Sunetos, Inc.

I split my available time this evening between Xcode and Blender.

Early in my 90 day wanderings, I skimmed through multiple 3D modeling programs, both free and for purchase, trying to find something I could use. Initially I was turned off by Blender’s interface, but tonight I took the plunge and worked through some tutorials on Blender.org. The Blender User Interface Tutorial gave a good, brief overview of Blender’s user interface style, and the Blender 3D: Noob to Pro wikibook was very helpful as well.

Building complex, beautiful 3D models is probably not on the horizon for me — but being able to make rough models for prototyping is a definite plus, and I now will uninstall several 3D modeling trial applications and reclaim some disk space. There were several other tools that looked good, but for my needs, Blender is plenty good enough.

I also spent time reexamining some OBJ loading utilities I received from Noel Llopsis during his iPhone OpenGL class, and downloaded Jeff LeMarche’s loader class he put up on google code. I am certainly no expert, but I am now understand enough of Noel’s code and Jeff’s code to snarf part of it and roll my own semi-custom loader.

Day T-80 Accomplishments (Thursday, January 21, 2010)

• Became comfortable enough with Blender to generate some 3D models to use in prototyping
• Worked through Mr_Rob’s Blender Hillside Tutorial and built my own landscape file to use
• Played with Jeff LeMarche’s iPhone WaveFront Loader to gain better understanding of OBJ format and usage

I fixed a small problem in my sample code that I found at the end of last night’s session (a wrong data type). It was not hard to find at the beginning of my session tonight, but I would have spent an hour looking for it at the end of yesterday. There is a time to persevere and a time to quit, but I am still new enough to the material that it can be hard to tell the difference.

I spent time tonight reading, learning, and testing ideas, and not too much on my project — hopefully it will pay off over the next few days.

Day T-81 Accomplishments (Wednesday, January 20, 2010)

• Fixed a bug in my skeleton code
• Worked through more tutorials, examples, and sample code, making changes and watching what happened

I was able to spend three uninterrupted hours on my iPhone project tonight in my hotel and finished enough of my prototype skeleton that I know what I need to do next. I hope to be testing the first game mechanic tomorrow night. It is very satisfying to actually make progress, even it is small.

I also realized that some of the choppiness of my first week was my perception of my OpenGL familiarity was wrong. I am still new enough to Mac and iPhone development that my knowledge and skills gained last fall needed more reinforcement than I had been able to give these last couple of months.

Day T-82 Accomplishments (Tuesday, January 19, 2010)

• Working skeleton (very simple) in place to test first game mechanic idea

On my first flight tonight, I moved back to paper and pencil to work through what I really want to do over the next few evenings. I’ve always been much better at sleeping or reading in coach class than writing, but it has been helpful to work within the constraints of a yellow pad and an airline seat.

Even though I was not able to spend as much time on this project last week as I had hoped, I could have been more effective with what time I had. The one thing I will work to correct is to keep my focus tight over several evenings, and not start on something different each time I have a work session. I hope this allows me to get back into the flow more quickly on subsequent nights.

For the immediate future, I will not be able to dedicate one or more full days to this project — so I hope to simulate a full day over the course of several evenings.

Day T-83 Accomplishments (Monday, January 18, 2010)

• Streamlined design for first prototype
• Sketched out thoughts for what comes next

(from WordPress app on my iPhone)

I did not expect to have a huge list of accomplishments this first week, but I am a little disappointed with my progress. I did not have the time this past week that I thought I would, but I needed to have used what time I had more effectively. I bounced between too many different things, and need to focus on one item for several days in a row.

I leave on an 11 day business trip Monday and will spend some of my flight time with a notepad strategizing a way forward. Going on a trip like should provide me with some more focused time in the evenings, assuming the intensity of the days do not wipe out my capacity for thinking.

Day T-84 Accomplishments (Sunday, January 17, 2010)

• Spent time working through some simple blender tutorials

Before spending too much time working with the an engine or framework for simple prototypes, I wanted to see some examples of apps in the store that were built with it. I spent a few minutes downloading and trying several before I decided it was not going to help me in the immediate term, so I shelved it for now in favor of simpler, single purpose tests.

Day T-85 Accomplishments (Saturday, January 16, 2010)

• Slowly improving my OpenGL familiarity
• Some progress on first prototype, not as much as I’d like, but it’s forward motion.

Having a plan to spend quality time each day on my iPhone project has made it clear how much I over allocate my days. I am not discouraged by that, but I do need to manage my time and commitments carefully over the remaining 86 days if I am to reach my goal.

I allocated the first week of my 90 days for playing and thinking knowing that I might not have anything “real” when it was up, so I decided to try one or two game engines to speed up my idea prototyping.

My goal for Saturday is to have a prototype using SIO2 for one game play mechanic, and then try something similar with just OpenGL ES to make a reasonable comparison of my effectiveness with each.

Day T-86 Accomplishments (Friday, January 15, 2010)

• Researched 3D tools and game engines online
• Selected the SIO2 3D game engine to try first
• Tried out some of the SIO2 tutorials
• Dinner, discussions, and a movie with family and friends

After spending a couple of hours this afternoon reading, chatting, and sketching — I now have a clear path of things to try over the next few days.

Clarity and focus are refreshing, a motivation multiplier. I would love to stay up all night working on my idea, but today has been busy enough that my mind is starting to slow down, so I’ll just have to get up early to try some of them out.

Day T-87 Accomplishments (Thursday, January 14, 2010)

• Exchanged some thoughts with Mike Berg (@WeHeartGames) about 3d game controls, thanks Mike!
• Discovered Jeff LaMarche’s OpenGL ES from the ground up series of tutorials, thanks Jeff!
• Started setting up my first OpenGL prototype to try out a key game mechanic, but not quite far enough to actually try my idea yet

Day T-88 Accomplishments (Wednesday, January 13, 2010)

Earlier this evening I spent a little while talking over my game idea with a couple of guys who have bright young minds, and even better, an iPhone and an iPod Touch! Pretty sure they will be two of my early beta testers and that I will get some good feedback from them.

I am thinking through some basic decisions I need to make, even if only temporarily:

• Should the game play and display be 2d, 2d play but 3d-ish looking, or full-up 3d,
• Depending on how 3d-ish the game becomes, what sorts of controls would work,
• Should I be doing straight OpenGL, Cocos2D, or some other game engine.

I downloaded several new (to me) 3d games to explore different control styles (and have fun!). Any suggestions about great controls in iPhone games would be greatly appreciated. About to try these games to see how they manage game controls:

• Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D
• Deer Hunter 3D
• Galaxy on Fire 3D Lite
• Glyder
• Jump Then Fall 3D
• Koi Pond 3D
• MyReef 3D Aquarium
• TowerMadness
• Wolfenstein RPG

Day T-89 Accomplishments (Tuesday, January 12, 2010)

My major accomplishment today was thinking and working on my iPhone project two days in a row! Actually, more than that, I decided to pursue a game idea I had during the 360iDev Game Jam last fall in Denver.

In particular, I spent a couple of hours:

• thinking about the core game play,
• doing very simple sketches,
• reacquainting myself with OpenGL programming on the iPhone.