I need to know, however, what features people want. What’s going to make this game even better? I’m constantly adding more phrases. In fact, you can always head over to the Guess What? website to suggest phrases or report bugs! Also, we’ve got a poll on the front page right now with some new features we’ve got planned. Be sure to vote for those to tell us what you want!

Thanks!
Chad

See you, Space Cowboy.

What Went Right

1. A Simple Idea.

When I chose the first project for Binary Solo’s foray into iPhone development, I personally chose a very simple idea.  I had no clue about the programming language that would be used, the tools, or anything else really, so I knew that we had to make sure the first idea was simple.  Innovation can wait.  I think going with the wordplay genre was a good choice, and I love games like Taboo.  I decided to make something similar to that to take a lot of the decision rules from the code to the user.  As a bonus, this allows for users to create house rules since the game itself does not have any method to enforce what they say.

From a programming stand-point, this game was simple in technology.  The only features that the user visibly sees is buttons, graphics, and text.  The most complicated feature was adding custom phrases.  The iPhone SDK already provides the code to create buttons and display text and images, so it was more about using what was there.

2. Objective-C 2.0 works like C++ & C#

I was afraid that I would be battling a new language tooth and nail, however that was not the case.  There were a few expected mis-steps figuring out some of the Objective-C quirks, but for the most part it was an easy transition.  If I could not quickly figure out an Objective-C based solution, I could always implement a C++ one.  This was almost never the case, save for one, but it provided a fallback which made the actual coding process less of a transition and more of an extension.  As a programmer learning a new language always has its follies, but they were greatly reduced in XCode.

3. Amazing, Quick Assets

I think Guess What? looks and sounds excellent, which was in no part thanks to me.  From the start of the project I made sure that I had consummate professionals on hand to provide assets, and I think they really delivered.  Phil Davis whipped up the logo based on some programmer art, white-board, chicken scratch and turned out a pretty logo.  Promptly after that he created the actual art for the game.  I had only made a few placeholders before I got the email containing a whole slew of backgrounds and buttons.

The other half of the assets, sounds, were also just as prompt and awesome.  I contracted another friend, Arin Mann, to create the background music for the game.  I had a good idea of what I wanted, but that doesn’t exactly translate to the keyboard very well.  I told him I wanted that same excitement of recent game shows, something that will build a sense of urgency in the players as time counted down.  What he delivered within a week or two was nothing short of incredible.  It had the feeling I wanted to capture.  It actually had a useful function of re-enforcing the time limit.  In fact, a lot of first impressions are praise about the music.

4. No Deadline

Binary Solo was and is not focused on iPhone development.  There, I said it.  That isn’t to say we aren’t going to do a bit of it for now, but we’re flexible.  This project was more of a pet project than an official studio-wide, all points bulletin project.  I had the flexibility to code for a few hours a day, a few hours a week, and while I was going through all of the wedding shenanigans, a few hours a month.  I was able to go at my own pace because we had no deadlines, or expectations for that matter.  This took a lot of pressure off of my shoulders.  Had I needed to get tasks done for a demo or make sure no one had tasks with dependencies falling on me, I might have coded some quick hacks and tempers would have flown (during the wedding month, approximately) to new heights.  Luckily, that was not the case.

5. Support Framework

Due to the nature of this game, and of this platform, I knew that the game could easily be extended later.  This shows as we submitted our first update shortly after release.  (Although it sat a while waiting for approval.)  The way that Apple handles updates is nice, so we knew from the start that we could send plenty of updates down the pipe.  All of the data is in an easily editable, underlying structure that allows us to quickly push it through.  I’d like to claim this as my victory, but it’s mostly Apple.  I have already started on incremental updates and so far the process is very simple.  With the first update down, I’m ready to throw some time into the next one so we can really see Guess What? shine.

What Went Wrong

1. Trying To Use Interface Builder

For some reason I was very insistent on using the Interface Builder.  It was going to be a very simple project, and it should be able to handle it.  I figured the time savings of using a Designer based tool to generate code would help.  Unfortunately, I think that obscured the code-base and made it harder to track down the bugs that were found.  There were a lot of issues in the beginning that were a simple misunderstanding of what the Interface Builder did for the developer, and what the developer was expected to do.

Despite that, I kept pushing on and using it because each time I thought the Interface Builder was finally mastered.  Then I would be surprised again.  One thing that the Interface Builder lacks is any visible code generation (or I just didn’t find it.) which is a real pain coming from Windows using Visual Studio’s Designer.  A level of magic exists between how the Interface Builder works and what I get to see and handle in the code myself.  This disconnect lead me down the wrong path far too many times during development, especially so with a nasty slow-down bug that almost had me switch entirely from Interface Builder.

2. Apple Sample Code

Now, I’m not slamming Apple’s sample code.  However, once or twice the sample code lead me astray.  There are little gotchas and quirks that the sample code conveniently does not handle, and when you try to do something slightly different, you might run into those.  A specific issue with timers comes to mind where I had followed the Apple sample and then tried to re-use a timer.  Bad idea.  Very bad idea if you were following what they were doing with their disposable timer.  That’s not to say that the sample code did not help me.  Far from it.  Sometimes the sample code was a saving grace.  It’s just very annoying when you end up debugging an issue for a few days and then find a buried post on a Google Group after a few hours of searching and find that one guy who notes, “They did not cover this in the Yadda Yadda Example, but do this one thing before you use their code or else.”

3. Getting the Data

Apparently people buy databases, mined data, and libraries for a reason.  I did not even consider creating anything robust for all of the phrases I would need in the game.  A definite lack of foresight on my part.  I ended up manually entering all of the phrases into the game.  Only half way through the process did I create a tool to speed it up, but even then it was nothing robust.  If we are going to update and support Guess What? more extensively, I will definitely be writing a better tool to handle and automate the process a little more.  (So get all your friends to go buy it. )

4. iPhone Provisions, Certificates, and Profiles (Oh My!)

I had an iPod Touch.  I bought a Mac Mini.  Now I am all set to develop iPhone games right?  That’s what I had envisioned based on how easy it all seemed in the forums and success stories.  I did a little research and found that in order to test on my iTouch I would need to be a paid developer.  That was a hidden cost I was not fond of.  I thought I could hold off until the end, but eventually I realized the Simulator was just too limiting sometimes and we paid our fees a little early. That is, after the fiasco that was getting Apple to accept us as a company.

Now, we thought, we can go ahead and put our app on the iTouch and test it out for real.  However, there was another step to go through.  Because any iPod Touch or iPhone can be hooked up to a Mac to debug your app, Apple had to put in some pretty steep protection against letting XCode install apps all willy-nilly.  You wouldn’t want to have people passing around source code to bypass the App Store.  In order to do this you have to create a Certificate for your Mac to install apps, a Profile for the device that lets it accept the app, and then a Provision that tells XCode it is all right for X app to be put on Y device.  It’s an entirely lengthy process to go through the first time and I had to go through it a few times to get myself and others set up to test it.  I don’t know if this is 100% what went wrong material, but it sure was frustrating.  Then on top of that there’s a whole Ad Hoc system so that you can get other people to test the game (or from what I hear, preview apps for review sites). The whole affair is kind of a necessary evil to learn.

5. App Store Rejections

Before we submitted to Apple, we thought we had fixed all of the bugs.  However, because of the way that Guess What? copies data to your iDevice, there was one that slipped through the cracks.  Since I already had installed the game on my device, certain files already existed and did not need to be copied.  This came back to bite us in the form of an App store rejection.  Of course, this is a nine day process that takes a while.  After finally finding the bug and fixing it, we resubmitted. However, this time I forgot to set the release date and we never really hit the front page of the store.

Any iPhone App marketing wizard (No one has perfected it yet. It’s still magic.) would tell you that sales are greatly affected by not being on the What’s New, What’s Hot, or Featured lists when they come out.  Maintaining sales relies on some Top 100 action and if you can’t capture it right away, it’s an uphill battle to get there.  This compiled on top of a missing Lite version and no big marketing push at launch really hit us in the wallet, the hardest place to be hit after a game’s release.

The Numbers:

Programmers: 1

Artists: 1 (Contract)

Audio Designers: 1 (Contract)

Testers: 2 (Contract)

Dev Time: 4 months

First of all, thanks for helping to support us. It means a lot to me that people have bought Guess What? I spent somewhere in the ball park of a man-month creating it. A lot of that was entering phrases and it got kind of boring / tedious, but I felt the game would be a lot of fun. Every time I log in and see that the App has been purchased it validates my hard work.

I want to give back to you guys and give you that same feeling of validation. You paid your hard earned buck for this game. Let me put it to work! On the front page right now there is a poll for the next great feature to Guess What? Because we’re doing another project right now, I can’t devote my spare time to getting ALL of these features in the next update. (Which will be the second update. More phrases / bug fixes coming as soon as Apple approves the update I submitted a week ago.) I’m asking you to go to the front page and vote on the feature you’d most like to see in the next update. I might only get to one of them, or I might be able to add three or four. I have a rough idea of how best to implement these, but that first month I spent on Guess What? was full of surprises. Coding on a new platform is tough a learning experience!

Of course, if you have an idea for the next great feature, you can either leave a comment or go over to http://www.guesswhatgame.com and submit it through there (as a bug). However, if you do leave a comment / submit an idea, I can’t promise that I’ll do it.

Thanks again, Guess What? fans!

See you, Space Cowboy.

This is just a simple post to get the word out to all of you game programmers (software engineers when trying to impress) out there! Aaron and I both maintain our own little tech blogs. If you’d like to talk code with us, or just follow along hoping for a sneak peak at Binary Solo related stuff, check them out!

Aaron’s Blog – http://resolveaswontfix.blogspot.com/

Chad’s Blog – http://www.chadpluspl.us/

Enjoy!

See you, Space Cowboy.

Monday/Tuesday (During Conference)

Merit Entertainment was kind enough to get me the “full pass” so I was able to check out the first two days of tutorials.  I went to “Advanced Direct 3d” and “Khronos Tutorial”.  One went over how to use the new Direct 3d 10.1 and 11 and other went over the new opengl 3.1, opencl(threading api), and opensl(new sound api to replace openal).  They also touched on some other things, but thats the gist of it.  Now these tutorials were basically like an all day class, strictly learning.  The Direct X session was pretty funny due to ATI and AMD folks fighting over who has the best extentions all day.  As far as opengl goes, the biggest thing announced was that opengl for the first time actually removed things from the deprication list in 3.1.

Monday (After Hours)

My buddies were telling me that I needed to go to sweet after parties while I was there.  I also knew that these parties were not googlable (at least the good ones).  So this night I basically gave up and went to Chevys next door and ate some excellent Mexican. Sorry, if that doesn’t seem so exciting.

Tuesday (After Hours)

So by this day I was sick of not finding parties.  Heard rumors about an Harmonix party so with some help from a few buddies I was there.  Open bar. Thank you, Harmonix, for the open bar.  Anyways, so I get in there and its a standard bar which Harmonix had taken control of the entire second story.  Instead of a live band they have a projector and rock band set up on the stage.  Geeky, but awesome none the less.  The people that were playing were generally on expert and playing the hard songs, so it was impressive.

Wednesday

Went to some cool talks by an ex-Bungie employee and the expo crawl was pretty sweet.  Coolest thing I would say was the Technical Director Roundtable.  There is nothing like hearing a bunch of the industries finest going at it.  They had one each day Wed-Fri and I would have to say I learned the most from them.  Randomly bar hopped and met up with some Full Sail faculty.

Thursday

Hideo Kojima keynote was out of control.  It looked like the guy spent a good 10k on his powerpoint alone.  I don’t know if you can see it online, but if you can check it out.  Random conference shit, all pretty high quality.  Hung around the W (my hotel) saw a few notable faces (God of War guy).  I think I went to an IGDA party today, but I forget (I’m writing this based of tweets).  If I did it was alright, had a few drink tickets then left.  Almost got into some Little Big Planet party but it was high security, ended up going to some guy’s hotel and checking out an indie game they’ve been developing.  Went back to my hotel (W) and finished up my tab (80 dollor tab, which was my highest for the week).

Friday

Basically a wrap up of the week.  Could barely function with hardly any sleep the whole week.  Went to some cool tech talks. Hung out at the W, ate a 30 dollor cheese burger and drank.  Right before I took the shuttle to fly home I met Cliffy B. and shook his hand.  Nice close to the surreal week.

In summary, I will be at every GDC I can go to for the rest of my days.

Awesome,

Aaron

10. Talladega Nights

I think this one is a bit obvious. Take the popularity of racing games and add Will Ferrell, John C. Reily, and Sacha Baron Cohen. Instant money, right? I mean, who doesn’t love NASCAR? Driving in a circle really fast about two or three hundred times sounds like my idea of a perfect Saturday.

9. Uncle John’s Gigantic Bathroom Reader

Do you have what it takes? Step into the shoes of Dante Woodward as he explores bathrooms everywhere. With his trust copy of Uncle John’s Gigantic Bathroom Reader he can read at any location. Read in such locations as the office, the ball game, the girlfriend’s house, and especially at home! Do you have what it takes to flip the pages while doing your business?

8. WNBA

Where there are sports licenses, there are money. What market is untapped right now? The WNBA! This could be the chance to make a realistic sports simulation with one of the most popular leagues around. This time its girl’s night out. The only hard question is who should be on the cover? There are so many famous athletic women in the WNBA like… uhm… hm. Its not that we don’t know all of the WNBA players by hearts, its just that its too hard to decide. Yeah, that’s it.

7. Heroes

Choose between the numerous characters of the hit show Heroes. You can be Peter with the ability to learn everyone’s powers. Choose Hiro to manipulate time and space. Choose Nathan and take to the sky! Or choose Niki Sanders and be annoying. Whoever you choose, take part in a dramatic adventure and avoid using your powers at all costs! Talk to villians, get threatened by friends, and absolutely avoid letting people know you’re special. Its bound to be the superhero game of the year!

6. Bubba Ho-Tep

Watch your ass! Fight the forces of evil as an old, washed-up Elvis Presley or the paranoid, black John F. Kennedy in a battle destined to take ages. The most realistic walker controls will have you combatting the forces of evil as The King himself or drive right into the action with precision steering in the motorized chair of John F. Kennedy. Thank you! Thank you very much!

5. The O.C.

Play through all four seasons of the Fox television hit, The O.C. Survive high school as you fight on the beach, in a burning house, by the pier, in a cage match, and more. Throw punch after punch for vicious combos that will bring people to their knees. Oh, and there might be a little conversation, too.

4. Nine Stories

I haven’t exactly read this book by J.D. Salinger, but I’ve been told it is pretty good. The game would be nine chapters long, each one featuring one of the stories from this book. From what I hear, each story is the tale of a different ex-Army Ranger fighting terrorists in their home town and how they all come together at some point to bring down Al Qaeda. Doesn’t that sound like a fun game? Thanks, J.D.

3. WCG Ultimate Gamer

For those of you who haven’t seen the show, gamers compete to see who can be crowned the best. The catch is, they don’t just play video games. They also do a real life equivalent competition. What makes a better game than a game based on a show about playing games? How meta! Create your own characters and then control them as they play video games. Its so realistic, its almost like YOU are playing a video game!

2. Position of the Day

Enough said.

1. The View

Come on. Do I really need to say anything? I think anyone can see the powerful licensing opportunities here. Choose from current cast members Barbara Walters, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Whoopi Goldberg, or Sheri Shepperd (Sorry, Joy.) or relive the past with Debbie Matenopoulos, Lisa Ling, Meredith Vieira, Star Jones, or Rosie O’Donnell. Discuss such amazing topics as the N-word, Michael Vick, and French mimes!

See you, Space Cowboy.