Although the iPhone SDK and Xcode make it extremely to just create an application there are still some things I prefer to do by hand.

Sketches (obviously):

Sketching is something that can be great when building yourself a game. It is also a much better approach then simply jumping in and working it all out in code. 

Math:

I personally like to do my math by hand. I don't mean that I don't like to take advantage of the calculator, I just mean sometimes its easier for me to think through an equation as I write it and this way I can also look directly at my sketch the whole time. Maybe even use the same piece of paper.

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Blast Off!


I have put in a solid couple of hours into to learning some things and developing the application the way I want to. A lot of things are probably going to change but this gives me somewhere to start and it gets me "officially" started.

I decided to start out with the game's engine. I think this is obviously a wise decision that needs no explanation.

First I created two NSMutableArrays: one to hold the UIImageViews and one to hold their  locations which I stored as CGPoints. When the application loads  the arrays load their images and place them at their corresponding points. Before it makes them visible on the screen it decides their respective colors, for example, each block has a 50/50 chance of being red, as well as a 50/50 chance of being green.

I made sure I could read all of the data simply by using NSLogs. Tapping on a block will tell you it's position, color, and item number.

But here is where the really important stuff happens. I made an invisible UIView that has a frame of whatever you drag it to be and a center of the middle of the point where you touch down and the point you release or drag to. For example if I touch down on the very top left block and then drag my finger all the way to the bottom left it will select all of the blocks on the screen, but if I were to instead drag my finger only 3 units to the right and 5 down it would select all of the blocks in that field. Its pretty neat :).

I feel as if I have a pretty good start here for just learning all these things today. And for only have been working on them for one day.

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Before one can go about developing an application there needs to be a few things kept in mind. Like baking a cake, you simply can't run into the kitchen and begin throwing things into a bowl unless you know what your doing. I mean sure, you might come out with something edible but it will certainly not look nor taste good. Right now I am creating the plan for my... well plan.

Many things must be taken into account. This is the order I hope to accomplish things in.

1. Figure out what I am doing, and why.
2. Ensure my goal is realistic and accomplishable.
3. Establish a team if project size requires it.
4. Begin laying down some basic game logic and rules.
5. Ask the audience what the think of what is going on.
6. Beef up the game logic and rules depending on feedback.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 no less than 5 times.
8. Color some nifty graphics for the game.
9. Make the UI work and work well.
10. Check with the audience again (see steps 5 and 6.)
11. Move into beta testing stages.
12. Fix anything the testing discovers.
13. Respond to audience.
14. Market and advertise.
15. Release.
16. Repeat step 7.
17. Repeat steps 15 and 16.

I will hopefully be doing these in order to see how it works. I probably missed many vital steps and I will add them in as they arrive.

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I have found that many developers don't have nearly as much trouble coding an application but rather fabricating the idea. Ideas were a dime a dozen but with over 150,000 applications on the iTunes App Store it is hard not to make something that has been done before. Most of the time a goal is to make it, and make it better.

A few days ago while browsing the web I came across a game known as blocky. This game simply jumped out at me. The ease of it and the very casual gameplay style is something that I personally think makes great on-the-go gameplay for the iPhone. Games such as Trism by Demiforce and Last Cannon by Shadiradio display this perfectly.

After playing it for probably less than a minute I was sold. It was time for me to clone this game for the iPhone. Ideas were flying through my head. What if I add this, or how about I change that? The possibilities seem endless.

Its time for me to open up Xcode and start up a new project. Though, I am most likely to open up Photoshop first.

This should be fun...

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This is the blogs first posting. I'm trying to think of something catchy to say, but I just simply come up with nothing. I can tell you the purpose of this blog though...

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