Learnings and Envy from Trainyard

Trainyard is a visually minimalist color-mixing puzzle game about trains. It's simple looking, wonderfully subtle in its challenges, and all around well designed. It's #2 in the US app store at the moment I'm writing this, and on sale for 99 little Lincolns.

So I was pleased to discover this long and informative blog post from the developer, Matt Rix, that talks about Trainyard's development from pen and paper idea all the way to megabucks. Anyone who is interested in iPhone development, or is in the middle of a project, can probably find a nugget or two to take away from this.

I found several nuggets. While I haven't talked about it on this blog at all, I am less than a month away from releasing my first game on the iPhone. I'm very excited, and I enjoy reading about other people who have gone through the same challenges that I have. That being said, I'd be interested to know if a dev blog written during development would read the same as his retrospective. His first app has been an runaway success, even though it took a while before it "popped," and I wonder if he glosses over some of the less inspirational moments.

In my experience, doing an iPhone game in my spare time has been a constant battle between life, from my day job to my girlfriend, and my moonlighting. I'm working on a team with three other full-time employed people, which makes it even harder. A lot of our biggest challenges have been simply moving forward when it seems impossible to coordinate our different schedules and other priorities. Day by day, I often find myself thinking about the game or future ideas when I'm at work, where I have to push them from my mind until later, only to come home tired and uninterested, uninspired. When I wake up fresh the next day it can be frustrating to know the feeling may be long gone by the time I get to work on my game again.

And then there are moments of total elation. Our work has progressed very slowly, so when a new build with significant changes rolls in it's like seeing the game for the first time. It reignites the fire that started this project in the first place. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing ideas come to life.

I suspect our app will not hit #2 in the US app store, but I am still really looking forward to launching it, both to say "look, I made that" and also because I've long been thinking about future games. When we're ready to "go legit" there will be a lot more info about the game available, and I'll be talking more about my experiences right here.

Review: Mirror's Edge (iPhone)

My new review is up at Finger Gaming, this time for Mirror's Edge. The short version is pretty graphics, bad level design, rough edges, disappointing. For the long version, check me out here!

L'Abbaye Des Morts (and Morts! and Morts!)

This one from Locomalito (developer of 8Bit Killer) has been written about all over the place, but I've just managed to give it more than a passing look. It's wonderful. In L'Abbaye des Morts you play Jean Raymond, a monk fleeing the Cathars into a strange abbey. The doors shut tight behind Jean and the game presents you with a maze of rooms spanning the bell tower down to the catacombs beneath the abbey.

The game is simple in it's construction and in its play. You can jump, walk, and crawl. There are crosses to collect and hearts to restore your nine lives, and levers to access new areas. The sprites are beautiful one-color creations, reminiscent of the Commodore 64 era (this from someone who was barely a pupae in those days of course), simply animated and wonderfully expressive.