tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49863743660221584512024-03-17T00:15:48.566-07:00ickydimeIckydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.comBlogger211125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-3125804821649989492019-11-07T13:17:00.000-07:002019-11-07T13:17:52.583-07:00First MindTrust Game [Survey]We are working on our first internal title and since we have a short budget we want to prioritize features. In order to help us focus we'd your help by answering this short survey. For those interested, I plan on posting the results here on my blog at the end.<br />
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<a class="c-link" href="https://forms.gle/oGrhdQWSH4kN8xvT8" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Slack-Lato, appleLogo, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">https://forms.gle/oGrhdQWSH4kN8xvT8</a><br />
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Hint: It involves a monkey, a pig, and some catchy lyrics. :) Here is a sneak peak at the art:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Fa0ChjTAGrV5O_-yrZYlgAY-c1KPHV0t6Mlu1C2JVUl5YcGUbwGkZAxwU7H9Mvr622BJPz72EByEy9HaSe1vXKKOC4mXspMq692PbGUQkodbJkBFgVbqL503ykMKEX2aK1V0-hbWvVA/s1600/Image+from+iOS+%25281%2529+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="429" data-original-width="1024" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Fa0ChjTAGrV5O_-yrZYlgAY-c1KPHV0t6Mlu1C2JVUl5YcGUbwGkZAxwU7H9Mvr622BJPz72EByEy9HaSe1vXKKOC4mXspMq692PbGUQkodbJkBFgVbqL503ykMKEX2aK1V0-hbWvVA/s320/Image+from+iOS+%25281%2529+%25281%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span id="goog_1697193168"></span><span id="goog_1697193169"></span>Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-74382731706761260132019-06-01T11:53:00.000-07:002019-06-01T11:53:19.226-07:00New Company, New Role, Now Hiring<span id="docs-internal-guid-a8bdbe0f-7fff-8410-4082-f73a46821432"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am excited to announce I am taking on a new role as the Director of Games/XR for MindTrust Labs </span></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(</span><a href="https://www.mindtrustlabs.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">https://www.mindtrustlabs.com/</span></a><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">.
One of my first tasks is to expand the team to handle upcoming client projects. </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">While we will initially be focused on creating games and XR experiences for clients, our longer term goal is to release our own IP.</span><br />
<span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The team is remote, Unity based, and comprised of a mix of industry vets along with aspiring game creators. </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am currently focused on filling the following remote positions:</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Art Director (Full Time - Industry Vet Required)</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3D Artist (Full or Part Time)</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Technical Artist (Full or Part Time)</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Back End Engineer (Full or Part Time)</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Data Scientist & Monetization Strategist (Part Time - Industry Vet Required)</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All interested parties should send links to their portfolio and CV to mgrossnickle[at]mindtrustlabs[dot]com.</span></span>Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-30003126331272491902019-03-25T13:58:00.001-07:002019-04-01T08:15:04.987-07:00Custom Local Packages - Unity Package Manager<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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At Taqtile we are big proponents of re-using our code base across multiple projects. In the past I wrote about<a href="http://blog.ickydime.com/2016/05/sharing-code-between-unity3d-projects.html" target="_blank"> how to share code between Unity projects via SymLinks</a>. The main problem with that solution to sharing code is that it is not supported by Unity. It works fairly well for code but issues can arise when you try to share prefabs/assets as guids can conflict across projects. We put up with it though because it was the best solution we could find to bring in external code. Until now that this is!<br />
<br />
Unity 2018.3 and 2019.1 are bringing big changes to how Packages work in Unity. I currently have a use case of needing to bring in an extension from the <a href="https://github.com/Microsoft/MixedRealityToolkit-Unity" target="_blank">Mixed Reality Toolkit (MRTK)</a>. Currently extensions reside in a sub directory within the MRTK library. I haven't ported our projects over to MRTK yet so I don't want to bring in the entire library into my project; therefore, in this blog post I'll be exploring how to bring just the extension into my project using local Packages rather than symlinks.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Benefits</span></b><br />
The main benefit of using packages instead of symlinks is that it is supported by Unity. In theory, you should be able to bring in all types of assets without guid conflicts.<br />
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The main benefit of using packages instead of asset bundles is that you do not need to export the code. You set it up once and then all future changes should be handled by the package manager.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Unity 2018.3 Solution</span></b><br />
The ability to bringing in custom local packages was added in 2018.3, but it has limitations and is not documented.<br />
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The best documentation I could find for it can be found in <a href="https://forum.unity.com/threads/git-support-on-package-manager.573673/" target="_blank">this forum thread</a>. It goes into further detail than I will here but it states the package manager supports bringing in packages directly from git, the web, and local files.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAwlrctNqGovo7fOVGp8N7FAh-fG7pXjwZfJZ265M690KvJMypeO-TVIG-PON7ChLZ8I6Vb76Modj2AgL4X781Q-Pgr9Ei31dOHYh4n-ttA6zF9f_08ewO6_8eeoS-D2Wrc6zBEYtM5v0/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="195" data-original-width="535" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAwlrctNqGovo7fOVGp8N7FAh-fG7pXjwZfJZ265M690KvJMypeO-TVIG-PON7ChLZ8I6Vb76Modj2AgL4X781Q-Pgr9Ei31dOHYh4n-ttA6zF9f_08ewO6_8eeoS-D2Wrc6zBEYtM5v0/s400/Capture.PNG" width="400" /></a><br />
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Git is very interesting but it currently does not cache results and each time a change is made you would have to re-clone the entire library. That is a deal breaker for me as speed during development is important. I'm also curious if git support would allow pulling in sub directories like my current use case or if I would have to pull in the entire MRTK.<br />
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For my immediate use case, I'll be focusing on the file scheme. To get the file scheme to work you need to do two things:<br />
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1. Create a package.json in the directory you would like to share. The package.json should have the following format:<br />
<br />
<i>{</i><br />
<i> "name": "com.mrtk.webrtc",</i><br />
<i> "displayName": "MRTK WebRTC Extension",</i><br />
<i> "version": "0.0.1",</i><br />
<i> "unity": "2018.3",</i><br />
<i> "description": "Add description here",</i><br />
<i> "keywords": ["key X", "key Y", "key Z"],</i><br />
<i> "category": "MRTK Extension",</i><br />
<i> "dependencies": {</i><br />
<i> }</i><br />
<i></i><br />
<i>}</i><br />
<br />
In my use case I placed the package in the following directory:<br />
<i>MixedRealityToolkit-Unity-WebRTC\Assets\MixedRealityToolkit.Extensions\Webrtc</i><br />
<br />
<br />
2. Add a link to that package as a dependency in your manifest.json of the project you would like import the code into. The manifest.json can be found in the Packages folder of your project. Here is an example:<br />
<br />
<i>{</i><br />
<i> "dependencies": {</i><br />
<i> "com.mrtk.webrtc": "file:</i><i>../..</i><i>/MixedRealityToolkit-Unity-WebRTC/Assets/MixedRealityToolkit.Extensions/Webrtc"</i><br />
<i> }</i><br />
<i>}</i><br />
<br />
Each entry is "package name": "path". Note the "file:../../". This allows everyone at Taqtile to use this solution without requiring each PC to have the same file structure.<br />
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There is also a button in the package manager that allows you to select your local package.json and import it directly to your manifest.json. I thought this was only a Unity 2019.1 feature as I saw no mention of it in the forums but I noticed it while taking comparison screenshots.<br />
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If you use the + symbol in the UI to import your package then you may need to check the manifest.json after doing so because the path it filled in was absolute for me.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY_ufHUuScL6jueJXlehOIwqNZxvli_c_xRvQsLR48dHutoX7_ot98FDmiBqSHpwtHZ6gifsODh1tlHd02ebSVhNq30bPTRU_0hgfYEGyUhnkwlzfVI48bU1qfr8JwdO4AmjInBWyhcHg/s1600/Capture2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="628" data-original-width="705" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY_ufHUuScL6jueJXlehOIwqNZxvli_c_xRvQsLR48dHutoX7_ot98FDmiBqSHpwtHZ6gifsODh1tlHd02ebSVhNq30bPTRU_0hgfYEGyUhnkwlzfVI48bU1qfr8JwdO4AmjInBWyhcHg/s320/Capture2.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><br /></b>
<b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Unity 2019.1 UI Improvements</span></b><br />
Note the new placement of the plus button:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmEyWHfIdcGMAVCbhyxhZgCTiDk9gQ79BLC9t41r483mNWw23XTH36eISOWFhgTbeXGqqIQDw34ULGaSBaygRFMwJzF5NLDS6JW2PeZ3XCv4N3fXrIAc1nyFdvi_4sjnkcTIFFjt7Qayk/s1600/Capture3.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="615" data-original-width="698" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmEyWHfIdcGMAVCbhyxhZgCTiDk9gQ79BLC9t41r483mNWw23XTH36eISOWFhgTbeXGqqIQDw34ULGaSBaygRFMwJzF5NLDS6JW2PeZ3XCv4N3fXrIAc1nyFdvi_4sjnkcTIFFjt7Qayk/s320/Capture3.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i><br /></i><br />
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<b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">The Future and Beyond</span></b><br />
It appears Unity is going to continue adding features to the package manager to make this more robust and user friendly. The ability to select/manage local versions as well as nuget integration were the two most exciting offerings I saw mentioned as possible road map features. No promises though.Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-77833367572711141152019-01-24T08:55:00.002-07:002019-01-24T18:13:38.123-07:00Backporting Unity 2018.2 to Unity 2018.1First off, I don't recommend back porting Unity projects as it usually never ends well. Your best bet is to revert your repository to a date prior to updating Unity. That said, sometimes it is unavoidable. In our case, we updated to Unity 2018.2 awhile back for a Hololens project. Then we were asked to port the Hololens application to Magic Leap which currently is only supported in a technical preview on 2018.1. We've done too much development on 2018.2 for reverting to make sense so here we are.<br />
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<br />
Step 1:<br />
Close Unity and delete the Library folder within your project as well as any build folders and other temporary folders. The Library folder is important as you may experience the editor crashing while trying to run a project in 2018.1 with cached properties from 2018.2. The build folders were throwing some access denied errors for me but that may be specific to UWP and probably not as important for most projects.<br />
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Step 2.<br />
Open the power shell and navigate to your project folder. Enter in each of these four commands 1 at a time. Note, these are compiled from a few stackoverflow answers which I am having trouble finding at the moment to link credit to.<br />
<br />
<br />
$configFiles = Get-ChildItem . *.prefab -rec<br />
foreach ($file in $configFiles)<br />
{<br />
(Get-Content $file.PSPath) |<br />
Foreach-Object { $_ -replace "m_IsPrefabAsset", "m_IsPrefabParent" } |<br />
Set-Content $file.PSPath<br />
}<br />
<br />
<br />
$configFiles = Get-ChildItem . *.unity -rec<br />
foreach ($file in $configFiles)<br />
{<br />
(Get-Content $file.PSPath) |<br />
Foreach-Object { $_ -replace "m_IsPrefabAsset", "m_IsPrefabParent" } |<br />
Set-Content $file.PSPath<br />
}<br />
<br />
<br />
$configFiles = Get-ChildItem . *.unity -rec<br />
foreach ($file in $configFiles)<br />
{<br />
(Get-Content $file.PSPath) |<br />
Foreach-Object { $_ -replace "m_SourcePrefab", "m_ParentPrefab" } |<br />
Set-Content $file.PSPath<br />
}<br />
<br />
<br />
I did not find any references to this last one online, but I ran into some issues with prefabs within the scene losing reference and this fixed it.<br />
<br />
$configFiles = Get-ChildItem . *.unity -rec<br />
foreach ($file in $configFiles)<br />
{<br />
(Get-Content $file.PSPath) |<br />
Foreach-Object { $_ -replace "m_CorrespondingSourceObject", "m_PrefabParentObject" } |<br />
Set-Content $file.PSPath<br />
}<br />
<br />
Step 3:<br />
Cross fingers and give 2018.1 a try! You may have a few coding changes to make if you did not use macros to separate out builds. <br />
<br />
Example:<br />
#if UNITY_2018_2_OR_NEWER<br />
// put unity 2018_2 code here<br />
#else<br />
// put unity 2018._1 and below code here<br />
#endif<br />
<br />
<br />
Good luck!<br />
<div>
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Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-16123161579418315092018-11-21T13:53:00.000-07:002018-11-21T13:54:20.748-07:00Unity3D Interview Preparation<div style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: 0.1px; line-height: 32px; margin-block-start: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
Over the past 13 years I’ve seen my fair share of the interview process from both sides of the table. The following tips can be applied for a variety of technologies but are mostly geared towards those interviewing for full time or contract Unity3D developer positions.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: 0.1px; line-height: 32px; margin-block-start: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
The hiring process can usually be broken down into four main hurdles:</div>
<ol style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: 0.1px; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
<li style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 10px;">Introduction</li>
<li style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 10px;">Quick Assessment</li>
<li style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 10px;">Thorough Assessment</li>
<li style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 10px;">The Offer</li>
</ol>
<div style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: 0.1px; line-height: 32px; margin-block-start: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1em; font-weight: 600;">Step 1: Introduction</span><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Unity3D jobs are typically for highly desirable positions such as game development or virtual reality. This means that the competition can be fairly intense for a good Unity3D contract or full time position. In order to move forward in the interview process you are going to need to stand out from the masses by using your portfolio, resume, and cover letter. Resumes and cover letters are pretty standard for most industries; there are a plethora of resources online covering them so I’ll hit one point on each and then focus on the Unity3D portfolio.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: 0.1px; line-height: 32px; margin-block-start: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
One item I would make sure you do not overlook on the resume is to ensure it is in a file format every OS can easily view such as PDF. It can be frustrating for an employer to try to open a ‘Pages’ document on their PC only to have it missing fonts and oddly formatted due to file conversions.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: 0.1px; line-height: 32px; margin-block-start: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
One Item I would make sure you do not overlook on the cover letter is to actually write one. I realize it is much easier to just send in a resume but the cover letter is your big chance at selling yourself. You should research the company you are applying for and tailor your letter to their ideals and needs. This is your chance to highlight your past experiences that exemplify the skills they are seeking. If you can not muster up the energy to write a cover letter for a potential job then that job may not be right for you. Ideally, you should feel excited about the job and your excitement should show through in your cover letter.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: 0.1px; line-height: 32px; margin-block-start: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
While the cover letter and resume are important, it is the portfolio that will move you past this step for a Unity3D job. I taught an entire course called ‘Online Portfolio’ as an adjunct lecturer at Butler University. We can’t go over everything here but the key points are to showcase your past work, clearly define your contributions, and ultimately prove you would be an asset to their team. A portfolio can be anything from an interactive website with examples they can download and play to a document with screenshots and brief paragraphs describing a few projects and your contributions. If you do not have any projects to share then it is time to dive into a hackathon or start a hobby project. Additionally, if you have code you are allowed to share I’d also include a link to your github as part of your portfolio.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1em; font-weight: 600;">Step 2: Quick Assessment</span><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />If you successfully complete step 1 then you will typically be asked to complete a phone interview or an online test. In both of these cases the company is trying to vet you to make sure you are worth the time and money for a more thorough assessment. This is especially true for out-of-state interviews as an onsite in that case can be costly.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; letter-spacing: 0.1px; line-height: 32px; margin-block-start: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
Phone interviews and online tests typically involve technical coding challenges. The best thing you can do is practice. There are sites available for this such as <a href="https://www.hackerrank.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #009fc6; cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">HackerRank</a> that provide coding challenge examples. All of the ones I have tried include a C# option so they can be applicable to Unity3D. Go through as many as you can leading up to the test as you can never over-prepare. Try to cover common data structures, search algorithms, and sorting algorithms, as well as the pros and cons of using each.</div>
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Besides general coding you will also want to brush up on your Unity specific topics. Here are some examples of things you should know: Asset Bundles, batching, coroutines, draw calls, scriptable objects, shaders (fragmented versus vertex), culling, debugging, and profiling. Debugging and profiling is my favorite topic to question when I am interviewing a potential hire. I want to make sure you know how to troubleshoot issues. Do you know how to add breakpoints in your IDE? Do you know how to diagnose frames per second spikes? Do you know how to track down a memory leak? If you answered ‘no’ to any of these questions then take some time to research profiling and debugging before your next interview.</div>
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Lastly, review some design patterns that are commonly used in Unity3D. ‘Object Pooling’ is a great pattern to reduce instantiation hitches. ‘Chain of Responsibility’ is used in most input systems to prevent multiple colliders from being triggered on the user interaction events. ‘Observer’ is commonly used to listen for events dispatched by low level objects such as an enemy being destroyed. ‘Factory’ is often used in user interfaces to build out common elements like lists for leaderboards and inventory selection screens.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1em; font-weight: 600;">Step 3: Thorough Assessment</span><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />If you made it to this point then they are interested and you are most likely one their top few candidates. They will either invite you to an onsite and put you through some white boarding or they will give you a small project to complete over the next couple of days.</div>
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If you are given an onsite then you will want to buy the following book and work through examples from each chapter. I did an onsite at Amazon and was amazed that two of the four interview questions were pulled directly from this book: '<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Coding-Interview-Programming-Questions/dp/0984782850" rel="nofollow noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #009fc6; cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Cracking the Interview Code</a>'. You should also be aware that they aren’t just judging your code. They also are judging whether or not you fit the job and the team. I passed the technical portion of an interview at Facebook but then was turned down because they didn’t think I wanted the job. It was true too. I was more interested in another company but I was surprised that I made it obvious to them during my interview. Lesson learned, how you act is just as important as what you say. Make sure you show an interest in the company, its employees, the project, and ask a ton of questions.</div>
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If you are given a project then this is your chance to show off. Over the years I have had to remake Asteroids, build a variation of Donkey Kong, create a slot machine, and a trivia quiz. When given a Unity3D project to complete you should first read their requirements very carefully and make sure you hit each bullet point. They will be judging you not only on the final product but also what is under the hood. Break down the challenge into classes and take extra care in how you use inheritance and composition to adhere to S.O.L.I.D. object oriented design principles. One key is to separate data logic from the view by using scriptable objects. Another is to ensure your project and scenes are organized and variable names and methods are named appropriately. As always, comment your code and ensure it is easy to follow.</div>
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If you have time at the end then sprinkle on a bit of love into the project. The asteroids challenge I was given was for EA’s Playfish Studio. I decided to make it an underwater asteroid game using their fish logo as the ship. The trivia quiz challenge was given to me around Halloween so I made it themed around classic scary movies and even added a cheap scare at the end using a screaming clown face. These touches go a long way in standing out compared to the other candidates.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1em; font-weight: 600;">Step 4: The Offer</span><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Throughout the entire process you should be making sure the company interviewing you is a good fit for you. The offer is where you really get to turn the tables and have them sell you. For example, they will most likely ask you what you currently make. Try your best to avoid answering that question and instead answer the real question which is how much do they need to offer you in order for you to take the job. This can be a difficult question but you can get a decent idea of how much you are worth by visiting sites such as ‘<a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #009fc6; cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Glassdoor</a>’ or browsing similar job posts on sites such as ‘<a href="http://www.angel.co/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #009fc6; cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Angel</a>’ that include salaries. I tend to have two numbers in mind: my ideal and my bottom floor. Answer their salary question with your ideal and don’t settle for lower than your bottom floor. Sometimes it is good to request a general ballpark earlier in the interview process. After spending a couple days on the Halloween Trivia challenge, I was offered a salary half of what I was making at the time. Had we discussed ballparks earlier on it would have saved me a couple days of work.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1em; font-weight: 600;">Conclusion</span><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />Preparation for Unity3D interviews is similar to most technical jobs with the addition of the portfolio as well as brushing up on some key Unity3D concepts. Regardless of whether or not you land the job you want, learn from the experience and take it to your next interview. If you take the attitude of continuously learning, improving, and adding to your portfolio, then you will eventually succeed at landing a Unity3D contract or position.</div>
Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-43090794425936561272017-05-12T14:43:00.004-07:002017-05-12T14:43:50.884-07:00Keyboard based Debugger for Unity3D ProjectsThere is nothing complex here but I've found the following code extremely useful to quickly test functionality without having to mock up buttons. All you have to do is add this component to a GameObject then select Keycodes that you would like to pair with functions. You can also flag whether you want this to only occur in the editor or if you want to leave it for live production.
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I'd like to get in the habit of posting more code. I tend to avoid it as anything interesting to me is usually overly complex or client specific. That said, if you found this snippet helpful I'd love to hear from you and I'll keep posting bite sized components that I find useful.
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Example of the component:<br/>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq9tI067sd8UrK_SGN-wU3SE5t60zUwjPzZuitFtYiYemxCZScfOyqQHdVAVITuYapu_kFzVUgacQDUjN1EgiljdhUdgSsrsDJ-YzgzWWN5ejLXYLF611vv7bZxR4GqBB7-QyQ-G0LJIc/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq9tI067sd8UrK_SGN-wU3SE5t60zUwjPzZuitFtYiYemxCZScfOyqQHdVAVITuYapu_kFzVUgacQDUjN1EgiljdhUdgSsrsDJ-YzgzWWN5ejLXYLF611vv7bZxR4GqBB7-QyQ-G0LJIc/s320/Capture.PNG" width="320" height="134" /></a>
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Code:<br/>
<!-- HTML generated using hilite.me --><div style="background: #000000; overflow:auto;width:auto;border:solid gray;border-width:.1em .1em .1em .8em;padding:.2em .6em;"><pre style="margin: 0; line-height: 125%"> <span style="color: #cdcd00">public</span> <span style="color: #cdcd00">class</span> <span style="color: #00cdcd">KeyboardCommandManager</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">:</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">MonoBehaviour</span>
<span style="color: #cccccc">{</span>
<span style="color: #cccccc"> [System.Serializable]</span>
<span style="color: #cdcd00">public</span> <span style="color: #cdcd00">struct</span> <span style="color: #00cdcd">KeyAndResponse</span>
<span style="color: #cccccc">{</span>
<span style="color: #cdcd00">public</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">KeyCode</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">Key;</span>
<span style="color: #cdcd00">public</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">UnityEvent</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">Response;</span>
<span style="color: #cdcd00">public</span> <span style="color: #00cd00">bool</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">EditorOnly;</span>
<span style="color: #cccccc">}</span>
<span style="color: #cdcd00">public</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">KeyAndResponse[]</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">KeysAndResponses;</span>
<span style="color: #cdcd00">private</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">List<KeyAndResponse></span> <span style="color: #cccccc">ActiveKeys;</span>
<span style="color: #cdcd00">private</span> <span style="color: #cdcd00">void</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">Awake()</span>
<span style="color: #cccccc">{</span>
<span style="color: #cccccc">ActiveKeys</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">=</span> <span style="color: #cdcd00">new</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">List<KeyAndResponse>();</span>
<span style="color: #cdcd00">if</span><span style="color: #cccccc">(KeysAndResponses!=</span><span style="color: #cdcd00">null</span><span style="color: #cccccc">)</span>
<span style="color: #cccccc">{</span>
<span style="color: #cdcd00">for</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">(</span><span style="color: #00cd00">int</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">i</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">=</span> <span style="color: #cd00cd">0</span><span style="color: #cccccc">;</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">i</span> <span style="color: #cccccc"><</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">KeysAndResponses.Length;</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">i++)</span>
<span style="color: #cccccc">{</span>
<span style="color: #00cd00">var</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">keyAndResponse</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">=</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">KeysAndResponses[i];</span>
<span style="color: #cdcd00">if</span><span style="color: #cccccc">(!keyAndResponse.EditorOnly</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">||</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">Application.isEditor)</span>
<span style="color: #cccccc">{</span>
<span style="color: #cccccc">ActiveKeys.Add(keyAndResponse);</span>
<span style="color: #cccccc">}</span>
<span style="color: #cccccc">}</span>
<span style="color: #cccccc">}</span>
<span style="color: #cccccc">}</span>
<span style="color: #cdcd00">void</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">Update()</span>
<span style="color: #cccccc">{</span>
<span style="color: #cdcd00">if</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">(Input.anyKeyDown)</span>
<span style="color: #cccccc">{</span>
<span style="color: #cdcd00">for</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">(</span><span style="color: #00cd00">int</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">i</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">=</span> <span style="color: #cd00cd">0</span><span style="color: #cccccc">;</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">i</span> <span style="color: #cccccc"><</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">ActiveKeys.Count;</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">i++)</span>
<span style="color: #cccccc">{</span>
<span style="color: #00cd00">var</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">keyAndResponse</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">=</span> <span style="color: #cccccc">ActiveKeys[i];</span>
<span style="color: #cdcd00">if</span><span style="color: #cccccc">(Input.GetKeyDown(keyAndResponse.Key))</span>
<span style="color: #cccccc">keyAndResponse.Response.Invoke();</span>
<span style="color: #cccccc">}</span>
<span style="color: #cccccc">}</span>
<span style="color: #cccccc">}</span>
<span style="color: #cccccc">}</span>
</pre></div>
Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-37599972247005235542016-05-26T09:06:00.004-07:002016-05-26T09:06:54.106-07:00Sharing code between Unity3D ProjectsHere at <a href="http://www.taqtile.com/">Taqtile</a> we are working on multiple Hololens projects at once and would like to create a core library for overlapping features such as an adjustable window to place or custom interactibles.<br />
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Unity3D does not natively support external folders but I found a few workarounds:<br />
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<b>SVN Externals</b><br />
<a href="http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/16908/how-to-share-c-source-between-unity-projects.html" target="_blank">This stackoverflow answer</a> seems like the best solution but relies on SVN but unfortunately we are using Git.<br />
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<b>Git SubTrees or SubModules</b><br />
A submodule seems to be the closest thing to an SVN External but it is more of a reference to the code path at certain point in time. SubTrees are a complete copy. Neither seem ideal since we'd like to be updating the core library continuously. While you can rig both to commit and update via command prompt, most of our team uses software such as GitHub, Tortoise, and SourceTree and support seems limited or non-existent.<br />
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If you happen to have one of these solutions working on Git software with a GUI for non-technical team members I'd love to hear about it in the comments.<br />
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<b>SymLink</b><br />
The solution we landed on was Symbolic Links. A symbolic link is a Windows feature to make a folder that is located in one directory to appear to be located in another. Here is a <a href="http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/">tutorial on creating Symbolic Links</a>.<br />
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But it is as simple as running the command prompt and running the following from a relative address:<br />
<i>mklink /J .\Assets\TaqtileTools ..\TaqtileHoloTools</i><br />
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You can even make a .bat file and commit it to the relative directory so anyone setting up the project for the first time just needs to execute the bat.<br />
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Note, given that Hololens is solely a PC environment at the moment we can safely assume the entire team will be running Windows. However, Mac users <a href="http://superuser.com/questions/231840/equivalent-for-windows-7-mklink-on-os-x">could create something similar as well</a>. Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-9261100729260423972016-05-20T15:32:00.000-07:002016-06-08T09:21:23.347-07:00Hololens - Manipulate Gestures and Resizing WindowsI had a bit of trouble finding documentation for how to make a re-sizable window for Hololens and thus want to document my findings here. As this is all fairly new please share your findings in the comments.<br />
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Here is the goal... in 2D form:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://kbdevstorage1.blob.core.windows.net/asset-blobs/12486_en-us_1" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://kbdevstorage1.blob.core.windows.net/asset-blobs/12486_en-us_1" width="320" /></a></div>
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On the device you can click and drag (manipulate) any of the blue cubes to scale the window. And you can click and drag the center circle to re-position the window in 3D space.<br />
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If you have a device you can find an example of this by opening the Photo app and clicking resize in the top right corner.<br />
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<b>Prep:</b><br />
First and foremost make sure you are up-to-date with the latest Unity build which currently is 5.4b16: <a href="http://unity3d.com/pages/windows/hololens">http://unity3d.com/pages/windows/hololens</a><br />
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Otherwise you may crash while trying to listen to the manipulate gesture.<br />
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<b>Gestures:</b><br />
If you aren't familiar with Gestures you can learn more about them in detail here: <a href="https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/holographic/gestures">https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/holographic/gestures</a><br />
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Manipulate is going to be our focus since we are going to move/re-size based on the user's hand movements.<br />
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<b>Tutorial:</b><br />
<a href="https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/holographic/holograms_211" target="_blank">Microsoft's Holograms 211 tutorial</a> will get you most of the way there. Namely the GestureManager code though their example uses both Navigation and Manipulation which adds a bit of complexity as you can't use both at the same time. Since we only need Manipulate we can nix the Transition code and just add the GesturesSettings.ManipulationTranslate to our recognizer we are using for tap. I'll share my code below.<br />
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<b>Integrating with HoloToolkit:</b><br />
<a href="https://github.com/Microsoft/HoloToolkit-Unity" target="_blank">Microsoft's HoloToolkit code base</a>'s GestureManager is different than the one in the tutorial. I decided to try to pick and choose bits from the 211 tutorial and drop it into the Toolkit code but ended up with a half baked solution. You could manipulate items while gazing at them but as soon as the item lost your gaze the manipulation would stop. The trick is to make sure you Override the focusedObject. Otherwise when the focus object changes the gesture is cancelled.<br />
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<br />
<b>GestureManager Class:</b><br />
This class mixes the HoloToolkit code with the Holograms 211 Tutorial and makes adjustments to handle the change in focusedObject.<br />
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<script src="https://gist.github.com/markgrossnickle/65b288df07950a53bbcf7f751215ac22.js"></script><br />
<br />
<b>Handling:</b><br />
To handle these events you will need to wire something to catch the starts and then update while manipulating. I have my corner buttons catching the start manipulate calls and then triggering StartScaleManipulation while my center button triggers StartManipulation. Code below:<br />
<br />
<script src="https://gist.github.com/markgrossnickle/4d0b580b143e68023bca1e7f03d2cfb0.js"></script><br />
<br />
<b>Custom Hand Manager:</b><br />
I am not sure if we added the FocusedGameObject or if that was originally in the HoloToolkit and since removed. In either case, this is the HandManager we are using. Feel free to rename to HandsManager or customize how you see fit. <br/>
<script src="https://gist.github.com/markgrossnickle/2500b158b6791e9b2c31824623f89634.js"></script>
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<br />Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-16332820058904206122014-07-05T19:56:00.000-07:002015-10-31T12:39:53.387-07:00Two and a HalfI hate to start with a cliche but time flies. Its been two and a half years since I have posted an update!<br />
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I'm still going strong at Kihon. We are in beta on our 4th title: <a href="https://www.conquestofchampions.com/" target="_blank">Conquest of Champions</a> which is in Early Access on Steam or you can download it from the site on PC/Mac. Eventually we want to get it to tablets and be cross-platform but the current focus is to iterate quickly on the desktop.<br />
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In 2013 we launched <a href="http://dojodanger.com/" target="_blank">Dojo Danger</a>.<br />
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In 2012 we launched <a href="http://www.kihongames.com/sketchphrase/" target="_blank">SketchPhrase</a>.<br />
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Earlier in 2012 we raised a round with Rick Thompson and made Kihon a legit business... well, I guess it was always legit but raising a round, hiring employees, etc really raises the stakes a bit.<br />
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And then of course there was Baby Monkey which I posted about in 2011. <br />
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On a technical side I've gone from Flash to Cocos2D to Unity3D. I personally still have a soft spot for Flash, especially when it comes to tweens and animations. However, I must admit Unity3D is a pretty powerful engine from a team's perspective. Cocos2D was OK but I'd recommend skipping over it and just going straight to Unity3D, especially now that they are making an effort to support 2D natively.<br />
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I still keep my hands in the code and game production though admittedly is becoming less and less over the years. I'm probably spending less than half my time coding now while the rest has gone to running the company and everything that entails. <br />
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I hope to post a bit more about the business side and the inner workings of Kihon as I originally intended when I was just starting years ago... however, I would be naive to promise such a thing. Hopefully I will be on here again soon though. Until then!<br />
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<br />Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-44543116201630107642011-11-20T13:04:00.000-07:002011-11-20T13:04:54.863-07:00Freebie! Baby Monkey weekend Give-away<a href="http://blog.kihongames.com/">Kihon</a> is running a special this weekend by offering <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/baby-monkey-going-backwards/id447960108">Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig)</a> for free. If you haven't already, now is the time to check it out!<br />
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Still hesitant? Whats wrong with you! Check out <a href="http://www.appunwrapper.com/2011/11/20/baby-monkey-going-backwards-on-a-pig-game-review/">this review</a>, it sums up our new features such as Costumes, Backgrounds, Free Monkey Bucks, etc. <a href="http://www.appunwrapper.com/2011/11/20/baby-monkey-going-backwards-on-a-pig-game-review/">Review</a>.Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-16166798871161718482011-11-18T20:02:00.000-07:002011-11-18T20:02:37.440-07:00Speaking Monday at UofAI'll be at UofA Video Game Developer's Club this coming Monday, Nov. 21st. It'll be at 5pm in the Gould-Simpson building, room 813. I believe non-students can attend. More details can be found on the club's homepage: <a href="https://sites.google.com/a/email.arizona.edu/ua-video-game-developers-club/">https://sites.google.com/a/email.arizona.edu/ua-video-game-developers-club/</a><br />
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If you are in town, come check it out.Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-7664940998613318412011-08-04T15:20:00.000-07:002011-08-04T15:20:04.108-07:00Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig) ... THE GAME!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>DISCLAIMER!</b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">DO NOT CLICK ON ANY OF THESE LINKS </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">UNLESS</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">YOU DON'T MIND THE SONG BEING STUCK IN YOUR HEAD FOR 15 DAYS. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.kihongames.com/">Kihon</a> partnered with youtube sensation <a href="http://www.parrygripp.com/">Parry Gripp</a>. It was released in app store this morning and can be <a href="http://tinyurl.com/3uaqzn7">found here</a>. Its based on Parry's popular <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_sfnQDr1-o">Baby Monkey youtube video</a>.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING! </b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">KEEP OUT OF THE HANDS OF SMALL CHILDREN </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">AS THEY MAY PLAY THIS CONSTANTLY WITH THE VOLUME ON FULL!</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Parry also released a Game Trailer to accompany the release which you can check out below:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PDwhaWHyDHk" width="425"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>DON'T PANIC! </b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">IF THE MUSIC IS STUCK IN YOUR HEAD IT HELPS TO SHARE IT WITH OTHERS, </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">IT WILL MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER. PROMISE!</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Sooo. What are you doing here still reading? Go download <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/baby-monkey-going-backwards/id447960108#">Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig)</a>!<br />
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</b>Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-87997597273327876552011-07-17T22:00:00.000-07:002011-07-17T22:00:05.595-07:00Would you like to connect? Casually?I am looking forward to checking out Casual Connect Seattle this week. If you have any interest in meeting up, shoot <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/kihongames">@kihongames</a> a tweet and we'll work it out. We should be carrying a demo around of our latest game, which is finished but we are just coordinating some launch details. Hope to see you there.<br />
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Cheers!Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-23576244815968369962011-06-01T06:07:00.020-07:002011-06-01T06:07:00.121-07:001 Year of Sun Turns a Developer into an EntrepreneurJune marks 1 year since I packed up, left my corn-fed Indiana life, and moved to the Tucson desert to make games for Sony. I had the chance to ship one game with Sony, which was an outstanding experience. But unfortunately, the Facebook landscape changed enough during development that the virallity of our game (wildlife refuge) did not stand a chance and we ended up in the red. Turns out, our game wasn't the only one struggling at Sony Online Entertainment and the Tucson studio was closed back in April (along with Seattle and Denver). <br />
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Soooo. Why am I still in the desert?<br />
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Good question. <br />
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Besides the perpetual sun, lack of tornadoes, and beautiful mountains, I also found a job here. I use the term 'job' loosely here as most jobs typically pay money... ;)<br />
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<a href="http://blog.kihongames.com/about/">Myself and 4 colleagues</a> started a game studio we dubbed <a href="http://kihongames.com/">Kihon</a>.<br />
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I am very excited to be a <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/markgrossnickle">partner</a> in this adventure into the world of indie development. I do not think I could have found a more talented, passionate, and enjoyable group to collaborate with. <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/kihongames">Follow our antics on twitter here</a>.<br />
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Nuff of the mushy stuff. I plan on writing more on Kihon. Feel free to drop any questions below... What would you like to know about making mobile games, about starting a studio, etc. I'll try to be as transparent as possible.<br />
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Cheers for reading!Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-22992434813154100912011-03-27T12:06:00.004-07:002011-04-12T16:10:56.865-07:00Do Positive Reviews and PR lead to Being Featured in the App Store? ( Part 2 )In <a href="http://blog.ickydime.com/2011/03/do-positive-reviews-and-pr-lead-to.html">Part 1</a> I decided to follow <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/superbrothers-sword-sworcery/id424912055?mt=8">#Sworcery</a> and see if positive reviews and pr could lead to being featured in the App Store. <br />
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As I stated before, this is by far not a fool proof case study since I do not know if #Sworcery is doing any advertising in conjunction with their PR. <br />
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With that disclaimer out of the way, lets see how #Sworcery is doing. Last we looked they were not in any of the list: top apps, featured, staff pick, hot, or new & noteworthy.<br />
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Today the landscape has changed for #Sworcery... drastically. Right off the bat, they are listed as 3rd on the TOP PAID iPad Apps list. 912 Ratings at 5 Stars... wow! Scrolling down... they are listed #6 on the TOP GROSSING ipad Apps list. OK, lets check featured. New and Noteworthy for all apps? Nope. Staff Favorites? Nope. Wait a sec... there it is scrolling in the top banner. iPad Game of the Week! Ok, so its the game of the week, but its not in the New and Noteworthy. Interesting. Moving on to What's Hot. Nothing. Not even in the banner. So it went from no where to the top charts and it is not considered Hot... interesting. Lets check out the Games Category. Featured and in your face, top iPad Game of the week showing up in the top banner. Also, #1 under New and Noteworthy. Ok, so it wasn't noteworthy for all Apps, but apparently very note worthy for games. Strange, since other games appeared in New and Noteworthy for all Apps. But anyways, moving on to What's Hot for Games. Nope, not there.<br />
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Ok, in summary:<br />
#3 in Top Paid Apps<br />
#6 in Top Grossing Apps<br />
Displayed in Banner for 'Featured' and in the Games Category as iPad Game of the Week<br />
#1 in the Games Featured list<br />
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Not to shabby. Hell, that is freaking awesome for them. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Idiocracy - Zach Braff" src="http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb115/pace0ne/idiocracy-i_like_money.gif" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</tbody></table></div><br />
Do I think the PR, reviews, and general buzz helped them get featured as iPad Game of the Week? Of course I do. Can I prove it? Unfortunately, I can not. Without access to the 'GateKeepers' at Apple, no one can. <br />
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One could argue that this game is spreading due to the twitter integration which is there for ANYTHING you click on. I personally haven't seen many tweets on it, but apparently others have as <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/hilarygoldstein">Hilary Goldstein</a>, Editor-in-Chief at IGN recently posted:<br />
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<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Starting to feel like</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;"><a class=" twitter-hashtag" href="http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23sworcery" rel="nofollow" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="#sworcery">#sworcery</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">tweed are zombie chants. I see one and it's like, "They got you too!"</span></blockquote>I am sure that has helped. Do a quick <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/search/%23sworcery">search, results keep trickling in</a>. It is an endless stream of free advertising goodness. They are owning the word 'sworcery' in the seo world and its working to their favor. Regardless of whether it intrigues twitter users or pisses them off (due to spam) it is drawing attention to the game. <br />
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Ok, so that is one aspect outside of traditional reviews/blogs that is helping their numbers. What about word of mouth? Do people enjoy the game? I would think most of these people tweeting enjoy the game... otherwise they wouldn't post it on their wall. But tweeting in game content is not quite the same as telling your friends that this game is awesome, go check it out. Judging by the fact that 852 of the 915 ratings are 5 stars, I think it is safe to say this is getting positive word of mouth. Only 25 Four stars. 9 Three Stars. 2 double stars. And 23 singles. That is incredible!<br />
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I honestly don't get it. Maybe I am not far enough, but I find this game extremely boring. Sorry. I respect the fact that it is indie. I think it has a cool art style, yet I am not enthralled by it. Music is great, A+ there. But as a game, its flat out boring. Lots of clicking and panning. Just not my cup of tea I guess. I would have given up on it long ago if I hadn't spent 5 bucks and wasn't writing this blog series. I'm going to keep clicking my way further and hope the game opens up into something more fun. But for now, I would tell my friends to not waste their money. <br />
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Anywaaays, 852 Five Stars? Top iPad Game of the Week? I guess I am in the minority on that one. I'll be interested in seeing if a majority of these initial reviews are from people who have been following the game for awhile and have bought into the buzz. Now that it is featured and mainstream, I wonder if the majority of future buyers will appreciate the indie flair. I suspect Part 3 of this blog series will look closely at the reviews and any changes in the charts. Can the game maintain its position or was a just a burst? That insight may just help us deduct just how #Sworcery made it into the featured list and onto the main stage. Stay tuned. And as always, share your thoughts below.<br />
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*UPDATE*<br />
I don't see the need to post a part 3. #Sworcery's reviews have stayed strong, dropping just slightly under a full 5 stars. Apparently I am in the minority and my theory that their ratings would drop have been debunked. They have fallen out of the top 25, but I would not be surprised if they jump right back up there when the iPhone version is released or if they even choose to run a special below the 4.99 mark.<br />
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In summary, I believe the reviews and PR helped, either by getting them noticed by Apple or getting them noticed by the masses and then by Apple. A solid product, twitter integration, and great community relations also played a major role from my outsider viewpoint.<br />
*UPDATE END*Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-39041442483457209072011-03-23T21:44:00.004-07:002011-03-24T09:25:18.142-07:00Do Positive Reviews and PR lead to Being Featured in the App Store?I had an interesting exchange w/ a guy from <a href="http://www.g4tv.com/">g4</a> who claimed:<br />
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"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">The way mobile games are priced, they're typically an impulse purchase vs. someone seeking them out based on coverage."</span><br />
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That made me stop and think a bit. <br />
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Ok. I can't argue that once a game is in front of someone's face its not an impulse buy. BUT, it can only be an impulse buy when its in the checkout lane, not when you have to ask the store clerk what aisle its in. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="320" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3420/3374899743_b15b85e2c7.jpg?v=0" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="240" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Where are the swedish fish!?</td></tr>
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The holy grail for many app developers is to become a Staff Pick, Featured, and then ultimately hit the Top Charts. Once you do that, then you have the impulse factor working in your favor. But this all occurs well after the snowball has already started down the hill. The real question is how do you get noticed by Apple and hit one of those lists?<br />
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Going back to my initial conversation, could reviews and positive PR lead to being Featured in the App Store?<br />
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With that question fresh in my mind I started noticing <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/untoldent">chatter</a> about "<a href="http://www.swordandsworcery.com/">SuperBrothers: Sword and Sworcery</a>". Do a quick search, there is a fair amount of <a href="http://toucharcade.com/2010/03/11/gdc-2010-sword-sworcery-ep-the-most-amazing-game-ive-seen-at-gdc/">buzz</a> about the game online. <i>[insert <a href="http://live.lmgtfy.com/">LMGTFY</a> link here... ]</i> <a href="http://wireless.ign.com/articles/115/1157373p1.html">9.5 from IGN</a>. Now that is nothing to sneeze at.<br />
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OK, so we have positive PR and positive reviews. Lets check out the top iPad apps... its not listed. Featured? Nope. Staff pick? Nope. Hot? Nope.<br />
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Ah, Release date is tomorrow. Hmm, that is weird. I still was able to purchase it. (downloading now)<br />
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So I am wondering, can their positive PR and Reviews lead to being featured? Lets watch and find out. Its not a fool proof case study... not even close. I don't know if they are advertising. I don't know if a staff member will feature this game because they like it, without even reading a review.<br />
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Still, I find the exercise interesting.<br />
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If you see any advertising for the game, please let me know. As well as if it hits any of apple's charts. <br />
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I'll be keeping an eye on it and will report back what I find. In the meantime, my download is done so its time for some sworcery.Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-17614250146323948162011-03-11T10:04:00.000-07:002011-03-11T10:04:01.635-07:00The People Have ChosenThe People's choice for Hackathon came down to a photo finish. Winner, gets <a href="http://www.fdt.powerflasher.com/">FDT Max</a>. Runner-up, joins the rest of the participants and receive <a href="http://www.fdt.powerflasher.com/">FDT Pure</a>. (thx <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/BrunoFonzi">Bruno</a>!)<br />
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Voting was done by using the game's MochiPop score (how often they are played over time). You can find any game's MochiPop by searching for the game via <a href="http://www.mochigames.com/">MochiGames</a>.<br />
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When voting came to a close, we had 2 games tied in first at 59 MochiPop: <a href="http://www.mochigames.com/games/new-continents/">New Continents</a> & <a href="http://www.mochigames.com/games/disaster-manager/">Earthquake</a>.<br />
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I gave the contestants each 5 days to break the tie by pimping their games and encouraging people to play. At the end of the five days, both games improved their MochiPop, but one game more so than the other.<br />
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Our winner of Stanford's Hackathon Game Competition's People's Choice 2011 (haha, how long of a title can I make this??) is <a href="http://www.mochigames.com/games/disaster-manager/">Earthquake</a>!<br />
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Congrats to the winner and congrats to all the participants who will now receive a free copy of FDT Pure.<br />
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Thanks to everyone for participating, playing, judging, supporting, and just being Benevolent.<br />
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Ok, I promise, no more blog posts about this competition! ;)Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-31460734350851380492011-02-25T09:17:00.001-07:002011-08-06T12:56:24.574-07:00And the Winner is...<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The judges have spoken and the votes have been tallied. It was a very close competition, cheers to all of the entries! Below are the top three winners from the <a href="http://dm.stanford.edu/flashgames">Hackathon Game Competition</a>. If you participated and I have not yet reached out to you, please send me your contact information so I can put you in touch with our sponsors. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">My contact: ickydime[ at ]yahoo.com</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>THIRD PLACE WINNER</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">: </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #dedede;"></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/disaster-manager/" style="clear: left; color: #36a0fc; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: underline;"><img alt="Earthquake" border="0" src="https://sandbox.mochiads.com/c/g/disaster-manager/_thumb_100x100.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.199219) 0px 0px 0px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #222222; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: transparent; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: transparent; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: transparent; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; position: relative;" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: black;"> </span></div><a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/disaster-manager/" style="color: #36a0fc; text-decoration: none;">Earthquake</a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #dedede;"><a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/disaster-manager/" style="color: #36a0fc; text-decoration: none;"></a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">$50 donated by <a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">Mochi Media</a></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Featured on <a href="http://gameschart.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">GamesChart</a> </span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br />
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</b><br />
<b>SECOND PLACE WINNER</b>:</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #dedede;"><a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/mercy/" style="clear: left; color: #36a0fc; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Mercy" border="0" src="https://sandbox.mochiads.com/c/g/mercy/_thumb_100x100.png" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.199219) 0px 0px 0px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #222222; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: transparent; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: transparent; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: transparent; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; position: relative;" /></a><br />
</span></span></span></span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #dedede;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #dedede;"><a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/mercy/" style="color: #36a0fc; text-decoration: none;">Mercy</a></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #dedede;"><a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/mercy/" style="color: #36a0fc; text-decoration: none;"></a></span>$100 donated by <a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">Mochi Media</a></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"></a>Featured on <a href="http://gameschart.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">GamesChart</a> </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"></span></span></span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><b>GRAND PRIZE WINNER:</b></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #dedede; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/food-bank-delivery/" style="clear: left; color: #36a0fc; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: underline;"><img alt="Food Bank Delivery" border="0" src="https://sandbox.mochiads.com/c/g/food-bank-delivery/_thumb_100x100.png" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.199219) 0px 0px 0px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #222222; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: transparent; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: transparent; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: transparent; border-top-left-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: initial; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; position: relative;" /></a><br />
<a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/food-bank-delivery/" style="color: #36a0fc; text-decoration: none;">Food Bank Delivery</a> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">by Jacob Grygowski</span></b></span></span></span><br />
</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #dedede; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/food-bank-delivery/" style="color: #36a0fc; text-decoration: none;"></a></span></b>One Master Adobe Suite donated by <a href="http://blog.theflashblog.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">Lee Brimelow</a> & <a href="http://www.adobe.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">Adobe</a></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">One Pro License to <a href="http://gamebuilderstudio.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">GameBuilder Studio</a> (once it is released)</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Feature Review by <a href="http://jayisgames.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">JayIsGames</a> </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Featured on <a href="http://gameschart.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">GamesChart</a> </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></span></div></div><div><br />
</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><b>ALL PARTICIPANTS</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">:</span></div><div>This includes the above winners along with: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/new-continents/">New Continents</a>, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/the-feeder/" style="text-decoration: none;">The Feeder</a>, and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/pyc-pair-your-charity/" style="text-decoration: none;">PYC - Pair Your Charity</a>.</span></div><div><br />
</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.fdt.powerflasher.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">FDT 4 Pure</a> donated by <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/BrunoFonzi" style="text-decoration: none;">Bruno Fonzi</a> of <a href="http://www.fdt.powerflasher.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">FDT</a> ($129 value).</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Invite to Private Beta to <a href="http://gamebuilderstudio.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">GameBuilder Studio</a> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Single Developer License to <a href="http://hybridmindset.com/blog/PushButton-Engine-Isometric-Component-Released" style="text-decoration: none;">Push Button Engine's Isometric Component</a> ($50 value). </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Recognized as Hackathon Supporters and projects will be displayed/promoted in our official records and online releases.</span></div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>Voting Continues for People's Choice award. We will announce the winner for People's choice at the beginning of March.</div><div><br />
</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Thank you to all of the judges for taking the time to thoroughly play and critique each game and thus make this event a success: <a href="http://www.8bitrocket.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">Jeff Fulton</a>, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.8bitrocket.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">Steve, Fulton</a>, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://blog.iainlobb.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">Iain Lobb</a>, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.bit-101.com/blog/" style="text-decoration: none;">Keith Peters</a>, and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://blog.gamingyourway.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">Squize</a>.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div>Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-91781634542269523782011-02-20T17:54:00.000-07:002011-02-20T17:54:13.990-07:00New Job: Going Freelance / Indie (Game Development)Roughly two weeks ago I parted ways with Sony. It was a short ride, but very fruitful. My exit was on the best possible of terms and I have been told the door is always open to return... which is the ideal situation whenever you part ways. I believe my exit went smoothly mainly because I made sure I stayed on board with <a href="http://apps.facebook.com/wildliferefuge/">Wildlife Refuge</a> all the way from start to finish and waited until we were in a stable maintenance mode before I made my departure. I highly recommend making every possible effort to tie up any loose ends and meet any previous obligations before departing ways w/ an employer... although I realize that can not always be done.<div><br />
</div><div>Anyways, I learned a great deal from working with the Tucson Studio and feel I am much better prepared to face the gaming Industry. Without Sony & the people I worked with there I do not believe I would have the confidence I do today to go into freelance/indie game development.</div><div><br />
</div><div>I can not speak about current projects at the moment, but I am sure I will open up more in the near future.</div><div><br />
</div><div>If you are working on any games (iOS Mobile or Flash), feel free to hit me up: </div><div><a href="http://twitter.com/ickydime">Twitter</a></div><div><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/markgrossnickle">LinkedIn</a></div><div><br />
</div><div>Cheers!</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div>Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-47605889600789387612011-02-16T00:33:00.004-07:002011-02-17T02:13:39.854-07:00Vote Now for Stanford Hackathon Game Competition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></div><a href="http://dm.stanford.edu/flashgames">Stanford Hackathon Game Competition</a> has come to a close. The entries are finalized and I just now sent the entries to the judges. I will contact the winners and post a blog post as soon as the votes are tallied, which may not be until late next week.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, we need to determine the People's choice. The People's choice will be awarded <a href="http://www.fdt.powerflasher.com/developer-tools/fdt/buy-now/">FDT 4 Max</a>! The way we will determine the winner is by using MochiPop:<br />
<blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">MochiPop is a game popularity index which scores games based on a range of network data such how many plays the game has been getting. </span></blockquote>Basically, you vote by playing the game you like the most! Since MochiPop is calculated over time we will let the voting continue until February 28th. At that point we will freeze the MochiPop and calculate our People's Choice. <br />
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Here are the entriess:<br />
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<a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/pyc-pair-your-charity/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="PYC - Pair Your Charity" border="0" src="https://sandbox.mochiads.com/c/g/pyc-pair-your-charity/_thumb_100x100.png" /></a><br />
<a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/pyc-pair-your-charity/">PYC - Pair Your Charity</a><br />
<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/disaster-manager/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Earthquake" border="0" src="https://sandbox.mochiads.com/c/g/disaster-manager/_thumb_100x100.jpg" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: black;"> </span></div><a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/disaster-manager/">Earthquake</a><br />
<div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div><a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/food-bank-delivery/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Food Bank Delivery" border="0" src="https://sandbox.mochiads.com/c/g/food-bank-delivery/_thumb_100x100.png" /></a><br />
<a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/food-bank-delivery/">Food Bank Delivery</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/mercy/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Mercy" border="0" src="https://sandbox.mochiads.com/c/g/mercy/_thumb_100x100.png" /></a><br />
<div><br />
</div><a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/mercy/">Mercy</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/the-feeder/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Feeder" border="0" src="https://sandbox.mochiads.com/c/g/the-feeder/_thumb_100x100.jpg" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/the-feeder/">The Feeder</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/new-continents/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Thumbnail for New continents" src="http://games.mochiads.com/c/g/new-continents/_thumb_100x100.jpg" /></a><b></b><br />
<a href="http://www.mochimedia.com/games/new-continents/">New Continents</a><br />
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<b><br />
</b><br />
Cheers to everyone who took the time to partake in this charitable game competition... from the developers who entered, to the judges, to the sponsors. We greatly appreciate all of the hard work! <br />
<br />
<br />
</div>Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-7030189685757546412011-02-01T11:35:00.000-07:002011-02-01T11:35:23.135-07:00More Reasons to Code!<div style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Barry White of <a href="http://gameschart.com/">GamesChart</a> recently passed along the press release below. Being that he is a sponsor of <a href="http://dm.stanford.edu/flashgames">Hackathon's Game Competition</a> I am more than happy to share. It also appears that you can reuse the same game or at least a variation of it for both competitions... thus more motivation for knocking out a Benevolent game by the 13th! Good luck to all who enter, looks like there are some nice cash prizes for the winners:</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">----------------------</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><a href="http://www.come2play.com/">Come2Play</a> and the<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=121017"> Linkedin Flash Game Developers Grou</a><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=121017">p</a> are launching the 2nd 'Games that Challenge the World Contest' for multiplayer games. Cash prizes totalling $10,000 will be awarded to contest winners!!</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Prizes:</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">1st Place - $5,000</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">2nd Place - $3,000</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">3rd Place - $1,250</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">4th Place - $750</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Contest Genre & Judging:</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">The contest genre is 'Casual Games' and submissions will be judged on the following criteria:</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">* Multiplayer playability for new and return players</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">* Replay ability of the game</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">* Design, sound and effects</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">* Concept and execution</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Developers keep all rights to the games they submit and even previously released games can be entered. </div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span>There was only a handful of entries to last years contest, so the chance of winning a serious cash prize is very high. Check out the winning entries of the 1st 'Games that Challenge the World Contest' here: <a href="http://bit.ly/gKLqz6" style="color: #7799bb;" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/gKLqz6</a> - If you've got a multiplayer game and you think you stand a chance of winning, why not submit your game now!</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><br />
</div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><span>Full competition details available here - <a href="http://bit.ly/GCWContest" style="color: #7799bb;" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/GCWContest</a> </span></div>Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-28315110609941773322011-01-25T01:30:00.000-07:002011-01-25T01:30:01.631-07:00Free FDT 4 Pure & Chance at Max!<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The Flash community continues to impress w/ its generosity as <a href="http://www.twitter.com/brunofonzi">Bruno Fonzi </a>of <a href="http://www.fdt.powerflasher.com/">FDT</a> added to our list of goodies for <a href="http://blog.ickydime.com/2011/01/flash-game-competition-stanford-adobe.html">Hackathon's Flash Game Competition</a>.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">FDT will donate a <a href="http://www.fdt.powerflasher.com/">FDT 4 Pure</a> licence to ALL participants. This is a $129 value. Combined with our previous prizes that means you get roughly $180 in software, private beta software, and free PR just for ENTERING the <a href="http://blog.ickydime.com/2011/01/flash-game-competition-stanford-adobe.html">competition</a>. Since the free prizes are piling up I did add an additional rule: </div><blockquote>You can be disqualified from receiving any prizes if your game is deemed to be not compliant with the spirit of this event.</blockquote><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">That rule was added in case someone uploaded something completely un-related to the competition and slap a Hacakthon tag on it and ask for a handout. </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">But Wait... There's More! Act now and we will throw in a free knife set! ;) Just kidding about the knife set. But seriously, there is more. <a href="http://www.fdt.powerflasher.com/">FDT</a> will also be donating a <a href="http://www.fdt.powerflasher.com/developer-tools/fdt/buy-now/">FDT 4 Max license</a> worth $699 dollars! We created a new category for this prize: The People's Choice and community voting will occur shortly after the deadline.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">That brings us to well over 3000 dollars in winnable prizes and that doesn't include the 180 dollars in prizes for all participants. You really can't go wrong here... make a charitable game and we will hook you up!</div></div><div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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</div>Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-83467687345207124852011-01-24T12:56:00.000-07:002011-01-24T12:56:53.483-07:00More Free Software & Prizes for all Game Competition Participants (thx to GameBuilder Studio)<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Lavon Wood, of <a href="http://gamebuilderstudio.com/">GameBuilder Studio</a>, just donated a very generous offering of software to All Participants. Just create a charitable game and you are in! This software includes the following:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">- A Private Beta invite to <a href="http://gamebuilderstudio.com/">GameBuilder Studio</a> (available to all entries after the competition)</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">- Single Developer License to <a href="http://hybridmindset.com/blog/PushButton-Engine-Isometric-Component-Released">Push Button Engine's Isometric Component</a> ($50 value). This is Available now! All you need to do is validate that you are entering the competition by e-mailing me with your game concept and contact information. Then either myself or Lavon will send you instructions so you can use this immediately. My contact: ickydime[ at ]yahoo.com</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://gamebuilderstudio.com/">GameBuilder Studio</a> also beefed up the Grand Prize by offering One Pro License to <a href="http://gamebuilderstudio.com/">GameBuilder Studio</a> (once it is released) to the winner! </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Please check out the full list of prizes, rules, and general information on the competition <a href="http://blog.ickydime.com/2011/01/flash-game-competition-stanford-adobe.html">here</a>.</div></div><div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><br />
</b></div></div></div>Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-31821539922230963112011-01-21T04:55:00.034-07:002011-01-21T15:10:05.800-07:00Free AS3 Game Code!For those of you who want a jump start on the <a href="http://dm.stanford.edu/flashgames">competition</a>, head over to Iain Lobb's blog and grab the source code that <a href="http://blog.iainlobb.com/2011/01/free-flash-game-source-code-win-adobe.html">he is graciously giving away</a>. Even if you aren't joining the competition, you should definitely check out his code. He was the technical reviewer on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Guide-Flash-Games-Entertainment/dp/1430226145">The Essential Guide to Flash Games</a> (which basically means he knows his stuff and then some). <br />
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I am continually impressed by members of the Flash community like Iain. He has taken the spirit of the competition and has ran with it. The Benevolent Bug is spreading! ;)Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4986374366022158451.post-6139837709536787252011-01-20T06:26:00.027-07:002011-01-20T06:26:00.433-07:00More Prizes/Support for Hackathon's Flash Game Competition<a href="http://gameschart.com/">GamesChart</a> graciously volunteered to place the three winning games on their featured chart. I updated <a href="http://blog.ickydime.com/2011/01/flash-game-competition-stanford-adobe.html">yesterday's competition announcement</a> with the updated prizes. <br />
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We also have had some nice PR from <a href="https://www.mochimedia.com/community/forum/topic/flash-game-contest-stanford-adobe-mochi-jig-and">MochiMedia</a> and <a href="http://jayisgames.com/archives/2011/01/hackathon_includes_flash_game_competition.php">JayIsGames</a>.<br />
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If you or your company would like to get involved with supporting or promoting <a href="http://dm.stanford.edu/flashgames">the event</a> (or <a href="http://dm.stanford.edu/hackathon">Hackathon in general</a>), please contact me at: ickydime { at } yahoo.com.<br />
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Much love for the Flash Community right now...Ickydimehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09441385865959854926noreply@blogger.com0