It can be tough being a developer. You can work for months on a project and then nothing happens. Your app can be buried by thousands of other apps. Which is worse — to be ignored or to have mean things said about your app? While it might feel better to be left alone, rather than being abused by harsh words, a bad review can actually work for you. I was recently reminded of that fact when 148apps.com reviewed The Unofficial GameSalad Textbook. It felt like a pretty brutal review, but it could actually be good publicity for my app.
Learning About Corona and Lua
I’m having another one of those Obi Wan Kenobi moments. Star Wars fans likely know the scene. Luke Skywalker doesn’t start out as a knight. He’s a beginner. In one of his training exercises with Obi Wan, Luke is able to deflect laser blasts with his lightsaber – without being able to use his eyes. Obi Wan congratulates Luke by saying, “That’s good, you’ve taken your first step into a larger world.” Yesterday, I took a step into a larger development world. I downloaded and installed the Corona SDK – which uses Lua. Mastering this programming language is necessary to complete my next project – The Unofficial Corona Textbook.
Photics Team Presents – A Contest For GameSalad Developers
The GameSalad forums seems to be growing more grumpy lately. Since that’s one of my favorite spots on the Internet, I’ve decided to give the developers something else to fight — instead of each other. Game development can be pretty competitive, but there’s something else that’s more important than making hit games. Living a healthy life, that’s more important. You can’t make games if you’re too sick or dead. But not everyone is a scientist or a doctor, so how can a bunch of game developers save lives? That’s where the Photics Team gets involved with a new contest!
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BOT – Game Design and Progress Reports
After careful study of the iTunes App Store, I think I have a better understanding on how to build successful games. I’ve started work on a rather ambitious project. I’m building a role-playing game called “BOT” — my most advanced game ever. In order to find success on the iTunes App Store, I believe it is necessary to build a high-quality game. Otherwise, my apps will drown in a sea of mediocrity. I’m aiming to take down Angry Birds and build the best iPhone app. This lofty goal is to ensure that my game is great.
GameSalad Updated to 0.9.1
I’ve been using Mac computers for about 17 years. In those early days, it never occurred to me that I would be making Mac applications. It just slowly happened. First I started making maps for Bungie’s Marathon — the precursor to Halo, then I started messing around with Adobe Flash. And now with GameSalad, it’s ridiculously easy to make apps. With the recent update to GameSalad, it’s even simple to sell / distribute those games. Support for the Mac App Store was added.