…and that’s how you make an iPhone game

Good evening everyone,

Remember that light at the end of the tunnel i’ve spoken about? Well we’re now firmly out of the tunnel and basking in the glowing…glow. English literature was never my strong point. Fortunately however, I can write code and transform it for your adoring pleasure into gaming magic. Or at least that’s the idea.

So, ladies and gentlemen, Floobz is finished!

That is right it’s all done and what an amazing (read exhausting) journey it has been. I just hope the end result has been worth the wait. The game itself is now awaiting approval from the good folk at Apple. With a bit of luck the game should be available in the next week.

Not much left to say then except please buy it – it’s very cheap and will provide a great challenge and real sense of satisfaction.

Did I also mention that my wife is pregnant (finally)? I’m going to be a father! This could turn out to be one hell of a year…

Floobz Development Update

Hello again and welcome to my weekly-ish update on the development of our new game Floobz.  I’m pleased to annouce that I’m very happy with the progress we have made recently. This week we have a few new features to show you, namely:

• Fan tiles
• Zoom functionality
• Explode action
• New Heads-Up Display (HUD)

It makes me happy to be able to share this with you. Why? Well, truth be told I’ve not had the greatest of weeks. My football team Bolton are currently propping up the rest of the Premier League (oh the shame…). To make matters worse my car blew up! I’m not kidding, really, it blew up. Ok maybe I’m exagerating a little. It made a loud bang followed by a large plume of smoke coming from under the bonnet. I won’t lie, I was scared. I don’t really know much about cars but I assumed that BANG + SMOKE = PROMPT DEATH. Fortunately that was not the case – after legging it to the other side of the car park with my step daughter, watching in disarray for 5 minutes, I come to realise that my car was not on fire and the smoke was in fact just steam. Apparently my cooling system blew a hole or something. And I thought BMW’s were realiable!

I think D-Ream put it best – “Things can only get better!” – let’s hope so!

Anyway, back to Floobz. Following on from the success of my previous screencast I have kindly reserved my Wednesday evening to prepare a second one. Gratitude is not neccessary. Enjoy!

And there you go! Not much more to add to that really. Maybe I should have added credits to the video and give my step daughter Beth a mention. Oh well.

I’ll leave you with something I was asked to say by an esteemed colleague who shall remain unnamed –  “All the awesome code you see is probably Matts ….. ahhhhh ….. I want to be like Matt one day but am not holding my breath!”

Goodnight!

A fun week with Floobz

Good morning!

We meet again. Lots can happen in just over a week. A wife can threaten divorce over their husbands failed attempt at quitting smoking. A man’s favourite football team can lose to Norwich City with barely a flicker of passion for the beautiful game. And Mark Zuckerberg can announce mammoth changes to the popular university project he plagerised from fellow students (only joking Mark ;)).

But you don’t care about all that do you? What you really want to know is how much progress has been made on Floobz – yes, you do!

So, in keeping with my first paragraph, I can happily inform you that the Floobz project has come on leaps and bounds. This week I have kindly prepared a screencast of the progress. Now before you wet yourself in anticipation let me first warn you of the following:

• My internal microphone on my laptop is terrible, and
• This is my first ever screencast and so I was slightly nervous

With that said, I’m still extremely happy to show something in action! So sit back for ten minutes and try to enjoy.

Part 1 – Level Editor

Vodpod videos no longer available.

See better quality version – part 1

Part 2 – iPhone Demo

Vodpod videos no longer available.

See better quality version – part 2

Was it everything you expected? Probably not. But never fear it’s still early days yet and as I’ve previously stated, “Lots can happen in a week”  so who knows, we could be finished next time! Woohoo!!

But probably not.

In my next post I hope to show you some of the heads-up display (HUD) in action and maybe some pinch-to-zoom functionality. I’m also hoping to report on my joy of the 4-0 drubbing of Arsenal – stranger thinks have happened.

Until then its bonjour from me 😉

KPM Russ