iphone Game development - Game ON

To realize my dream of awesome game development(iphone for now), I am posting my learnings here so its easy for anyone interested to get started:

Tech stack for game development:
  - Mac laptop (running Snow leopard. Intel based only)
  - Xcode - IDE like eclipse
  - Cocos 2d : gaming engine library (built on top of C based open gl )
  - Box 2d : physics engine(optional)
  - Objective C : much like C++ progging language
  - Graphic designer (hire a freelancer)

Other:
  - App store account ($100/ year registration)
  - Provisioning profile (kind of license which should be there before deploying to app store)
  - Motivation : money, self satisfaction, something i can give to the world and keep my self engaged

Risks:
    - Initial learning curve. Best to follow some samples and get the basic stuff running to avoid disappointment
    - Game ideas can be copied. You will quickly loose revenue
    - Users may not like the game if its paid. (So release free with ads + paid)
    - Is it worth the time and money?
    - Stress, work life balance? (No pain no gain)

Learn Cocos2d
    Justin Dike tutorial (best material for starters)
    Sample game starter kit  (paid, but i think its worth it)

If you are here and have similar interests and want to join me in designing awesome games, please give me a shout. Group learning and coding is fun

Read More

Ibastis mappings

Gotchas with Sybase
1. Getting error 'JZ0SM: Unsupported SQL type 0'

I've not seen Sybase require this, but DB2 needs the type for null

values.  In general it's a good idea for portability.  MySQL is a

little loose with what it accepts, for better or worse.

2.  If you are using jconn3. driver, ensure you set the sybase jdbc url with
    &DYNAMIC_PREPARE=true
Without this jdbc query may silently fail even with precision errors.

More http://old.nabble.com/ibatis---Sybase-String-problem-td22554502.html

Read More

jQuery - take 2

Its been a while i used jquery + javascript (mostly into boring GWT as it takes ages to convert java to script)

Lucky i got back into jquery work now. Will be posting more findings here. This post will be dedicated for all the good jquery plugins i evaluate

The good thing about jquery is its plugings which can be easily integrated. But the question is what is the best of the lot and its version compatibility (as some cease development or are hobby projects ):

Jquery tools: Tabs + validator + tooltip + date inputs (the usual requirements - all in one) - ceased development, but saves you from looking around for handling these features.

Blackbird : Debugging console for jquery. Look no more for debug tools as its the one. Its like log4j with console.

Read More

Mobile app mania - Phonegap vs Titanium

Sandeep: want platform independent Mobile apps?
Sandeep: Trouble trying to build interface for different mobile platforms
          - iOS - bitten by enigmatic xcode UI designer
          - Stuck with android complex xml for simple UI layout
?
God: Use HTML + css for frontend.. with phonegap plugin to call the native API.
Trade off: No native look and feel. but HTML +css should do most of the time

Choices: Phonegap or Titanium
Have used phonegap, but limitation is that it is browser based and only one web view so cant do cross domain site based apps. [edit: There is a child browser plugin for that]
yet to figure out how titanium works(though it sounds promising for native view)

Here is some comparison to start with:
http://developer.appcelerator.com/blog/2012/05/comparing-titanium-and-phonegap.html

And man started creating platform independent apps ...ha ha haah

Read More