Development Blog #5

Greetz!

Well, another long and arduous day of game development, so let's get on with the story. Usually before I write these, I like to look over the last one or two I'd written to get my brain back on track with whatever I was going on about prior. Not so, today! So hopefully this will be interesting and not just a bunch of repeat. A noble experiment!

It's been an awfully busy week. I have been hammering away at the prototype of our second iPhone app daily. It's nearly 2 weeks now, since we've had a playable build (and it's gone through two iterations in that time). Still such a long way to go with this one, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I was quite pleased with our progress. The big news is that we are sending out betas quite early at this point (in fact I don't think calling them betas is even appropriate!) but input from testers is quite critical even at this early state. I've got scant feedback so far, and expecting to get a good amount in the coming days. If you are a devoted blog-follower and are reading these lines, contact us (email's on the website) to be considered for inclusion on our beta-test list.

Getting back to what I've said, the game is quite playable now. It's very interesting to see how much has changed with just this project since June, when it was but a germ of an idea! I spend a good several hours playing daily (like I said, hammering!) and my ass, thumbs, and neck all ache from spending so much time with the damned iPhone. I guess all of this is a good sign right!

I spent a good chunk of the week in an office in the valley as well, trying to help some other fellas get a separate startup going. I'd love to see that get moving, as it would make -many things- in life much easier for us all. I won't lie, it's nice being able to devote so much time to the iPhone project, but a little injection of immediate income would certaily be the bee's knees, I will say that! Anyway that's a good and interesting prospect, so it is exciting to watch and see it unfold. If it takes off I will put more details out there about what exactly is the story with all of that, in the meantime it is kinda hush-hush.

Some buddies from Obsidian drove up to Hollywood for a visit on Saturday night, that was a nice gesture! Guys I used to see and hang out with every day, nowadays we are lucky if we get to meet up within 6 months here and there- anyway good to see my bros, I took them to a couple of bars in Hollywood. It was quite an evening, we went to a pretty swanky/douchey place to start the night. Waited in line for a good 20 min (three dudes, none of us with chicks!) and just watched the theatrics play out, there is a good amount of drama at the velvet ropes! The doorman appreciated our patience and let us in without charging us an arm and a leg and we entered the Zoo of Madness - the place was packed and crazy, we made a beeline for the bar and put down a bunch of whiskey, tequila, jagermeister, etc (Trust me. Game development more or less guarantees alcoholism. Living in Hollywood doesn't do much to help!) We got pretty lit and excited hoochie mame/assholeville and headed next door to trashy whoreland (beauty bar). you know, the kinda place which a floor that is usually quite shiny with a mixture of sweat, booze, urine, and whatever else along those lines. But hey, it was more welcoming, the crowd was friendlier, music was much better, we had a good time.

Got out of there and my buddy needed to find an alley to duck into to, errr, relieve himself - some crazy freak was driving by and got really pissed and began yelling at us (I think my buddy flipped him off as he drove by). The guy exited his car, as it was still in gear, his little doggie sticking it's snout of the back window as it tried to comprehend what it's shitfaced master/driver was doing, and the guy started threatening to beat us to a pulp. An older guy, really gruff, really-- almond-shaped, he looked like a 1970's drawing from a Mad Magazine strip or something. I talked him down and he took off, fortunately ("it's okay it's okay, we don't want any trouble") Not that a good fight wouldn't be a great story, but that is not really my style, as I get older I prefer to avoid that kinda trouble rather than revel in it-

I did witness a crazy street fight between some punk and a cabbie about a month ago in Silverlake, the dude ran out of his car (girlfriend still in it) 'cause he was pissed the cabbie cut him off. He confronted the guy at the traffic light and they had it out right there in the middle of the street in the dead of night. Basically, it's not my intention to end up in any kind of similar circumstances - I just wanna make my little iPhone game you know?