I missed the iPhone Tech Talk World Tour last Fall. At the time it wasn’t a big deal because I was still soaking in all the information from the iPhone SDK docs. Now, on the other hand, I’m at the point that I’m getting into more advanced stuff, either not covered in the docs, or that it’s just plain tricky. For example, I spent all day today trying to coerce my app into sending an email with an image attachment–in the end I either kind of succeeded, or I bypassed the problem, depending how you look at it. But that’s another story for another day.
So last week, I was excited to learn there was a new iPhone development conference called 360|iDev (not the greatest conference name–sounds too much like an Xbox development conference). It looks like a very hands-on, for developers by developers kind of conference, instead of half-marketing, half-development like Apple’s offerings (Yes, we’re already on board, you don’t have to sell us on how cool the iPhone is. We know. We’ve banked our life and savings on it actually). The lineup of speakers looks really promising (including Urban Tycoon author, Mike Huntington).
What really excites me the most is meeting the other attendees though. It looks like it’s not going to be a huge conference (hundreds instead of thousands or tens of thousands like GDC), and we’re all staying at the same hotel, so there should be plenty of opportunities to meet people, chat, trade tips, and compare horror stories over beers.
I actually liked the idea so much, that I decided to jump in and submit a session proposal, and the organizers very kindly accepted it (which is great because otherwise I might not have been able to have afforded going :-)). I’ll be talking about my experience going from a AAA console development environment, to a single-person iPhone development team. Both the obvious differences, the not so obvious similarities, and how a single person can really deliver a top-notch iPhone game.
I encourage everybody to have a look at the 360|iDev site and register if you haven’t already. It’s not very expensive (especially if you buy the ticker sooner, rather than later), and it’s going to be a blast. It’s in San Jose in early March, a couple of weeks before GDC, so no conflicts for game developers there. Also, if you’re interested in speaking, check out their call for speakers while they’re still accepting new submissions. I hope to see some of you there!
On a totally different note, a couple of weeks ago, Evan at Veiled Games (Up There), which is one of my favorite indie iPhone developers, promised to put a daily image with a teaser of their upcoming project. This was soon picked up by Gavin at Antair Games, who is letting us peek under the covers of what’s coming up after Sneezies.
I figured it would be fun to follow their steps, but don’t hold your breath of a daily update. Maybe weekly if you’re lucky. Maybe.
So here’s this week’s teaser. Draw whatever conclusions you want from it 🙂
That probably gives more clues than either of the teasers I’ve posted so far :).
I’d love to go to 360|iDev, but it’s the cost of a flight from Toronto to San Diego that’s stopping me. That ain’t cheap. 😉 Maybe I need to look into a Canadian iPhone conference.
A Canadian iPhone conference would be great.
@Gavin, Hahah… Don’t be too sure 🙂 Although I have to admit that your teasers are all over the place.
@Owen, Sorry to hear you won’t be coming to 360|iDev. It would have loved to chat with you in person since we seem to be in almost the same situation with games and iPhone development. Any chance you might be going to GDC?
@Owen, it might be cheaper to fly to San Jose, and since that’s where the conference is, it’d be even better LOL. Sorry you won’t be able to join us!
@Noel, yeah we wanted 360|iPhone, nice and easy to remember, but didn’t want to risk running afoul of Apple.
@Noel, I doubt I’ll make it to GDC. I priced it out and it would cost me something like $5,000 to make it down between flights, hotels, and summit (and that’s only to attend one of the summits, not a full pass). That might change if Dapple sells really well before then, though. 😉 Hopefully someday we’ll end up in the same place at the same time and can chat in person.
@John, haha, yes, I suppose it would help to fly to the right city! 🙂 Hopefully my business will be successful enough that I can attend a future year.