Disaster averted

These days, the little crane that could constitutes my livelihood. So it would make sense to take very good care of this product. Well, this morning I almost made a monumental mistake that could have done a lot of damage.

When preparing the 1.2 version update, I had put in some testing code that ignores the purchase made by the customer (the game is free, but customers can purchase extra levels). I was about to upload this version to Apple, when I decided to make one more screen shot of the application. I fired up the game on my iPad to make this screen shot, when I noticed that I could not play the level I wanted to, because it was still locked. That's odd, because I thought I already unlocked the content on that device. Then it dawned on me: could the test code still be active?

If this version had gone live, all the paying customers that downloaded the update would have seen their premium content locked again: argh! And I am not sure if Apple's review would have caught this error, as the in-app-purchase got introduced in 1.0 and I am not sure they will retest in subsequent versions. If they do: kudos to them.

Throughout the years, I have learned that paranoia helps when developing software. A paranoid coder is the best coder. And this is especially true during release time. Anyways, let me conclude with what will be coming in the v1.2 release of the little crane that could:

• Big improvement in frames-per-second for smoother gameplay.
• Added level "tower crane".
• Optimized OpenGL ES2 drawing.
• Faster fragment shader (no branching).
• Fixed stutter when first moving levers.
• Fixed crash when quickly changing the level after you fail one.
• Disabled OpenDE asserts for faster physics computations.
• On iPad, prefer interstitials over banners when available.

In good company

I found a list of quite some illustrious names. My game is mentioned along some real powerhouses like Angry Birds HD free in this list of iPad releases on the website of the independent. An honour bestowed on me because of the little crane that could's ranking as the number 1 free iPad app in the United Kingdom. After many tries, it looks like I finally managed to score a hit on the app store.

The feedback from it is quite overwhelming. A lot of rave reviews, but also a lot of useful criticisms. I will be using the feedback to improve the game for a new release. The runaway success took me by surprise. I had already accepted the fact that I made the crane game to suite my own gaming taste, and that it would probably do poorly on the app store, as it would not appeal to gamers in general. Well, luckily I was wrong.

It also taught me a valuable lesson of demand-pull versus technology-push. Before making 'the little crane that could', I decided to develop for the taste of the market. The game 'jump daisy, jump' was the result. It was the game I thought the market wanted: simple gameplay, bold colourful graphics, easy challenges. The little crane was the other end of the spectrum: a very complex game with a lot of controls. A game I personally liked playing, but which I deemed to complex for joe average. So when in doubt: go with your own passions, not on what you think people will like.

The little crane that could is a free game, so why not give it a try? Get your copy at iTunes.

What I thought the market wants versus what the market wants.

dear mr Jobs

I just sent an email to Steve Jobs. Hopefully he will respond by telling me that Apple will eat its own dogfood.

Hello mr Jobs,

Nowadays my iPad is my primary device.
I am also an iPad developer, and the problem is that I can not use the developer forums with it.

Using an iPad you can only read the forum, but writing a message is not possible, as the input field of the message body can not be activated.
This has been the case since the iPad was released.
I am totally with you on not letting flash polute the device, but I do not think the forums are using flash.

Could you please put some gears in motion so that developers can use their ipad to write a message on the developer forums?

Thx,

   Bram Stolk

Sent from my iPad

Let's get this fire started!

Nice..... it is cold and snowing outside, so the perfect moment to try out the fireplace that came with the apartment. Don't worry: it is pretty safe, as we have both a smoke alarm and a carbon monoxide alarm. Amy and I are settling into our new routines with Annelies. It's harder on Amy than for me, but fortunately Annelies can sleep longer stretches during the night. Last night, five hours or so. Annelies behaves well when we go out. Last night we took her to a poker party at a friend's house, and she slept through pretty much all of it. Bram ranked 3 out of 11 players, not bad.

Births

I have two important birth announcements to make. First there is the birth of a lovely girl named Annelies. And then there is the birth of my private enterprise called stolk.org which offers iOS development services. Exciting times ahead for me, I am sure.

Strolling

This is for strolling with the baby. I thought I would go for the walker, but I compromised, and we got the red one instead. Seven more weeks to go. If it does end up a 10-10-10 baby, then not only would the baby have a binary date of birth, it would have the binary date of birth (101010 in binary is 42 in decimal). Also, the pictures are from my new iPhone4 in HDR mode. For a phone camera, they are pretty good, even in low light conditions.

Jump Daisy Jump is nearing completion.

Almost done with Jump Daisy Jump. Here is a video of the gameplay.

And it has a name: Jump Daisy Jump.

So... the project is coming together slowly. It's time to reveal some more details of my new project. The name is Jump Daisy Jump. Star of it all is an hapless dairy cow Daisy. And yes... she is on springs. Like the little tank that could this game is heavily based on Physics Simulation. In the case of Jump Daisy Jump that would be spring physics. The game is as much fun as it looks. This time I think I will try the ad-supported revenue model, so the basic game will be free. It will be available for iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad.

Sneak Preview

A sneak peek at my new project, which I started today. Are you getting curious? Then keep an eye out on this blog, and see what this iPhone/iPad/iPod app will be all about. The still secret title will be revealed soon.

Performance Tracking

To track the performance of The little tank that could attends Panzer Class in different markets, see below. According to igamestats, it was even the nr 1 free iPad game in Russia for two days... hoorah!

topappcharts.

igamestats

Crib

As of today, we have a crib in our nursery. Amy and I are getting ready for the big event. We've been attending Pregnancy Classes to prepare for it. I'm still scared, but less so. We've also managed to find a nice stroller. And what do you know... it's Dutch Design optima forma. Many thanks to the grandparents who helped us to buy this fancy smancy stuff. Nothing is too good for this future Dutch Canadian Girl. I guess we'll put the remainder of the baby money into a savings account to pay MIT tuition in 2028. Or will University in Holland still be government paid at that time? Amy insists that I speak Dutch with the baby, and that the baby gets two passports.

So about the baby: a girl, due October 29. But as they told us in Pregnancy Class: there is no due-date, more of a due-month. So secretly I hope on a 10-10-10 baby with a binary birth date. The baby moves around a lot inside Amy, and health checks have been good so far.

- Bramy

Set of wheels

I saw this awesome set of wheels in Vancouver. The police force was doing a charity event, so I made a deal with an officer: I donate to the charity, and they let me get behind the wheel of this Ford Mercury. It has a manual gearbox but the shifting is done at the steering wheel, not on the floor.

Vancouver in Oranje

In Vancouver heerste er ook een flinke WorldCup fever. Door de vele nationaliteiten die hier aanwezig zijn zitten de bars vol tijdens de wedstrijden. Het feestje voor expats in Vancouver tijdens de finale was zo populair, dat het niet mogelijk was om binnen te komen. Het zag Oranje van de Nederlanders. Vlak voor de finale kwam ik Miguel tegen, mijn Spaanse ex-collega, dus dat was een mooie photo-op zoals ze dat hier noemen. Tevens op de photo: Bram pruilend na verlies, en Bram en Slavica voor het feestje van het consulaat.

Star Wars in Concert

Niets is zo overweldigend voor een 12 jarig jongetje als de Star Wars saga. In 1982 zag ik samen met mijn broer Robbert een dubbele vertoning van van Star Wars a new hope en the Empire strikes back in het Corso Theater in Castricum. Ik wist niet wat me overkwam. Sindsdien heeft de magie van de cinema me ooit nog zo kunnen overrompelen als toen. Een belangrijke bijdrage in de onderdompeling van het Star Wars universum was in de vorm van de muziek. De genialiteit van John Williams is niet veel minder dan die van George Lucas. Wat betreft George Lucas: ik heb altijd een hekel gehad aan die hetze die het publiek ging ontwikkelen omdat Phantom Menace niet Star Wars waardig zou zijn. Dit vind ik onzin. Phantom Menace is een goede film, en natuurlijk is de indruk van de film op een volwassene niet te evenaren als de indruk van het orgineel op het kind. Als de films in omgekeerde volgorde waren uitgebracht, dan had een flink aantal waarschijnlijk a New Hope verguisd.

Ik heb vanavond Star Wars in Concert bijgewoond in het Hockey Stadion hier in Vancouver. Gepresenteerd door Anthony Daniels, met een volledig symphonie orkest en koor. Wat een genot om die muziek live aan te horen, vergezeld met beelden uit Star Wars. Mocht de toer ook Europa aandoen, dan is mijn advies om dit zeker te gaan bekijken.

Burgerplicht

Wel, ik heb zojuist aan mijn burgerplicht voldaan. Daar ik nog niet bevoegd ben om mijn stem uit te brengen voor de Canadese verkiezingen, heb ik gestemd voor de tweede kamer verkiezingen in Nederland. Per post gaat mijn stem naar Den Haag. Zoals immer, stem ik puur op het programma, met de hulp van de stemwijzer. Blijkbaar is mijn gedachtengoed niet optimaal vertegenwoordigd in de politiek, want de partij waarvan het program het meest met mijn ideeën strookt, heeft slechts 20 matches op 30 stellingen. Ik ben het verst verwijderd van Groenlinks en de piratenpartij met 7 matches uit 30.

Fit

Is it me, or are the people in Vancouver just more fit than the average person? 50000 people are doing the Sun Run, including Amy's sister, Amy's best friend and a bunch of my Slant Six colleagues. I tried to spot Ben, who got seeded, from my balcony, but failed to catch him. However, here are some nice pictures I took. I really like the one of the shadows. It's a somewhat reversed from what you expect: the shadows are in normal perspective, and the people themselves are from a strange angle.