note, I always do my best thinking&brainstorming in the shower...why is this!? I need a dry-erase board in there to write stuff down because by the time I get out I usually forget the idea) and decided I needed to make a little game really quickly to finally have a product to show off. If you haven't heard about cocos2d before, check their site out. As far as I understand, it is a library that provides tons of graphic and layout tools so you can get a game up and running without necessarily understanding what each and every piece of code is doing. Perfect, right? Well I decided to jump in this morning because I want to port a game I wrote in 2004 called quadropong. Yes that page is still up on ticalc.org, a fact which blows my mind. This is the only 'full game' that I have actually finished and released, as silly as that sounds, but I decided to recreate it for iOS. It's a simple enough game that it isn't a very daunting task, and will allow me to finally finish something and get some confidence (hopefully). Redditors, please don't steal my idea and beat me to the punch. =]

I'm done coding for the day, so here's a small video of the new progress. Nothing too amazing, but I had to make one..

Calculator done, with a small problem

I finished all of the additions in the first 'Calculator' assignment. It consisted of adding a few buttons with new functions for the calculator, and some memory management buttons which needed new variables too. Adding floating point was the last thing I did, and it is almost working as expected. It was easy to allow the user to add decimal points (add a digit button with a '.' on it), took some thought to keep the user from entering more than one decimal per number, but now I am stuck on one situation. When the user is adding two decimals together (0.2 + 0.3), the second entry isn't allowed because of the way I check in digitPressed. Watch this video:

I want to move on, but think that I should figure out a solution to this before jumping in further. This is one thing that sucks about taking the class through iTunesU, you don't have any TAs or teachers to answer your questions or help you figure something out. All I have is Reddit. :)

Calculator!

I finished the highly detailed walkthrough for the Calculator assignment (it basically tells you step by step how to build this project). I added a few new buttons and some color, then recorded building and running it on the iOS Simulator. Enjoy.

The next step is to follow the actual assignment and probably add some more functionality. Fun!

//edit - so annoying, I cannot get a decent sized and viewable video to embed on this page. You can either view the small YouTube video here, or click through the the full YouTube site and view full screen there. Why wouldn't they just include the full screen button on the embedded video? :-\

Stanford Classes

I found the latest iTunesU class from Stanford, and have started to use those as my development guide. I even hooked up the AppleTV to stream the class to my TV so I can watch and do work at the same time. Will post a screen of the 'calculator' assignment when I finish it up.

An in progress screenshot

"Even if I don't make enough money to quit my job,
even if I don't make any money at all,
even if all I do is read a book and learn a new skill, this will be worth it"

-quote by me, Jonathan H, a few minutes ago on the toilet.

New book

I've given up on Objective-C for Dummies, and decided to shelf Programming in Objective-C as a reference tool. I want to get into some actual app programming, not command line stuff. Also, I've noticed too many misspellings and errors in the Dummies book, I can't follow along anymore. I hope these errors are a result of the ebook conversion process, and aren't actually in the print book! These little things, like a function name changing from one page to the next, or typos in the code, really distract me and are making it hard to 'trust' the book. I've moved on the "Beginning iPhone 4 Development: Exploring the iOS SDK". We'll see how this one goes, seems to be more geared towards what I want to learn.

I'm so bad at this...

It's been over two weeks and I've only made it through four chapters in my "Objective-C for Dummies" book. All the basic Obj-C stuff that is boring but essential. You can only do so many NSLog prints to the console before you get bored. Slowly but surely I am making this happen though. In fact the next chapter I am starting goes beyond instruction sets and actually gets into some programming concepts and examples. Yay!

I met an Xcode developer the other day at my store, he was wearing a track jacket with the Xcode logo on it, proudly showing the world that he is a successful and productive developer. He was so excited to share, even for a few minutes, his love for his project (something about the Xcode toolchain...). It gave me a little inspiration to continue on with this.

From Bonsai to programming

My bonsai tree died before it even had a chance. Time to move on to another type of project...

My new year's resolution this year (along with the usual "work out more/eat healthier" one) is to get an app in the Apple app store. I have been interested in computer programming for years, and have started learning on a number of homebrew systems, but iPhone and iOS combination is the first system that combines the accessibility needed for a hobby developer and the opportunity to reach customers and make money. Everyone dreams of sharing the success of apps like Angry Birds. While this would be awesome, I'm setting a smaller goal; get one app published and approved by the end of the year.


I've gathered my materials, which I will share below. So far it has been a lot of reading, but I hope to update with tips, things I've learned, and a full journal of the app, whatever it will be, as it is being developed.

Here are two books I'm combing through now.




While these two books are by no means enough for me to get an app together, but they will be a great starting point. I also have a collection of links to share as days go on.