As a game developer, working on a project for years just to have it cancelled can be devastating. I’ve been lucky enough that it has never happened to me, but it’s an occurrence all to common in the games industry. However, having to cancel your own game after years of work is even harder. So it is with a heavy heart that I announce that I’m stopping development on Lasting Legacy. ...
Today I can finally announce the game Miguel and I have been working on for a while: Lasting Legacy. You can read more about Lasting Legacy in the official web site. There isn’t a lot of information yet, but we wanted to announce it now so we can talk openly about it until release. We’ll definitely be revealing more information here over the upcoming weeks. ...
When was the last time I wrote something in this blog? It was a while ago. Hmm… Let me check. Yikes! It was over a year ago! That’s probably the longest gap ever in the history of this blog. What happened? And most importantly for the two of you still reading, what’s going to happen over here? ...
Pocket Gamer just published an article on “The Making of Casey’s Contraptions”. It’s an in-depth interview with Miguel and I, talking about the origins and development of Casey’s Contraptions. Learn what influenced the art style in Casey’s Contraptions, how we almost went with a freemium model but pulled out at the last minute, and more.
Pocket Gamer just picked Snappy Touch as a top-50 developer for mobile and portable devices for the year. I’m really honored they counted me among the best 50 of the year, especially on a year with so many great games and new developers. 2010 was the year I was hoping to ship Casey’s Contraptions, but that didn’t happen. However, it’s great to see Pocket Gamer took notice of the ongoing work on Flower Garden. Every update feels like a small product release on its own, and there were many updates in 2010! ...
Two years ago, when I was working on the first release of Flower Garden, Valentine’s Day was my target ship date. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), I missed it and rescheduled it for April. Last year I was eagerly awaiting the Valentine’s Day features hoping for a feature by Apple, but Flower Garden wasn’t one of the apps to be selected. It was disappointing but understandable given how many newer quality apps are out there. ...
Today is the day! We finally announced my next game: Casey’s Contraptions. This is a bit of a different project than some of my past ones. This one is a collaboration with Miguel Ãngel Friginal from Mystery Coconut. I’m doing the programming, Miguel is doing all the art, and we’re both contributing equally to the design and everything else. It has been great having some awesome art to go with the game, but also to collaborate with someone really closely on the game. ...
Right on the heels of the Mother’s Day promotion, Flower Garden just got its second ever App Store feature. This time it was selected as a Staff Favorite across most of Europe (UK, Spain, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, and Sweden!). And if you haven’t picked up your free copy of Flower Garden, make sure to do it now. It will probably go back to full price after this weekend. ...
As part of Indie+Relief, all proceeds from Flower Garden this Wednesday will be donated to Haiti through Doctors Without Borders. Encourage your friends to buy Flower Garden for a good cause! That includes in-app purchases, so feel free to load up on fertilizer :-) If you’ve already purchased Flower Garden and you’d still like to help out, you can check out the great lineup of Mac and iPhone apps at Indie+Relief, or donate directly to Doctors Without Borders here. ...
Aparently Santa came to town a little later this year. Or maybe it was the Reyes Magos (also bit late). In either case, I woke up this morning to find a very nice present waiting for me at my computer: Apple featured Flower Garden as an Apple Staff Favorite! Apparently this is in all App Stores worldwide too (I have confirmations for Canada and Thailand, so I imagine it applies to other territories as well). ...
After the success of the OpenGL class in Denver, we’re bringing the iPhone OpenGL class to the Bay Area. It will be held November 19th and 20th in Cupertino, right next to Apple’s headquarters at Infinite Loop. The class is aimed at iPhone developers without previous OpenGL or 3D graphics experience. As part of the class, we’ll create both 2D and 3D OpenGL applications, and we’ll cover a broad range of topics, start with the basics of setting up OpenGL and rendering triangles on screen, to multitexturing and point sprites in the last day. This is definitely a hands-on class, so you’ll need to bring your laptop and be ready to do some coding. ...
For those of you still on the fence about attending my iPhone OpenGL class in Denver, you should sign up before this Sunday if you want to get the super-combo deal. Right now you get a total combined discount of over $300 if you sign up both for the OpenGL class and the 360iDev conference. If you’re only interested in the OpenGL class, the early-bird registration ends next Friday, September 4th. Obviously I’m biased when I say the class is going to be awesome (which it is), but I can also say with total honesty that 360iDev is an incredible conference. It’s very different from WWDC, but that’s what makes it so great: It has top-quality content and speakers, but it’s small and intimate, so you get to meet and hang out with all the other speakers and participants. It was at the first 360iDev conference back in March that I met Keith and Owen (among many other cool developers) in person for the first time and that’s how App Treasures was born. ...
I’m excited to announce the intensive, two-day class on OpenGL for the iPhone that I’ll be teaching. The class will be held September 26th-27th, in Denver, right before the 360iDev conference, and it’s part of the Mobile Orchard Workshops. The class is aimed at iPhone developers without previous OpenGL experience. It’s going to be very hands-on, and you’ll create both 2D and 3D applications during the weekend. You’ll learn all the basics: cameras, transforms, and how to draw meshes, but we’ll also cover some more advanced topics such as lighting, multitexturing, point sprites, and even render targets. Most importantly, you’ll walk away with a solid understanding of the basis, which will allow you to continue learning OpenGL and advanced computer graphics on your own from the docs, samples, or even browsing the API directly. ...
A couple of weeks ago I gave a presentation about iPhone development at Gamelab, the main game development conference in Spain (yes, it was my first technical presentation in Spanish!). Afterwards I was interviewed by Zoom Net, a popular TV show about games and technology. Yesterday they aired the episode with my interview and I was pleasantly surprised to see they turned it into a full 4-minute section covering Flower Garden. Coverage starts at 8m 40s from the start (and, obviously, it’s in Spanish). ...
Today we finally unveiled a project we had been working on for a couple of months: The App Treasures label. Only indie games that we consider to be really fun, polished, and of high quality are part of the label. We hope that when players enjoy one of our games, they can turn to the other App Treasures games and find something they like. With the App Store dominated more every day by big developers and publishers, this is a way for small indie developers to stand our ground. With App Treasures we establish a strong brand, share resources, and get more visibility in the App Store and in the eyes of the users. The same benefits we would get with a publisher, but without giving up our independence, creative freedom, or a percentage of the profits. ...