Archive for May, 2009
What Apple will Not Announce
[UPDATE: Well, it looks like I totally got this one wrong! Not only does the iPhone 3G(S) have a faster processor, it also supports OpenGL ES 2.0 while the original iPhone 3G will only continue to support OpenGL ES 1.1. OpenGL ES 2.0 games will not run on OpenGL ES 1.1 machines. This is more for developers to think about, isn't it?]
It’s amusing to see the many many rumours marching through the intranets about what Apple is going to announce at WWDC. “Get your iBaby here! Apple is now selling babies!” Some sound just that crazy. Others, like a 32GB iPhone sound very plausible.
One rumour I don’t understand is a faster iPhone. Just like Sony will never introduce a PSP with a second thumbstick, Apple won’t introduce a new iPhone with a faster CPU. Think about it. It would split the market. All of a sudden developers would have to have two versions of each of their games. A version for the fast iPhone and a version for the slow iPhone. Maybe they’ll skip the slow one altogether, or skip the fast one altogether. The iPhone, in this regard, is like a gaming console. Any changes Apple makes can’t affect the core functionality of the device. A better camera? Sure, why not? It doesn’t really affect anything. Faster CPU? That affects all the apps, so it’s off the table.
Well, maybe.
There’s one scenario I imagine might work. What if Apple released a faster iPhone, but only Apple apps benefit from its additional speed? So you can web browse faster, or play videos with cool effects, or whatever. But games would still run at the same speed as before.
One more thing – Apple could actually think about allowing multitasking with this approach. With a faster CPU, but apps still running at the same speed, it gives some headroom to make sure that apps don’t run into each other. While this is possible, and I threw it out there just ’cause, I don’t really think that Apple is going to announce multitasking anytime soon. But hey, it’s a cool idea.
Start Small
The same client I mentioned last time also suggested a smaller game, geared towards kids. I think that maybe starting small is a good idea.
This new game is a somewhat simpler concept, but the execution will definitely be easier. (I hope!)
Now I need to iron out the details, get some art and music together, and create my first game! Fun times.
Doing an iPhone Game?
A client has proposed that I create a game for him. He gave me a rough idea for the game and told me that I’d be in charge of everything, from coding to art to sound.
I’ve never written a game before. Well, to be honest, I’ve written part of a game before. I was on the Wizardry 8 team for a while, so my credits are on that old game. But that’s it.
So now I’m wondering if I can do it.
I’m pretty sure I can get the mechanics down just fine. I can make little thingys that move and interact. I can keep score, I can put up “You LOSE” and “You’re a WINNER!” banners. No problem. I can find someone to outsource the art to. I can probably find some canned sound effects.
So what’s the problem?
I don’t know if I can make it fun. When you play a game, there’s a covenant between you and the person who created the game. You promise to try to beat the game and have fun doing so. He promises to try to make it fun for you, not too easy, and not too hard. It’s called play balancing. The gameplay has to feel just right in order for it to be fun. You can’t ever put the user in a no-win situation. They always have to blame themselves for failure, because it should always be their fault. If it’s the game’s fault, who wants to play a game like that?
So now I’m thinking about it.
Finding iPhone Work
I’ve been developing software for quite a while. Most of that time has been spent working for The Man. Places like Nortel, Corel, Alias, Cognos, and IBM. So when it came time to finding work, things were pretty simple. My boss gave me work, and I did it.
I became a freelance/contract developer last year. So now I have to find my own work. I don’t want to work on anything that’s not iPhone (or maybe Android) related. So I scour the boards looking for people who are looking for me. It’s tough. Many people looking for iPhone work fall into one of two camps:
1) People who want to hire you on site, full time.
2) People who want to split the profits “50/50″.
I have no intention of moving away from lovely Ottawa, and even if I did, I would try to find a place even nicer, and try to work from there. So moving to an arbitrary location to do work for a company is not in the cards.
As to people who want to split profits 50/50, I have two problems with that. One, it’s not really a 50/50 split. Remember that Apple gets their cut, so the split is actually 30/35/35. So I would do almost all of the work for 35% of the proceeds? No thank you. Two, I don’t deal in speculation. I have a family to feed and house payments to make. I can’t afford to spend weeks or months of my time working on a project that may not bring in a dime.
So that leaves people who are willing to hire telecommuting iPhone developers who wish to get paid for time spent. Take that group, and then remove all the people who want to pay $20/hour. Frankly, any good developer that charges this much little is doing himself a disservice. Now what you have left is my target market.
It’s not easy to break into.
I figure that once I build up a portfolio of projects, I’ll be able to bring in projects easier. I think that the group of people looking for quality developers who are willing to pay what they’re worth is big enough for me. I just need to build the experience and reputation and repeat clients to continue making a living at this. So I’ve been spending a lot of time looking for projects, and every once in a while I find one.
Right now I’m finishing off a project, and I think I may have finally nailed the last bug. After seeing how much work I put into the project, I’m sure I underbid. But that’s all part of the learning process, I guess. Yesterday I put in a bid for another project, and I’m told that my bid is neither the lowest nor the highest. I like that. Frankly, if I bid the lowest, I probably underbid. If I bid the highest, I probably wouldn’t get the job. So I’m happy with my positioning.
Now I’m waiting for the phone to ring.
PSN Trophies and Friends
I’ve been hiding nothing. If you read my other blog (at PS3Blog.net) you know that I have a PS3 and that I love using it.
Chewy Xbox was actually created when I wanted to create a similar app for the PSN, but I couldn’t because Sony has no public API for me to get the information from. So I created Chewy Xbox because duncanmackenzie.net had the Xbox Live info, and I thought it would be a fun first app to create. (I was still a noob to iPhone development at the time.)
Now Sony is showing how wonderful online access can be with their eu.playstation.com website. Now, more than ever, I want to create a PSN app for the iPhone. I want it to show both your online PSN friends and your Trophy information.
Unfortunately, I have no contacts at Sony to call. I’m just a cog in the huge wheel of capitalism. I’m not one of those in-the-know journalists with PSN executives on speed dial. So if any of you out there have any idea how I can contact the Sony powers, please send me a shout.