Digital Dave

Well, it’s that time of the year. GDC is fast approaching and I’m in need of a new identity – an identity in the form of a business card.

I ended up going through 4 iterations before I found a design that I really liked.

What are the essentials?

• Your Name
• E-Mail
• Phone
• Web Address
• Something Memorable
• Use both sides!

Unless you own a business and need people to visit your primary location, I would leave off your physical address. Waste of space and distraction. Most of the time your contact isn’t just going to show up at your door. You can give them this information later when it’s warranted.

So how about the ‘flow?’  Well, that is tough to pin down. It boils down to experimentation. You’ve probably seen dozens of card designs out there (Google some if not). Use those as a base.

The card I used in 2008

People thought it was cool, but today I find it pretty boring and not memorable. The basis was that you’ll find me without a Dr. Pepper in hand, and I wanted to note that I was a programmer.

Ouch...

Idea 1

Going completely opposite from 2008, I wanted to introduce color but I found it distracting.  It also concerned me what a printer would do with this.

The texture on this is intense. Very dark.

Idea 2

I decided to try something on the lighter side.  I also wanted to incorporate a subtle piece of my iGotIt Games logo.  I had a hard time with what to do on the front side of this card, and the gradient was concerning.

(back of card) I wasn't confident about using gradient.

Idea 3

I further simplified the design by trying out a ‘reflection’ idea with solid colors.  Here, the person would see the back of the card from the front, with the goal of persuading the holder to flip the card around for more information.

In the end, it felt too cheap.

Idea 4

Here, I built off of my previous attempts to form the final card.  I included the reflection, solid colors, and the iGotIt Games logo.  On the back I plan to put a promo code for Spin & Shoot or Project Void.

Winner

In the end you want your business card to be memorable.  Leave a simple quote, or a icon that identifies you.  See Darius Kazemi for more business card/networking advice. I just noticed he wrote a few new posts regarding business cards!

In the end, keep it simple and Memorable!

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.

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 understand a joke when I see one.

This was a game that targeted the length of games today. You don’t need to spend 8 to 30 hours on a game to have fun. But, then again, you probably need to spend more than 2 minutes.  I played the thing when it first came out and forgot about it until now.

You Have To Burn The Rope is a short game that your eyes may have come across over the past year. It’s a simple game, as the title in itself is a spoiler:  you burn the rope,  your weapon is useless,  you can’t die.

Is this really innovative? Absolutely not. World of Goo is innovative.  Everyday Shooter is innovative.   We are saying that if this game wins, that it is at the caliber of World of Goo, Everyday Shooter, Braid?  Well, that’s what it implies.

This year the IGF saw a 30% increase in those who thought their game could make the cake.

I don’t fathom a perfect judging system.  But the way these were judged this year needs to be seriously looked at.

This is time for independent games to shine.  This is for independent gamers.  Troll around on the other independent gaming websites and you’ll find VERY few that think this game should be in it’s position.

They had an informal competition going on over on their forums that asked for people to create a World of Goo level. I have really enjoyed the first part of the game, and I thought that it would be fun. If you haven’t had a chance to read about the game, your goal is get balls of goo to an end destination on the screen by using goo to build structures. Any unused goo, will be sucked away and sent off to the world of goo corporation.

Very clever game, and if you follow the IGF at all, it picked up a couple awards for technical excellence, and something else.

I revolved this idea around teamwork. I wanted to have two separate starting areas, where both would have to come together to get to the goal. Pretty Marine’ish of me.

I absolutely love finding a new independent game release to try out.  Independent games tend to breath some fresh air into a clouded triple A title industry.  More importantly, for me, it lays out a great base of inspiration for my personal development. I remember being a part of the release for Morning’s Wrath and feeling a great sense of accomplishment, even though my main concern for the game was to provide reliable beta testing. I learned an incredible amount of things in those few months. I can only imagine how the guys who put Aquaria together feels now that the game has been released and how it’s been welcomed to the community.

So, what’s special about Aquaria?  Well, if you haven’t heard anything about this game, it was developed by a lone wolf programmer/musician, an incredibly talented paint artist, and a beautiful voiced voice over lady.  They spent roughly two years on the project, and it ended up taking first prize at the Independent Game Festival in 2006.  They didn’t end up going the publishing route, and formed their own LLC as Bit Blot (Creative, eh? Programmer/bit, Artist/blot).

I rather not spoil any of the story, so I’d like to direct you to a link to download the demo of the game.  It’s the first part of the game, and if you do decide to purchase it, your save file will transition to the full version.

Move to the Aquaria Demo Download Page

A few things I would like to note about the game.

The Audio. The programmer is also a musician via the piano, and has created a very, very intriguing sound track to follow this game. I find absolutely nothing wrong with the way he blends his sound into his own creation, which is something I am completely envious of. I incorporated my own audio with Breakout Returns, and I can only hope to become this good.

The Control Scheme. While you can opt for traditional play via the keyboard, or a gamepad, you would be missing a very unique experience to control the game with only your mouse. They came up with a really cool way to activate power ups for your character, via a song menu. You play certain notes to activate special abilities, which is just cool. Here is a glimpse:

The Depth This game released on the 7th of December, and people that have rushed through the game have been tallying up the hour count at around 17. This game is deep. There is a vast world to explore, which is great in my opinion.

So, for those that didn’t know about this project, now you do. Enjoy the demo, feel the well designed vibe, and use it for your own personal motivation.