January 2009 Archives
I know this is old, but for those of you looking to have a nice Unit Testing process down for your apps, definitely check out the below link.
So, at DS we are always looking for good drinking games and making bets. We are always looking at little fun apps we can do in between our normal development sprints. Cause, like everyone else with ADD, you got a feed it with something a bit different once in awhile or you get bored ;)
Touch Roulette was born. You can go check out the YouTube video or the Touch Roulette page at iPhone Studio to get more info. We submitted it to Apple today. We will see how that goes...
We are still working hard on Neo Riders (previously Light Bikes), FLOverload 2.0, and Rogue Sniper. You will see vids, review, and eventually the actual apps on the App Store in the next couple weeks.
The application I blogged about yesterday, Stun-O-Matic, is now on the app store. So, if you want a taser on your iPhone or iPod touch, go grab it :)
All I can say is, wow. The DS team has been working around the clock pretty much since July 2008. We were working hard before that, but nothing like we are now and have been since last summer. The iPhone market is super hot and we are right in the middle of it.
Since last summer, we have been working on or have finished 16 iphone applications. Out of the 16 iphone applications we have finished 6. Out of the 6 we have finished, 2 of them belong to us. FLOverload [app store] was the first app we ever did. We rushed it to the App Store to be one of the first on it when it launched. Big mistake on our part. It has a lot of problems. A LOT. We then started getting slammed with client work and took it on to help bootstrap the company. It came down to deciding to take on funding and give up a large portion of the company or bootstrap ourselves through consulting. We chose the latter and it has worked okay so far. We would like to be working on more of our own stuff. It is now getting to that point.
The crazy part about all this is our team. The team I work with is just sick. We have 1 designer and 8 iPhone Developers. Out of the 8 iPhone developers, 2 of them are working only on our 3D game engine. That leaves 1 designer and 6 iPhone developers to work on 10 active applications. The applications range from very easy to very complex. So, I can safely say that this team is one of the best in the industry. It is amazing the amount of work that comes out of this small company.
The great news is that we have new application on the App Store that is ours. Sounds of Fury made it on a few weeks back and is a fun little sound making app that allows you to be a Ninja. Who the hell does not want to be a Ninja? No hands, I thought so. You should check it out. We have a lot of cool updates coming for it.
FLOverload [apps store] is getting an overhaul. It is coming in two stages. The first update, 1.5 is a complete rewrite of the game engine and fixes all the issues and complaints. We have also addressed the other issues of no instructions and the game not being intuitive to play. We think this is the beginning to a game that could have been a lot better. FLOverload 2.0 is adding 2 other game play modes that are completely different games. We have dubbed the original ClassicFLO. The other two modes are going to be a lot of fun, at least we think so, and we hope you do to.
We have two new applications submitted and in review right now. Stun-O-Matic and Confessional. We always love to hear feedback on our current and future applications. We are opening a beta site to the public on Monday. We will accept a limited about of testers, but those accepted will help us beta test all of our games. We will post more details here and on the company blog.
Next week we are releasing betas of our game Light Bikes and a new game we have not announced to the public yet. We will post more details on Monday.
One more thing... We have launched a rough beta of our site for Dark Age of Reality. Check it out and let us know what you think!
When you get a chance, come over and visit our company site too.
Talk to you soon.
