First up, I wanted to make sure as many people as possible had heard about the Guelph Mobile Developer Meetup I’m trying to get going. The first one is this Wednesday night (April 21st, 2010) at 7:00pm at the Woolwich Arms (now called the Woolwich Arrow) in Guelph.

Full details (including a map) can be found on the event’s EventBrite page:

• Guelph Mobile Developer Meetup (eventbrite.com)

Come on out, chat with other local developers, have a beer and a good time! If you do mobile development or design, or are interested in starting, come meet other people doing the same thing in your local community. It’s a great chance to meet other people who are doing the same thing you are. Want to talk about the new iPhone SDK agreement terms, or about your sadness at not having iPads in Canada yet, or explain to the iPhone developers why Windows Mobile/Android/BlackBerry development is so much better? Now’s your chance!

One final thing: I mention on the eventbrite page to please sign up so I have an idea of how many people are coming. The Woolwich Arms recommended that I make a reservation, so I need to know how many people to reserve for. Either sign up on the eventbrite page, leave a comment here, or send me an email at info AT streamingcolour.com and let me know.

If you’re local, please help spread the word to any of your friends who might be interested. Hope to see you there!

Owen

At any rate, since it’s the first day back at work after the holidays, I thought I’d take the time to write up a post looking back at 2009 and looking forward to what’s coming up in 2010. I know…big surprise, right?

First, let’s take a look back at what 2009 held for Streaming Colour Studios:

Dapple

In February, I released my first game as Streaming Colour Studios called Dapple for the iPhone and iPod touch. The game has had several updates made to it over the year and I was extremely pleased with how the game turned out. The game was received very positively by the game critic community. It didn’t sell as well as I had hoped it would, but I learned some hard and valuable lessons about the importance of marketing a product. One bit of nice news is that the game continues to sell a few copies a day nearly a year after its initial release, so that makes me happy. After nearly a year of sales, and a lot of perspective, I can honestly say that I think Dapple did well considering it was my first game.

Dapple Lite

In March I released a free version of Dapple that let players play 3 levels of the game and try it out. I believe that it helped sell a lot of copies of Dapple over the months, especially when the price of the game was over $1.99. At $1.99 and below, I question how much the lite version helps. I think at that price point a lot of purchases are impulse buys and having a free version available might actually take sales away from the full version. However, I don’t have enough data available to draw any real conclusions from this; it’s just a hypothesis.

360iDev

In March I gave a talk at the first 360iDev conference in San Jose. I gave a talk on the processes and lessons I learned in creating Dapple. I think the talk was well received. The conference was amazing and was one of the best conferences I have ever attended.

App Treasures

At 360iDev, myself and a few other devs started talking about ways for indie developers to get more noticed and for ways to cross-promote our games. We started looking at what publishers do, but we didn’t like the limitations that working with a publisher can place on you. We decided to form an independent games label called App Treasures. Since its formation, we have grown to include 8 top independent developers and 20 games.

WWDC

I was lucky enough to be able to attend WWDC this year. What an experience that was! I learned an incredible amount in the sessions and I met really amazing people at the parties. My wife and I then spent a week in San Francisco after the conference on vacation. I have to say, San Francisco is probably my favourite city I’ve been to in the U.S.

Mobile Developers and Designers of Toronto

Early in the year I decided that Toronto needed a meet-up for iPhone developers. I set a date and discovered that another local developer, James Eberhardt had had the same idea and called a meeting for the same night! We decided to roll the two meetings together into one bigger group that wasn’t iPhone focused, but rather mobile development focused. While I was in Toronto I really enjoyed being a part of that community.

Guelph

In September my wife and I moved from Toronto to Guelph (a small city about an hour West of Toronto). Since I work out of my home, that meant that the business moved too. I still try to remain in contact with the Toronto dev community, but I’ve been trying to get a south-western Ontario developer meet-up going. The problem is that there are a lot fewer of us outside of Toronto.

A Chapter

Earlier in the year I was approached by Apress and asked if I’d be willing to write a chapter for one of their new iPhone books. I said I would, and I wrote a chapter called “You Go Squish Now! Debugging on the iPhone” which appeared in their “Advanced iPhone Projects” book. It was fun to write the chapter, and now I can add “author” to my list of credentials.

Monkeys in Space

Finally, at the end of November I released my second game: Monkeys in Space: Escape to Banana Base Alpha. With my second game I tried to learn from a lot of my mistakes made around the Dapple launch and marketing strategy. I also tried to create a game that was much more accessible. I think I succeeded in creating a game that was much more easily played, but still had some depth to it. However, although I learned a lot on the marketing side of things, I still made one critical error: I accidentally released the game on American Thanksgiving. It was an honest mistake; it didn’t even occur to me that that’s what the date was. However, when I started sending out press releases, I started getting back “out of office” replies from review sites. Couple that with the fact that what seemed like 90% of the games on the App Store had a Black Friday sale, and the whole thing derailed my marketing plan.

However, what seemed at first like a failed launch had a turn-around. Good reviews started coming out for the game in the week following Thanksgiving. One of the big turning points was the Touch Arcade review of the game. Getting on the front page of Touch Arcade gave me a two day sales spike akin to being featured on the App Store! Then a week before Christmas, the game showed up in the Games -> What’s Hot lists on app stores around the world. The first week of being featured was great and helped boost the game’s rank in a lot of different countries. Because it wasn’t a front page feature, the boost wasn’t enough to get me into any Top Games or Top Paid Apps lists, but it was still great to see.

So I think it’s safe to say that 2009 ended on a high note for Streaming Colour Studios. 2009 was certainly an exciting year for my company, and for me personally. Running my own business has proven to be an extremely rewarding, and challenging, experience.

What’s coming up for 2010?

360iDev

I missed the second conference in Denver because I was moving, but I’ll be in San Jose in April for the 3rd 360iDev conference, dagnabit! I’ll be giving another talk, and this one might be a little crazy. It’s called “Improv Prototyping” and I’ll be attempting to code a game prototype on stage based on audience suggestions…in one hour. I will also, at the same time, talk about the processes I use in my own games for rapid prototyping. If you can make it to San Jose in April, it’s going to be an incredible conference. 360 Conferences runs an amazing show and their prices are ridiculously low given the quality and quantity of presenters. And if you book soon, the prices are lower than if you book later. So go book a ticket!

Monkeys in Space

I do have some more level updates planned for Monkeys in Space, so stay tuned for more news on that.

More Games

My book of game ideas is bursting at the seams. In 2010 I’m looking at putting out at least 2 more games, and hopefully more. I have a bunch of small game ideas I’d like to build, but I’ve also been thinking about a much bigger game concept that I’d like to get to at some point. We’ll see if 2010 is the right year for that or not. I’ll still be doing iPhone stuff, but I’ve been thinking about taking on another platform or two. We’ll have to see things go.

South-Western Ontario iPhone Dev Meet-Up

I would really like to get a dev meet-up going for Guelph, Kitchener/Waterloo, Cambridge, London going. If you’re a local developer and are interested in meeting up once every month or two, please send me an email and let me know: info@streamingcolour.com

It looks like 2010 is going to be another exciting year for me and Streaming Colour Studios. Here’s hoping it’s a great year for us all!

Owen

Given that I have no idea how many of us there are, I thought it would be cool to roll our first meet-up into an existing meet-up called DevHouse Waterloo.

My friend Dan works for a company called PostRank, and they host DevHouse Waterloo on a monthly basis. I’ve gone before and presented on iPhone stuff, and they’re excited to have more iPhone people come out. If we end up with a whole lot of iPhone devs, we might consider starting our own new iPhone meet-up, but this seems like a good way to start.

Here are the details:

When: Monday, October 26th, 2009 – 7PM to 10PM
Where: PostRank offices – 180 King St. S., Unit 505, Waterloo, ON (MAP)
Additional Details: Important: to get into the building, you need someone from PostRank to come down to let you in. Hence, if no one  from PostRank is by the entrance, give us a call (519 514 0064), and we’ll come down.

Visit the DevHouse Waterloo page for full details. If you know any local iPhone devs, please spread the word. Hope to see you there!

Owen

We have two presentations lined up for you this month:

1) Sarim Aziz from RIM will be with us to speak about BlackBerry development.
2) Jason White from DOC (Documentary Organization of Canada) will be here to speak about potential collaboration between filmmakers and mobile developers, and about the potential for local devs to start writing app reviews for the Canadian Press.

So come on out, meet some other local devs, hear some interesting things, and grab a beer at the Embassy Room after the meeting.

Date: Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: Rich Media Institute (in Kensington Market)<
Street: 156 Augusta Ave
City/Town: Toronto, ON
Map: Google Maps

All of this information is also available on the Facebook event:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=126406231383

Hope to see you there!
Owen

However, if you’re looking for some good iPhone times this week, come on out to the IGDA meeting this Thursday evening for discussion on iPhone games development. It’s sure to be swell! You can find full details in my previous blog entry, and on the IGDA site.

Owen

This Thursday, August 13th, the local Toronto chapter of the IGDA (Internation Game Developers Association) will be running a meeting and discussion on iPhone games development. I will be moderating the discussion. If you’re a local iPhone dev, or are interested in iPhone game dev, come on out and take part in the discussion. From the IGDA website, here is the description of the event:

Are you a local iPhone developer? Are you interested in creating games for the iPhone? Do you think iPhone games are swell and want to learn more about how they’re made? Come out to the Toronto IGDA’s next meeting and discussion, focused on iPhone games development! We’ll talk about the state of gaming on the iPhone, business strategies, past experiences, and lessons learned.

The meeting will consist of several short presentations from local developers, followed by a discussion moderated by Owen Goss, from Streaming Colour Studios. Presentations will be given by:

Jason MacIsaac and Keith Makse from Cerebral Vortex Games

Dave Wood from Cerebral Gardens

Harry Mack, Audio Designer

The meeting will take place in room 313 Metro Hall (55 John Street, M5V 3C6) . Doors open at 7:00pm and the meeting will start at 7:30pm.

Around 9:00pm we will head across the street to the Elephant & Castle (212 King Street) for drinks and delightful conversation. We will meet in the back room

A big THANK YOU to the City of Toronto for providing the space and refreshments!

So come on out and take part in the discussion! Hope to see you there.

Owen

We will be, once again, at the Rich Media Institute in Kensington Market. We have one presentation lined up for the 8th, but I’m looking for one more person to give a 15 minute talk on the subject of your choosing. Note that this meeting is actually for all mobile developers, not just iPhone, so if you want to talk about other mobile development topics, that’s also encouraged. A projector will be available to use for your presentation.

If you want to give a talk, please email me at: owen dot goss at streamingcolour dot com

Details:

Group: Mobile Developers and Designers of Toronto
Date: Wed, July 8th, 2009
Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: FITC / Rich Media Institute
Address: 156 Augusta Ave, Toronto, ON (MAP)
Facebook Page: July Meeting – Mobile Developers and Designers of Toronto

After the presentations and any discussion, we’ll probably head up the street to the Embassy Room for a drink or two.

So, if you want to give a short presentation, please let me know as soon as possible.

Owen

At the August IGDA (Internation Game Developers Association) meeting, I’ll be moderating a discussion on iPhone games development and iPhone gaming. I’m looking for other Toronto iPhone game developers (or just iPhone game lovers) to come to the discussion and share your thoughts with the group.

There’s a lot of interest in iPhone in the gaming world right now, so I want to share, and want you to share, some experiences with other local game developers. If you want to present your game to the group, that’s great. If you want to present some work in progress, that’s also great. We should have a projector there if you want to show something from your computer (for example, your game running in the simulator). We’d also love it if people were willing to present other findings/lessons learned/conclusions they might have about game development on this platform.

There’s a post at the IGDA forums about the discussion:

• August IGDA Meeting (www.igda.org)

If you want to present something (and not just take part in the discussion), please let me know as soon as possible. Send me an email to: owen dot goss at streamingcolour dot com

The meetings are being held at Metro Hall at King & John. After the discussion we’ll be heading over to the Elephant and Castle for some drinks, as usual. Hope to see you there!

Owen

• Beginning iPhone Programming for Rubyists (www.mobileorchard.com)

Dan’s the guy who interviewed me on the Mobile Orchard podcast. Dan seems like a cool guy, so if you’re a Ruby developer in Toronto with an interest in iPhone development, check out the web page and see if the course might be something that’s up your alley.

Owen

Wednesday night we had the 2nd Toronto iPhone Developer Meet-Up, which was a great success in my mind. We had two great presentation by local iPhone devs. James Eberhardt was able to secure us space at the Rich Media Institute, which turned out to be perfect. There was beer that could be bought, and we had a great conference room with a projector for the presentations. I’m extremely pleased with where the meet-up seems to be heading. I think everyone who came, that I talked to, enjoyed the format. I think we’ll try to stick with the format of two short (15 mins or less) presentations, followed by socializing and drinks.

If you missed the meet-up, the presenters have graciously posted their presentation slides on their sites.

• Rules You Should Break in the App Store (www.xinsight.ca – PDF) – Jason Moore from xinsight gave a presentation on tips and tricks for making the most of the App Store.
• iPhone + Box2D (blog.zincroe.com) – Luke Lutman from zinc Roe Design gave a presentation on using the open source Box2D physics engine with iPhone. He has posted his short presentation slides (that we saw) as well as a longer presentation and an example source code project.

A big thanks to both presenters! It was a great way to kick off the new format for the meetings. I think everyone enjoyed it.

If you haven’t already, please join the Facebook group for the meet-up. It’s called Mobile Developer & Designers of Toronto. I look forward to seeing you in June!

As I mentioned previously, I had be writing a chapter for a book on iPhone development. I’m pleased to say that I submitted my first draft to the publisher this week. As such, I was able to do some coding towards the end of the week. Yay!

I started working on stuff for the Dapple 1.2 update. The biggest new feature will be the inclusion of world-wide leaderboards for the game. I’ve decided to use Google’s App Engine as the server-side technology, as it scales nicely and it means that if I did somehow introduce some kind of server-side security flaw (which I don’t think I have), it’s not running on my own web server.

I’m two days into things and I’m quite impressed with the App Engine stuff. Sure, I had to learn Python pretty quickly, but at this point the server-side stuff is pretty much done. I’m sure it will need some tweaking once I actually hook the game up to it, but all my tests are working. I can add high scores to the database and I can retrieve them in a few different ways. Today I’ll be starting to work on the game-side implementation, which will probably be more work than the server-side. I have to make a few UI changes in the game to support local vs. global high scores and handle all the error cases around connecting to the server. I’m hoping to have something I can send out to testers by mid-late next week.

It feels good to get back to coding again. There are a few other things I want to put into the 1.2 update as well. I’m hoping to submit to Apple by the end of the month. After that, I’ll actually be able to start working on my next project. Shocking!

Have a good (long) weekend everyone!

Owen