71² – The ramblings of two 30-something developers

Recent readers games

Apologies to those who have sent me information on their games which they have released based on some part on the tutorials. I am behind on getting these mentioned on the blog, but this post should fix that.

I continue to get updates from blog readers who are pushing on and getting their own games released on the App store which is fantastic. I love to see other peoples creations and how they have use the tutorials in new and unique ways. Below is a list of games that I’ve been told about recently. I’m sure you all realise the amount of time that goes into creating your own game, especially when you are creating your own game engine as well and not using something like Cocos2d. For that reason alone I hope that you check out the games below as they all deserve it.
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I visited the Apple mothership

Well, I’ve had a fantastic time in San Francisco over the last 10 days. Work has been ok and we got a lot done, but the highlight had to be meeting up with a friend from Apple and getting to have a coffee with him at Cafe Macs. This is the Cafe in the quadrangle at the Apple campus at One Infinite Loop.
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Latest Sound Manager Class

I’ve finally managed to upload the latest version of the SoundManager class. This is the same version I am using in Sir Lamorak’s Quest. There are a few changes from the class in the tutorials. I’ve added some new methods

- (void)playNextTrack;
- (void)addToPlaylistNamed:(NSString*)aPlaylistName track:(NSString*)aTrackName;
- (void)startPlaylistNamed:(NSString*)aPlaylistName;
- (void)removeFromPlaylistNamed:(NSString*)aPlaylistName track:(NSString*)aTrackName;
- (void)removePlaylistNamed:(NSString*)aPlaylistName;
- (void)clearPlaylistNamed:(NSString*)aPlaylistName;
- (void)fadeMusicVolumeFrom:(float)aFromVolume toVolume:(float)aToVolume duration:(float)aSeconds stop:(BOOL)aStop;

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Sound Manager Update

Hi all

By the end of this weekend I will post a new version of the Sound Manager. I’ve been introducing music into SLQ and found that there were some features missing from the SoundManager class that would be handy such as named play lists, fading music etc.

I’ve added these features now as well as fixing memory leaks that had been reported. I just need to work on a couple of areas over the weekend and I’ll then post the new version. I just wanted to keep you up to date.

Mike

BumpTop: This looks very cool!

I am so impressed by this app, I remember a demo of something similar a few years back. Very impressed it is only $29USD aswell.

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The sound of music with Vincent Webb

I’ve been hunting around for a while for the sounds and music I can use for Sir Lamorak’s Quest. As I’m working to a tight budget i.e. nothing, I had dropped the thought of ever getting music created for SLQ specifically. That has changed.
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New Sound Manager Version

If you have followed the tutorials you will know that tutorial 9 covered the sound manager classes. Since the tutorial I’ve been making updates to those classes so that they correctly handle sound interruptions, such as alarms or phone calls. There are also a number of other bug fixes that I’ve added as well to areas such as the removal of sounds when they are no longer needed.

This is the same version of the sound manager that is being use in Sir Lamorak’s Quest and its been performing really well. Hope it helps.

New SoundManager Classes

Mike

News: Apple Seizes 16 Domain Names From A Guy In One Fell Swoop

When you own domain names associated with the trademarks of a large company, more often than not, they’re going to file a complaint with the ICANN UDRP(Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy). And more often than not, they’re going to win control of the name. Such was the case yesterday with 16 names related to Apple that one man happened to own.

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Project 72

I came across a site yesterday which is documenting in real time a team of four guys who writing an iPhone game in 71 hours, hence the name of the project.

They all seem to have experience already and hence thought they could create the entire game in 7 days, with the actual game coding being done in 71 hours. Their website is tracking a countdown timer and also has a live web cam of them working away. It also has regular video updates of their progress on the game which is not looking bad at all.
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TBXML – XML parsing on the iPhone

Just wanted to remind people about TBXML developed by Tom Bradley. This is an Objective-C based XML parser for the iPhone that is QUICK and light on resources. It has a really simple API and can be implemented really quickly.

If all you want to do is read and parse XML then this is a library you should check out. It is open source so you can see how its been done and change as necessary. If you don’t want to change it yourself then drop Tom a note and he is very quick in making changes that fit with the purpose of the library.
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