This has been a long time in coming, but finally I'm gonna get a blog up and running for Ganbaru Games. The goals for this site are partly selfish and partly altruistic. Well, OK, mostly selfish.
Write tips & tricks regarding game making, especially (of course) relating to iOS. I've been helped out a lot by other game developers who have taken time to write tutorials and whatnot on their blogs, so I'd like to return the favor.
Write updates about my own published & upcoming games — I guess there's Twitter and whatnot, but I'd like a central self-hosted hub as well.
Get back into writing game reviews (focusing on iOS, of course). It'll probably be good source of inspiration to see what other developers are doing with the platform.
As far as frequency, I'm going to try to post at least once per week. So, that's the plan... hope to see you return over the coming months!
Seagull Bags is a small Columbus-based company that makes (what else?) bike messenger bags and accessories. I've wanted to get one of their bags for a while, since the satchel that I currently use is designed to carry vinyl records, and can't easily hold the stuff necessary for a work commute.
Well, this story actually started last year(!). While browsing the Seagull Bags website, noticed that they didn't have any sort of "preview" feature for ordering their custom bags online. I had been tinkering around with Flash for a few months, so figured I might be able to offer some sort of a trade - "programming a bag preview widget in exchange for a messenger bag" sort of thing. I also already knew Dan McKewen, the owner of Seagull, through church, so I already had an "in." Well, Dan liked the idea, and I started mucking around, trying to create a Flex app that would be a suitable order form replacement. I actually got pretty far, in spite of my lack of knowledge regarding Flex. What held me up was that I needed some good photos of messenger bags to use in order to create a "preview" of each custom bag. Dan promised me some, but he was always busy, and the project got pushed to the back burner.
Fast forward to July of this year. Out of the blue, Dan said that he had photos for me, and the project lurched from the grave. It had been so long since I'd touched any sort of Flash/Flex, I didn't want to keep trying to build on what I had previously created. Since my current job had me doing a lot of Javascript and jQuery, I decided to re-build the order form using Javascript. Javascript also had the added bonus of being accessible to Apple's iOS devices.
There were a few delays (such as me trying to publish my first iOS game and the birth of my daughter), but the form eventually got done! I think it works pretty well, and gives you a decent preview of what you're getting before you plunk down some of the cold, hard-earned. Check it out at the Seagull Bags site.
UPDATE: They just posted a picture of my bag on Facebook. Awesome!
Recently I was contacted by a headhunter for a local interactive agency. While I am currently working full time as a contractor, my contract expired a while ago and it's being extended from week to week. So I figured that it might be prudent to check out some other options, just in case. Well, I set up a time to tour the offices of this company and meet with the main dude. Perhaps my attitude was wrong, but I went in to the whole arrangement feeling like they had to sell me on the position. I mean, I'm losing money by driving to their offices (when I could be billing my current client), so I felt like I had already shown my commitment.
To start things off, I announce myself to the receptionist, and then have to wait for 20 minutes. Started to get real frustrated. I almost just got up and left, but the receptionist told me that "they were coming," plus I didn't want to feel like I had totally wasted my time driving out there.
After I finally meet with the guy, instead of giving me an overview of his company and telling me why I would want to work there, he tries to conduct some sort of interview, asking bizarre psuedo-technical questions. He talks almost constantly, giving me no chance to ask my own questions. At this point I had been in their offices for about an hour, and was frustrated and ready to leave. On my way out the guy mentions that he'll look into setting up some contract work for me, but I got the feeling that he was as unimpressed with me as I was with him. I haven't heard back, and even if I do, I think I'll have to decline.
So, great waste of time for everyone involved. I guess I learned that I should first exchange emails or talk on the phone with a "real person" (not a headhunter) before taking time out of my life to go to what may be a waste-of-time meeting.
I've been toiling away for the past four months on my faithful 3 year-old Gateway NX100X, but it's soooo slooooow and really wasn't fast even when it was new. Trying to run two web servers, multiple browsers, edit a PSD and listen to music all at the same time basically kill the machine. Umm, so I'm probably going to bite the bullet and snag a new MacBook Pro. Now, I realize that it's almost an oxymoron to be a cost-conscious Apple devotee, but that's the sad state I find myself in. Usually my first thought is to run to the "refurb" section of the Apple Store, where you can get pretty good hardware for anywhere from 10%-20% off. However, after my recent Mac Mini purchase, I recommend that you buy your Apple gear new from Amazon instead of getting it used from Apple.
Here's the breakdown:
Apple Store (refurb): $1019 + $68.78 (6.75% sales tax) = $1087.78
Amazon (new): $1149.99
Difference: $62.21
The difference is that Apple will charge you sales tax, while Amazon doesn't. After factoring that in, the discount you get for refurb hardware just isn't compelling. I'd rather pay an extra $62.21 for a brand new machine, where I know that the screen (and especially the battery) have come directly from the factory, unused.
My advice is to make a mental note of this next time you're in the market for some Apple kit.
A few months ago I decided to try my hand at iPhone development, and the result is finally with us. Presenting Nonogram Madness for iPhone and iPod Touch!
For those of you who've been following along at home, late last year I made the first version of Nonogram Madness in Flash using the Flixel framework. Since I knew I would have to learn both a new language and a new programming framework to create anything on iOS, I decided to re-work a previous creation. I thought since the core logic had already been programmed, porting would be relatively straightforward.
Obviously, in the end it was a bit more complicated than that. There were lots of unexpected challenges, such as dealing with touch-based controls, as well as creating all-new puzzles. It's been the most ambitious project I've done in my spare time to date, and I'm actually pretty proud of it.
In fact, I enjoyed the process so much that I created an LLC to publish the game under. The company is called Ganbaru Games, and while right now it's not profitable at all, I'm hoping that perhaps if I get enough decent games out there, I can take advantage of the "long tail." The word "ganbaru" means "to try ones' best" or "to work hard" in Japanese, and that's the philosophy I'd like to bring with me in game creation.
