Last month was very productive in terms of mobile game development. I remember, I started in January with a goal to write simple game for my little daughter. This was after a month a have bought Mac. XCode was installed in order to install developer libraries (my primary work related to Python development, and sometimes I need GCC and libs to build something from sources).

And now I have 3 applications approved in App Store.

My previous experience covers IDEs starting from Turbo C/Pascal from Borland, Delphi, Sybil for OS/2, MS Visual Studio with .NET, Eclipse - now I use IDE build on it - Aptana. First mobile application was build 10 or so years ago - it was "Pocket Trader" built with VB .NET for Windows Mobile 2003 or so. I wonder, that right now I can unzip sources and build it again ant it works.

XCode looks like any other IDE. The primary problem I faced off was requirement of Apple Developer Keys/Certificates to sign applications. This is remains true even for debugging, not only distribution. Only iPhone/iPad simulator can be used to debug application if you have no certificates. First I tried to get an answer in Web "how to build ios application without certificates". Web has many answers, hacking and patching XCode, etc. The truth is that this will never allow you to distribute your application. So I calculated time spent surfing the web and realized that it is better to just sign up and pay $99 for membership. I used Payoneer MC card, and emailed filled form to Apple support (normally they ask for fax, but it is no fax here and they gently accepted emailed one). It is nothing hard in this process even I live in Ukraine :)

"Cococo" is my first game built with Phonegap framework. Phonegap installs as a framework into XCode and provide project template. This template creates blank application and my only work was to write HTML, CSS and JavaScript to make it live. I have spent 1 week (about 20 hours) to write "Cococo" game. The goal is to crack egg by taping on it. Game uses basic/HD images for different iPhones and plays sound effects (SoundPlug plugin for Phonegap used to play sound without delay, look for it on GitHub). Game sources can be found on GitHub.

Second game idea I found on weekend and game was done in 2 days - this is "Chpock!" - popping bubbles time-cutter. It is also build with Phonegap. Game sources can be found on GitHub.

One unexpected task, which takes about half of a day is preparing application for submission into App Store: application should have 512x512px icon, description, screenshots (retina screenshots is better than regular). It is also require to propertly build application in XCode - specify right certificate, build for archiving, etc.

Third game is build with Corona SDK. I found it occasionaly on YouTube. It was screencast from developers about building game with baloons. Fast animation and physics from box - this is amazing things in it. Phonegap use JavaScript as runtime and it was a problem for me to create so-so animation in my previous games. So I switched to Corona SDK, have bought Indie subscription. No, another order of events: I downloaded installer from their site, created new project in it with game presets, simulator shows great performance; I found an idea of game; and then have bought subscription. $200 is not so big money, but after all this is my work, so I try to spend it wisely.

So "Chick: cross the road" was done in a week (20 hours) and +2 weekends (10 hours or so). I realize, that this affects my performance on primary job. Now I see, that my working time was divided on to halfs - 20 hours for job and same for own project. It is not so obviously when you're in progress. Week gone and I looked on salary and it is half of regular (I work now on hourly-payed job). This is bad for mood. But the good thing happens after a week - app is approved and available in App Store. This is great.

Conclusion? Heh, here in my Documents folder I have >10 projects. I described only 3. Other is not work in progress, it is for experience. Novice and experienced developers often seeking for "silver bullet" idea to earn $1 000 000. The truth is that simplest application can win where monster will fail.

Second screencast about mobile game development using Corona SDK.

It covers common task - create a scene (view, level) where gamer choose level from list. It is common pattern widely used in many games. I try to explain meaning of events (scene create, enter, etc) and event handlers. Example shows select level function.

Screencast is in Russian.

This is my first screencast about iOS (iPhone/iPod/iPad) game development using Corona SDK framework.

Screencast is about game project creating and project layout; game levels and scenes; display objects and physics engine. Screencast is in Russian.

"Chick: cross the road" is an educational game for kids. The goal is to learn road crossing rules, traffic light options and help small chick to pass the road.

It is best played with mother or father (you :) ). So you can explain meaning of pictures and traffic light colors to your kid. Game has a demonstration level, where chick waits until green light is on and then pass the road.

Here is gameplay demo video:

Corona SDK is looks a great toolkit to create nice looking game for iPhone (and aof course, other iOS devices). I started with it not so long time ago and it's rocks.

Here is a modal dialog module I shared on gist: modal.lua
Native "real" modalbox native.showAlert() is also good. But when I need to show user additional information, or style dialog it needs something other. So why it's here.

Usage is quite simple:

showDialog("You completed the level. \n1st place.", "Next level", "level2", beforeNext)

It uses two butons - Menu and Action. And can do something work before changing scene. Dialog don't use any external images, and it's code is tiny. So customize it if you need.

Example:

"Chpok!" is time-cutting game for iPhone / iPod Touch / iPad. It's available in App Store for free.

Screen of your device become a packaging tape with bubbles on it. Pop it with your fingers and relax. Sound of bursting bubbles is real. Say stress "go away"!

"Cococo" is educational game for young children. The goal is to hatch a chick from egg. All player need to do is tap on egg till crack it. It runs on iPhone 3GS / 4 / 4S with iOS 4.3 and later. It is mostly will work also on iPad.

I created this game for my little daughter, as she likes a big red bird on my t-shirt (yeah, you know where red bird make pigs scare ;) and she put finger on it and says "Cococo".

Game available at App Store and free.

Grouplo (United Kingdom, Czech republic) is a business portal, "free trade zone" for P2P business. It offers to users a business space with offers, inquiries, auctions, tenders, group deals. Both business and personal accounts are able to sell, buy, manage contacts (CRM) and build business network. In Czech Republic it has been launched in August and already has 58 000 registered users on site.

I worked on this project for last 3 years.

I worked in a team of 5 members. My responsibility was to work on server-side code (Python and Django framework), full-text engine configuration (Sphinx search) and front-end part (JavaScript JQuery framework, AJAX, valid CSS and HTML).

* Service build to operate under heavy load.
* It is more than 130 tables in DBs.
* Data stored in 3 databases.
* Full text search uses Sphinx indexer engine (developed by Andrew Aksyonoff, Rambler RU).
* To reduce SQL server load used Memcached engine (developed by Brad Fitzpatrick)
* Regular tasks performed with CRON jobs are:
- messages dispatching
- XML feeds import with information about goods and services
- live news feeds import

In this project also used several 3rd party APIs:
* PayPal payments and Instant Payment Notifications
* Facebook users API and Facebook application FBML
* Google Maps API
* Google geocoder services
* YouTube videos

I would like to share my free-time project. It is just for fun.

This is web based simulation of OS/2 Warp 3.0 operating system. You can find sources at Google Code - os2online.

Web OS/2 Desktop heavily use AJAX requests and DOM manipulations to open programs and windows. In fact, it is mostly JavaScript application, and less Python and Django code in it.

A little screenshots:

Desktop with several windows on it.

Windows 3.11 session.

And internet browser from IBM - "Web Explorer" (it is 1994 guys).

Live instalation can be accessed here - os2.in

Feedback and code reviews are welcome.

Web 3.0 is near. It's only waiting on new technology. Technology which will turn on 1-click user experience. I mean more ease to share personal information, events, ideas etc. This one will utilize voice control to publish text-based information, camera (mounted near eyes) to share pictures, geolocation - to tell friends current position. Most of this gives to us smartphones today, can answer you. Yeah, I agree. But it is still not easy, not handy, not "on the fly".

When you want to post you should to take your iDevice, open software, tap message and then send it (this is the easiest way now, in harder mode you should look for wi-fi, login, etc). It's easir now to save idea in paper then in web, really :) Share photos, etc are mostly same. You cann't tell your camera "take me this pretty girl and place in my Facebook page", isn't it?

This is task for hardware to be ready for Web 3. Why hardware, asks you. I think, current software is ready. We have instruments to develop, open standarts to present information. HTML 5 is text, photoes, video and social ready. It is widely used already. Now time is similair to pre-Web 2: it have had people and software ready and only waited on technology to make it. In fact high-speed nets and cheap Mb-s done Web 2.0