errantember

My very first iPhone game, AstroMiner, has now past Apple's muster and is available for FREE in the App Store!

AstroMiner! - MoebiusTrip

Anyone with an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch can download it for free. Simply do a search in the App Store for Astrominer and download it!

I use the braids to keep track of deadlines. I create them from paper grocery bags, and use no glue or tape. Each Moebius Strip represents a day between me and finishing my goal. Each day when I get up, I remove a link from every chain, draw icons on it for what I want to accomplish that day, and burn it. I imagine the smoke winging my intention to the universe.

As most of you know, I quit my corporate job this past August to become a game designer. I still have almost a year's money in the bank to make the transition happen. I'm using GameSalad, a visual tool for making games very easily and intuitively. You don't have to be a programmer to make a game with GameSalad!

My first deadline is fast approaching on this Thursday, February 10th. By that time, my goal is to have a completely playable game available to the General Public for playtesting. GameSalad allows one to publish one's games to their website, where anyone with the OS X Safari web browser and the correct plug-in can try it out. I've been using GameSalad for less than two months, and less than one month heavily, and I've already got a very good command of how things work.

Overall things are going very well. GameSalad is an excellent, if not 100% stable, tool. My game, AstroMiner, is coming along very well. It will take most of my time for the next two days to get it polished enough for public consumption, but I believe I will get there. My subsequent goal is to have it ready to submit to the Apple App Store, its final destination, in two more weeks. From there, iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users worldwide will be able to download it.

My strategy is to kick out a new, free game every three-four weeks, and see which ones become the most popular. When that happens, I will add features and levels to that game, and make a for-pay version for the App Store. This way I get to make lots of cool games, get better a lot faster, and only have to put the extra work in when it will actually pay off financially to do so. The goal is for this to be my primary form of income, and I'll be very happy if I can accomplish that goal before my money runs out. Despite the many obstacles involved, I think I'm going to make it!

I'll think that even more once I've actually gotten *paid* for something, which is probably still months away.

My new vow this week was to take a load of shit to Goodwill every day. I will soon be living in a space approximately 1/6th the size of my current suite, and I need to dump a *lot* of shit to make it!

I've also made substantial progress on my first iPhone game. I've really gotten the flow of GameSalad down better, and can generally solve most major problems the same day. I've got a ship zipping around the screen, herding asteroids like a champ with a variety of technology. As a Seth Godin fan, I can't allow myself to slip my submission date of February 10th. I must and will ship!
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...but it's too much of a hack to use directly, I'm guessing. :(

Up at 10 AM!