iPhone/iPod Touch App Adventure

Getting back on track!

2009-07-22T11:13:00.000-04:00

Man have I been slow/lazy about getting this thing developed. I just realized how much of the summer has gotten away from me so I decided that I'm getting myself back on track today! I'm currently downloading a couple platforms to use for game development: one of which will allow me to make a game made to run for the iPhone/iPod Touch in Safari (not sure how to potentially monetize this concept) and the other will allow me to make a more traditional app. Another update will be coming later today.

Woo tutorial!

2009-05-26T17:51:00.001-04:00

I found a (seemingly) great intro to iPhone game programming tutorial. I think I'm going to work on it tomorrow while at my internship. It can be found here. Special thanks to the guys at iCodeBlog for putting out such helpful Mac programming info.

Hey I will be productive!

2009-05-25T23:08:00.002-04:00

Here's a render of my first very crappy sculpture. No, I didn't model the head.

Slacks

2009-05-25T23:05:00.002-04:00

Man I hella slacked today and haven't done anything productive... I should change that before I go to bed.

I spent some time making

2009-05-24T14:31:00.001-04:00

I spent some time making some models in Blender last night, I really think I'm getting the hang of basic movement and manipulation of meshes.

Oh yeah! I found a

2009-05-22T12:21:00.002-04:00

Oh yeah! I found a great free ebook to follow last night.

You can find it here!

Well instead of spending my

2009-05-22T02:54:00.001-04:00

Well instead of spending my time on Xcode tonight I played a game and messed around in Blender. I learned to do 3d text!

I need to make some progress!

2009-05-21T17:50:00.003-04:00

I think I'm going to work on the Xcode tutorials tonight to see what I can get through and spend some time while i'm home this weekend working on my modeling skills in Blender. My goal for the end of Monday is to have all of the models of the letter blocks for "Hello, World!" finished. I need to keep in mind the 3D limitations of the platform to keep everything simple (especially the collisions of the blocks) so I can actually implement sound and have a quality frame rate. More on this later.

I discovered today how great

2009-05-20T16:58:00.001-04:00

I discovered today how great wiki books are! Solid progress was made in blender... I can make a cube!!

So I decided today that

2009-05-20T14:47:00.001-04:00

So I decided today that my work time would be best spent learning the basics of Blender. Learning this program is actually beneficial to my job!

Xcode is Xciting! (Bad puns: there will be many.)

2009-05-20T02:26:00.000-04:00

Well I got all of the daunting 1.7gbs of the SDK installed, opened up Xcode and started to read the tutorial! Then I realized it was 2:27 in the AM on a day I have a 9 o'clock class and decided I shouldn't delve in too deeply tonight. As long as I can keep up a decent pace learning Xcode and the subsequent tools needed to port my work to the iPhone/iPod Touch, I'll be good to go.

Why am I doing this?

2009-05-19T16:56:00.001-04:00

Well the idea for this blog is to fully chronicle my adventure in to creating an iPhone/iPod Touch game. I have very limited Java, C, C++, C# and VB programming experience so this will be an interesting voyage to say the least. Having taken only one college level programming class, most of what I have learned is self-taught, thus what I've learned is inefficient and not involved making a game let alone utilizing the touch screen capabilities or the accelerometer that is inside this little device. More on this when I get home from work...

Continued...
So more on why I'm doing this. My ultimate goal is to learn the basic skills necessary to make a fully functioning (and fun) iPhone game that fully implements the unique abilities (specifically the touch screen and accelerometer) of the iPhone/iPod Touch. With this game I want to develop an engaging audio environment, perhaps even have the game be sound/music based, I'm not sure yet.

I think my first game goal will be a simple block game that has letters on blocks of wood (that look like the childrens' toy). My first phrase will be, naturally, "Hello, world!" This idea will be expanded to then include the letters appearing on blocks of wood in a random order. After this I want to add the ability to drag the blocks via touch to rearrange them. Next I want to have the word be a "random" one chosen from a list. Then I want to allow the user to be able to shake the iPhone to randomize the letter blocks. This seems like a good, super basic game idea. More to come in the near future!

Today is the day!

2009-05-19T16:51:00.000-04:00

As of today I will download and install the Apple iPhone SDK. How far I will get is beyond me but it will be downloaded and installed!