Digital Home of David McGraw

Early in 2009 I decided to jump into a new realm of possibilities that evolved from the iPhone/Touch being released.  I loved this device from a user standpoint and it was an outstanding way to get products out to users from a developer perspective.

Talk to any indie and you’ll find, more often than not, that they just want to get their creation out in the hands of you, the user.  Of course money needs to come in to play to at the very least support the foundation that built the product.  Nothing comes free even from an independent standpoint.

Spin & Shoot was an idea born from the primary need to learn OSX, Objective-C, and Cocoa.  I released the project to the iPhone application store June 28th.

A few notes looking back on this that stand out:

• It look about 2 months of development spread over 6 months
• Objective-C’s memory management takes a while to get used to
• Interface Builder is tedious and can be very time consuming (just write the code)
• I didn’t spend enough time thinking about how to get the word out about it

What was the cost of development?

• $100 for the developer program
• $50 for target marketing on Facebook

What was the return on investment?

• To date we have 68 sales with $47 of revenue
• The marketing had no effect
  • It would have been better if it was planned around an event (spring break, new years)
  • I didn’t do any ‘grass roots’ marketing on forums or twitter

Spin & Shoot is a very, very niche application that I didn’t expect to change the world or hit the top 100 app store list.  This application will likely continue to hit sales spikes during certain points of the year, and random buys when people are looking for drinking apps.

I’m pretty happy. Close to 68 people, and counting, has played with my creation.

I’ve planned to officially name my next iPhone game, ‘Project Void.’  Depending on how much time I get to spend on the game, I hope to begin posting pictures soon.  I’m really excited about this game.  It’s something I’ve wanted to develop for the PC a long time ago, but never got around to it.  The iPhone is the perfect platform for this kind of puzzle game.

I don’t have a lot of time invested into the project, and I’m over halfway finished with it.  I spent a fair amount of time while Spin & Shoot was wrapping up designing and prototyping Project Void.  So as of now, I’m just piecing together the puzzle I’ve sketched out on several sheets of paper.  So if I could recommend anything, it’s to flesh out a design and don’t skimp.  It can get pretty boring fast sketching out screen layouts, but it’s worth it.

That’s not to say you can’t design along the way.  During my trip down to L.A. this last weekend, Megan and I came up with two new features that I will be implementing, and it’s worth noting that these are not small features — they’re game changing. But I’m adding it because it sounds fun, it adds a new dynamic to the gameplay, and it isn’t going to hinder anything.

Game development should be an iterative process.  Try new things.  Play around with it.  If people really like it, keep it! If they don’t, pitch it. Luckily, I’m in no position where I’m required to release something at date x.  I’m just having fun doing something I really enjoy.

Happy first-day-of-fall!  I wonder how many readers I’ve lost during the lull? I’ve been pretty darn busy getting situated out here in California.  And for some reason, now that school is over, I don’t have a lot to blog about anymore.  I need to change that somehow, because I like to write!

I have been incredibly busy within the last few weeks that I haven’t had time to write.

So let’s go back to July 20th.  I ended up getting rotation implemented in Project Void and now i’m trying to generate a procedural algorithm to throw together levels on the fly.  One of the big selling points for this game will be that you will not play it the exact same way twice. Plus, this will give me much more freedom to incorporate new content.

Fast forward to July 25th, Megan and I finally got married!!! After 9+ years, we’ve tied the knot! It’s been an incredible journey and I am excited to continue it as a bonafied married couple!

From the 26th to the 30th we spent time in Vegas.  We saw Mystere, Ka, and Blue Man Group.  All were awesome.

Coming back from our honeymoon, we packed up a moving truck, and spent 33 hours on the road heading toward California.

Then when we got here I couldn’t get in touch with anybody who said they might be available to help so we spent 7 hours moving all of our stuff up 3 flights of stairs!

To now… We’re still unpacking boxes, trying to organize things, and buying new stuff for our awesome apt.

I hope to get back on Void soon.  I’m really enjoying it and, so far, the people who have touched it are as well.

About a month ago, when I was nearly complete with Spin & Shoot, I began sketching ideas on paper of what my next project might be.  During that time, I came up with two ideas, one a little ambitious (mainly due to the artwork required), and another that was a bit less art heavy — a puzzle game.  I decided to pursue the puzzle.

A week had passed from that initial sketch.  I came back to it, added a few more screen ideas, and left it be.  Last weekend, two weeks later, saw the first prototype of this idea.  It was simple and took me about an hour to put together.  The whole point was to see it in action on the phone to see what other people thought of it, and for me to see how things fit together.  I spent the week showing the prototype to a few people and the reaction was pretty positive.  So this weekend began the implementation.

I completed the artwork required early morning on Saturday and jumped into xcode to begin putting the pieces together.  By Sunday evening I had the interface put together – animations, graphics, and overall flow for many of the views.  I implemented the first level / stage loop.  You can select pieces, drop them into place, and put them back.

So the next few days I hope to get rotation ironed out, and actually complete the level designs/prep them for action.

I found somebody to help with music and sound effects, so that is one less thing that I have to do.  I’m also tempted to host a contest on 99designs.com to get an artwork revamp, though for the 5 people i’ve shown it too, it might not be warrented.

So we finally got Spin & Shoot submitted to Apple over the weekend.  Let’s hope the review process goes well and we can get it on the store.  Megan and I are pretty excited to have a completed project under our belt.

I’ve created a launch website if you’d like to check it out here.

As for the next project, I’ve been designing away for the last few weeks on paper on a couple of projects, and I finally put together a prototype of one of them, Project Void (tentatively named), on Sunday.  It feels really good in my opinion.  I showed it off to somebody at work and they had seemingly good feelings about it by way of giving me ideas on what to do and praising the look and feel.  I’m going to shoot for a very clean and slick interface with this game.  And yes, this will be game – a casual puzzle game.  I’m excited.

Spin & Shoot took nearly 1-2 months to complete over a span of 6 months.  I had a LOT going on through the development and I am hoping that I can just crunch on Project Void and get it out of the door in 1 month (optimistic).  It’ll likely take 2 months.  I’m getting married next week, Megan is going to be out here, so I’m going to have to be very crafty with my development time while she adjusts to her new environment.

Oh, yeah. Marriage… Here we come! (Yes, I’m pretty excited).  Megan still hasn’t even seen Northern California!

For the past few months I’ve been working on an idea that Megan and I had brainstormed back in January.  Since then, I’ve moved to LA to find a job, relocated to the bay area to begin work, and now just hit my 3 month mark with my new job.  While development has been pretty spotty, I’ve come to the point where I’ll be releasing the application soon.

You can think of the application being likened to a familiar wheel you may have come across in a bar. Such as this one:

We wanted to morph that into an application, providing a fair amount of shots, allow you to enter shots we didn’t think of, provide a way to keep track of your bar hopping buddies, and overall add some spice into the drinking life.  Personally, I am all about trying new things, and most of all of my college/marine corps buddies were the same way when it came to drinking.

I’ll be posting more about Spin & Shoot in the following days.

I’ve been living pretty cheap at the moment renting out a room with a family close to work.  Why buy more than you need?  It was a pretty good decision.  It’s allowed me to save some money, view the area, and learn a bit from the family.

Well, the marriage is right around the corner, and doing this with 2 people and 2 dogs isn’t going to work very well.

I found an excellent place north of Novato.  2 Bedroom, 2 Bath coming in at a crazy 1,120 sq. ft.  Pool. Gym. Laundry in unit. Beautiful grounds.  It’s right next to a shopping center (Target, Petsmart, Movie Theater).  I locked in on this room for about $260 less than what it used to rent out for.

The really good thing is that they allow Siberian Huskies! They seem to embrace pets pretty well. They hold a party every month and this month the party is centered around pets.

So I’m excited. Megan is excited. And if nothing else, this will allow us time to get oriented, find her a job, and eventually lock our sights in on a home.

Who knew it would be such a pain to find an apartment complex that allows a Siberian Husky?  I sure didn’t.  Didn’t even cross my mind… Would it cross yours after reading the AKC temperment note:

The characteristic temperament of the Siberian Husky is friendly and gentle, but also alert and outgoing. He does not display the possessive qualities of the guard dog, nor is he overly suspicious of strangers or aggressive with other dogs. Some measure of reserve and dignity may be expected in the mature dog. His intelligence, tractability, and eager disposition make him an agreeable companion and willing worker.

So it seems that I have a triple threat on my hands with this pup…

• Finding an apartment complex that allows dogs
• Finding an apartment complex that allows dogs over 25 lbs.
• Finding an apartment complex that allows dogs over 25 lbs and isn’t on the breed restriction list

What could it be that puts them on the restriction list?  Well, none of the places have been able to answer that question, and always seem to point to someone else, “We didn’t make the rule. I don’t know.”

I’m willing to bet it’s the fact that huskies and small animals (and possibly small kids) do not mix.  Huskies have a high prey drive and if they see something small running, instincts will kick-in and they’ll go after it.   But i’m still not sold as this being a specific reason.  All of my prior apartment complexes have required a leash, and your dog isn’t going to run far on a leash.

I’m pretty excited about this event that is going on in 77 days.  If you’re not aware, I asked Megan to marry me December of 2007, and time has finally come up on us to get the party started.  Most of everything is set and planned, side from just a couple of things.  It felt like yesterday that I said we had 100 days.  Time is flying.

So what have I been up to? Work. Which is probably reason #1 as to why my week goes by so damn quick.

And an independent iPhone project. I’m at the point where I need to get it into some peoples hands so I can come down to a final decision on if I’ll post it on iTunes for free, or sell it for, likely, $0.99.  It’s a drinking game that is designed to be played at a bar with friends.  You can consider it a catalog of drinks like the cocktails application, but with a slight variation to it – namely, the game/competition factor. And no, I don’t worry about the history of the drinks…

In other news.

The campaign to promote the movie is going to get on the road, err, tracks soon.  Read the buzz here: Train

Not that it wasn’t expected.

So this is my fourth week with IMD.  I’ve had my hands on all kinds of things, from the build system to an array of tools and systems.  I’ve written some integration testing scripts, learned all kinds of linux tricks, read a lot of information, sat through a few classes, messed around with some broken C++ and Python code, fixed some Python code, watched pieces of the movie, and… The list goes on and on.  They’ve kept me relatively busy.

The clips that I’ve seen look phenomenal.  But I guess I hold a bias now?  Bleh. It’s sweet.

Working from 8:30 A.M to 6:30 P.M sure doesn’t give me a lot of time to tinker with any hobby projects. I normally crash out at 10:00 P.M, so I’m sure I could wake up 5:30 or so to work on something.

This past weekend I put PyQt on my system and began writing a pathfinding application.   That happens to be a weakness at the moment that I need to tackle (PyQt).  Hopefully I can get some work done on it and post my results/source.

I also spent some time brushing up on some linear algebra.  In college I only took Calculus and another math class that gave me a slight introduction to linear algebra.  If I have any hope to get over to help the R&D side of IMD, this is a critical element.  Luckily I work with a bunch of geeks now, so I can’t imagine that one of them wouldn’t like to share some knowledge.

I’ve been wanting to watch some of MIT’s opencourseware videos since last year, but things were understandably busy.  Now I actually have weekends and nights to focus on these things.

This also brings up another point of interest… I’ve been thinking about what university I could possibly attend for my masters degree and what kind of topic I would like to research here in NorCal.  Both are at a stand-still.  I just don’t know.  Berkeley would be sexy but I doubt that I have a chance there.

But that brings up another issue that I’m still debating.  Do I want to go the MSE route or MS route?  My mind is all around a MS.  I have a year until I gain my California residency, so I have some time.  Hopefully I can spend some time exposing myself to some of the 3D technology.  I’m sure there are a ton of problems revolving graphics.  This school dilemma could be a post in itself.