I have to admit that I’m still working on the Game Design Document. Something which I thought would take only a few days has grown to incorporate minute details alongside gargantuan fundamental gameplay concepts. This document is essentially Tetris in written form: piling on concept after concept, attempting to make it fit together before the whole thing becomes too unwieldy to manage.

While work on the GDD should finish this week – Matias has stated that this Friday is the absolute deadline – I’m finding the time to explore other related areas of app development. In my last entry I spoke to Mills, one of the founders of ustwo, a growing independent mobile content studio.

Mills provided me with some revealing data in terms of development costs and sales. Looking at ustwo’s costs for app development relative to the revenue that they generated led me to think about how I could lower our own development costs while increasing the app’s desirability.

I’ve managed to find three different solutions that add value to our app and cost either very little or absolutely nothing.

Recycle That Code

Recycling and reusing code is a tried and tested convention in software development, particularly in the game industry. When you write a piece of code once – for example a game engine for a first person shooter – why spend time and money writing it again for the sequel? It’s far simpler to copy, paste, modify and deploy.

Working for a game developer a few years back, there were times when I noted that code recycling wasn’t necessarily in the customer’s best interests. In particular, I remember a top-down shooter – in the style of Grand Theft Auto – recycled as two different titles. The artwork was redrawn, the in-game dialogue was chopped and changed, but it was quite clearly the same game.

We plan to be a little smarter in choosing how and where we redeploy certain pieces of code. The PearComp coders, Matias, Markus and Ben, are currently working on Facebook and Twitter integration for the game. The plan is that, from within the game, players will be able to post their high scores to the two social networking services.

Facebook and Twitter posting is the value-adding feature du jour. Being able to link an app to these services provides a seamless connection between a user’s social life and the app in question. For games in particular, it’s a great way of enabling players to shout about their achievements while generating publicity for the title among their social connections.

In effect, the code that the PearComp team have created for the game can be re-used for future iPhone app developments. It’ll benefit some of PearComp’s clients, plus it’ll cut costs, and save time and resources.

Find Your Voice

John J. Dick is a voice actor and DJ who happens to be pretty badly in debt. His biggest gig was working on Serious Sam, an explosive shooter for hardcore gamers. John’s husky vocals helped flesh out Sam, the game’s main man: an alien destroying, gun toting, time traveling mercenary.

Back in the real world though, John’s debt has become such a problem that he’s come up with a cunning way to bail himself out. John has decided to offer his voice acting talent at an incredibly competitive rate: $1 per word.

Commissioning John to record a few words for the game was an easy decision – it cuts costs for sound recording and should save us some time later in the project. Having John’s name, and by extension Serious Sam, attached to the project could also make for some fun PR when we launch.

Collaborate & Communicate

In the previous installment of the App Developer Diary, I found out a little more about ustwo’s MouthOff app for iPhone. After speaking to Mills. I realized that there was potential for a really exciting collaboration.

I called Mills back the next day and pitched my idea: ustwo would create a special version of MouthOff featuring one of the characters from our game. We’d take the MouthOff code from ustwo and put it into our app, essentially this exclusive MouthOff would be accessed from within our game.

Featuring an exclusive MouthOff mode within our app adds some serious fun and replay value to the game. It would also garner some added exposure for ustwo’s app. Of course, we’ll ensure that there’s a link to the App Store for players to purchase the full version of MouthOff.

By recycling code, finding a great deal on audio assets and collaborating with an awesome dev studio, we’ve made our game even better without breaking the bank.

Next time: I finally submit the Game Design Document to the coders at PearComp.

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The iPhone/iPod 3.0 OS allows third-party applications to utilize the device’s Bluetooth capabilities for two-player games. The first (and only) application I had that supported this in an update was Flight Control, and since then, whenever my wife and I are on a train, we occupy our time playing this.

The huge advantage of multiplayer Bluetooth compared with Wi-Fi is that you just need the two devices, no Wi-Fi access points or Internet connectivity is required. This is truly awesome, although as we cry, “Arrrgh sooo close!” loudly on public transport we can get some strange looks. We’ve loved playing Flight Control, but I thought that by now there must be a good number of other Bluetooth-enabled games. So I’ve searched the App Store and found the following games are the only ones that support multiplayer gameplay over Bluetooth. This list will hopefully grow soon with more complex quality titles.

Flight Control — 99 cents

Direct planes so they can land without crashing into each other. Each player controls different colors and needs to send the other player’s colors off screen to the other player’s device.

F.A.S.T – Fleet Air Superiority Training — $1.99

For great graphics and a true dog-fighting two-player experience.

Bomberman Touch 2 – Volcano Party — $2.99

Play the classic Bomberman game against a friend in either head-to-head mode, or co-operative mode.

Attack From the Dead — 99 cents

Play with a friend in zombie killing, co-operative mode action.

iSamurai Bluetooth — 99 cents

Swing your phone around like a samurai sword and have a sword fight with a friend.

Showdown Poker — 99 cents

Play poker against a friend.

Showdown Quickdraw — Free

Have a Wild West-style gun-slinging match with a friend.

Tank War – Bluetooth Battle — 99 cents

Battle a friend with tanks in a bitter neon colored war.

Attack – Wireless Bluetooth Space Battle — 99 cents

If you don’t like tanks, maybe you prefer to fight in spaceships instead. Battle head-to-head.

Tic-Tac-Touch: FS5 — Free

It’s Tic-Tac-Toe; what else is there to say?

Touch4 FS5 — Free

Remember playing Connect 4 from your childhood? Relive the experience.

Briscola — $1.99

Play the Italian card game “Briscola” against a friend.

Heads Up Poker 3G — Free

This is another multiplayer Poker game.

SG Mahjong — 99 cents

This lets you play Mahjong against up to four people at once.

Scopa — $3.99

Play the Italian card game “Scopa” against a friend.

ShapeShape — 99 cents

In a game that looks like a cheap knock-off of Rolando, two-player mode lets you race against a friend to finish a level, as well as allowing you to share custom levels made with the level editor.

Pong – iPhone Edition — 99 cents

There couldn’t be a more simple game than pong, the first computer game ever made.

Checkers Lite — Free

The classic game of checkers. Everyone knows checkers.

Combat On Palm — Free

Two player head to head space combat action.

Trivia Wars — 99 cents

Challenge a friend to a trivia content.

Mancala Lite — Free

Play the game of Mancala against friends.

Reversi Lite — Free

Play the age-old game of Reversi (also known as Othello) against a friend.

iPunchOut Boxing — 99 cents

Have boxing battles against a friend by holding onto your device tightly and swinging your fists around.

Speed Lite — Free

Play the card game of Speed against a friend.

Cheap Tactics — 99 cents

Challenge a friend to this simple strategy RPG game.

BattleFrogs — 99 cents

Similar to Battleships, but with frogs on lily pads. Guess where a friend has placed their frogs by throwing rocks.

Bluetooth Hot Potato — 99 cents

Pass the hot potato to other players before it burns up.

No doubt that despite my searching efforts I may have missed a game — or perhaps one has just been released. Let us know your favorite Bluetooth multiplayer game in the comments.

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The great thing about using Apple computers (loaded with OS X of course), is that some of the tasks that can be frustrating and difficult on another operating system are simple and possibly even fun. So assuming you’ve got a handle on using that Mac of yours, it’s probably time to step it up, and work even smarter with your Macintosh. Here are five System Preferences tips that should start you well on the road to becoming a Power User.

Spaces (look for: Exposé & Spaces)

Expand on the workspace available to you, and organize your work all at once. Spaces gives you multiple desktops (also known as ‘virtual desktops’) with which to group your open applications. Some people like to group by activity (work, play, etc) while others may group by application (internet, documents, graphics, etc), and still others may group by project (website, movie, photography). There’s no hard and fast rule that requires you to categorize in any of these ways (I don’t), so figure out what works best for you. Spaces can be configured via the System Preferences application, and you can assign hotkeys and edges of your screen for navigation between your desktops. Oh, and there’s even a twenty-thousand foot view, where you can see all desktops at once, complete with the open windows in each.

Exposé (look for: Exposé & Spaces)

This remains (in my experience) one of the ‘Wow!’ factors of OS X. Exposé gives you the ability to spread all open windows out for viewing at once, application specific windows only, or just move them all aside to check out the computer desktop. As with Spaces, you can assign hotkeys to trigger these actions, or (as I’ve done) use the corners of your screen to initiate Expose. When there are a lot of windows open at once, Exposé can make it infinitely more powerful to find what you’re looking for in short order. As mentioned in Spaces, you can view all desktops at once — couple with Expose=é (using hot corners) and you can view all open windows on all desktops too!

Keyboard Shortcuts (look for: Keyboard & Mouse)

Using keyboard shortcuts (also called key-bindings or hotkeys by some) such as CMD+S for saving, CMD+C and CMD+V to copy and paste (respectively), and so on, should be at least vaguely familiar to everyone. While many applications have settings which allow you to assign key bindings to certain app-specific actions (both Spaces and Exposé do, for example), the Keyboard & Mouse Preference Pane lets you review and assign operating system-wide hotkeys. (Further still, are third-party programs like Quicksilver that let you set Trigger actions that can be mapped to any system action and key combination you choose.)

Multi-Touch Gestures (look for: Trackpad)

To preface, this one’s only for the MacBook and MacBook Pro users. Other than setting your Trackpad preferences, there’s not much to configure here. It’s most useful to look at the different Multi-Touch gestures that you can use to perform different actions. For instance, you can rotate images in iPhoto and Preview by twisting two fingers, or navigate forward or backward in Safari. Though the one item I will point out is the “Screen Zoom” listed under “Two Fingers.” Setting this up allows you to zoom in on any part of your screen when combining a key press and two-finger ‘scroll,’ which can be very useful (and cool).

Preference Pane Plugins (look for: “Other” section of System Preferences)

The core functionality of OS X can easily be extended (even more) by third party System Preferences add-ons, which are called Preference Panes. The options are seemingly endless, and I find myself doing a lot of house-cleaning to keep it from getting out of control. But a few highlights that you may like to look into further are Growl, Hazel, TextExpander, GeekTool, and iStat Menus.

These five tips have only focused on leveraging your System Preferences. By no means do you need to embrace all of these tips at once, but be aware of them. Over time you’ll gain a level of comfort and add to your repertoire of ways that you can interface with your Mac. Before you know it, you’ll be doing things on your Apple computer that will cause friends to stop you, and inquire as to how you did it. Consider yourself, Power User.

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This week, Glu Mobile’s latest game The Dark Knight: Batmobile Game for iPhone went live on the App Store. In the game, players get to direct the Batmobile through a difficult street path filled with twists and turns as well as jump sequences with the goal of getting Batman to Gotham City as quickly as possible. The game uses the iPhone accelerometer to further excite playability as well as 3D graphics for an enhanced visual experience.

The Dark Knight: Batmobile Game

Players experience the power behind the 2.5 ton Batmobile as they drive it through a series of high-powered jump sequences to get Batman through the streets of Gotham City as quickly as possible. Unlike a typical racing game, you don’t actually ‘steer’ the vehicle, but use the iPhone to apply speed boosts, fire the weapon (on a limited basis), and align the Batmobile correctly when performing a jump. This does make it very easy to pick up and play, but after a few plays you may find the gameplay a little limited.

There are some impressive graphics, and the game re-creates the eerie feel of Gotham City well. Likewise, the Batmobile bears an excellent resemblance to the model featured in the film.

Glu Mobile

Jill Braff, Glu’s senior vice president explains that:

The launch of The Dark Knight: Batmobile Game represents the variety of games we’ll be bringing to the iPhone and iPod Touch in the coming year, which will include original titles and licensed games and a range of gameplay depth

I’m looking forward to seeing future releases from Glu, as I feel that they’re just starting to perfect gameplay on the iPhone. A version with greater depth and additional maps would be welcomed, but the Batmobile game is a good sign of things to come. It also marks the beginning of ‘Glu Snax’, a category of games specifically designed for th iPhone that combine addictive gameplay at a low price point. Glu Snax titles deliver iPhone consumers a “quick, engaging and affordable game experience.”

If you’re able to gain a ‘perfect’ score, it opens up a bonus round. As you can see, I still have a little way to go before I unlock the extra level! The Dark Knight: Batmobile Game is a very good example of a game which utilizes the devices’ accelerometer and 3-D graphics well, but you do get what you pay for. It would be too good to be true for the game to have several levels and true player driving control for only 99 cents. The game is now available to iPhone and iPod touch consumers via the App Store.

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Having done quite a bit of traveling for our move from Pennsylvania to Washington state, I was inundated with advertisements for ways to keep business cards, documents and travel receipts electronically organized. Unfortunately, none of these products worked on the Mac. In my quest to get organized and also to prepare for tax time I searched for an equivalent all-Mac solution and here’s the combination that has worked best for me.

Step One: The Hardware

I debated for quite a while on whether I should buy a new scanner since I already own a decent multi-function device. I suspect that many readers do as well and, while I cannot say that a special scanner is absolutely required, I do need to point out that receipts can be tricksy little items. There are no fixed/standard sizes and you never know when or where you will need to turn them or other paper items into digital documents. With that in mind I sought out an inexpensive, compact, Mac-friendly device with TWAIN support and settled on the Pentax DSmobile 600:

Pentax DSmobile 600 Scanner

While Mac support was a key factor, I wanted something that was highly portable (it comes with a travel bag) and that did not require external power – the Dsmobile 600 is powered solely through USB (cord provided). I deemed TWAIN support critical since I wanted to ensure compatibility with existing software and I hoped that my receipt-organizing solution would support this standard as well. I bookmarked the Pentax (I did not want to spend $115-135USD on it before finding the key element in my quest) and pressed on.

Step Two: The Software

While a specialized software package was not absolutely necessary – one could use a manual solution composed of a well-crafted Numbers spreadsheet, organized directories and decent file naming conventions – the goal was to make this task easy. Since my receipts were already somewhat disorganized, introducing more manual tasks into a new process would doom it from the start.

After an exhaustive search trough Google, Version Tracker, MacUpdate and many forums (including our fine forum) I settled on a $39.95 program called ReceiptWallet, developed by Scott Gruby.

The most basic description of ReceiptWallet is that it is a document organizer & repository similar to Papers in that it can store almost anything you throw at it. This makes it great for user manuals or other items you just do not wish to transcribe. While it can store everything, the true power of ReceiptWallet lies in the ability to import, interpret, itemize, report on and export financial data associated with receipts. After playing around with the demo version, I was confident enough in the software to warrant the purchase of the Pentax (it turns out that the model I chose is also one recommended by the developer – always a good thing) and a license for ReceiptWallet and started organizing my paper mess.

Working With Receipts & Documents

When you first start the program you create a new “library” that is either used for organizing documents or receipts. Each library type presents unique fields with which to categorize entries. Receipts have an associated merchant, amount, method of payment and potentially itemized entries whereas documents have titles, categories, URLs and other taxonomy elements. Fields are completely customizable in any library you create, but I suspect most users will settle on the defaults provided by the author.

ReceiptWallet Main Window

My main goal was to manage receipts so I began with a receipt library and started scanning any merchant slip I could scrounge. The software does an admirable job when attempting to discern the date and amount of the purchase. It is no easy task since every receipt is different and the condition that some where in was far from optimal. After taking a guess, the program allows you to make corrections, itemize any detail you wish to capture and tag the entry with a note. Again, you can add more fields to accommodate any level of detail required (e.g. department number, employee number, etc) and all this captured data is available via built-in reports and can be exported in a formate that most spreadsheet and financial programs can read.

Adding a receipt

Not Limited To Scanning

Organizing paper receipts was my primary goal but it turn out that that task is only part of the story. Much of what I/we purchase today is either delivered electronically or at least has a receipt which is delivered on-screen or e-mail. While OS X provides a handy “Save PDF to Web Receipts Folder” option in the Print dialog, ReceiptWallet lets you take this one step further and lets you create Droplets for each library as well as ReceiptWallet itself. Rather than hunt around in e-mail or use Spotlight to find old receipts or even license keys you can put those documents/elements right into an organized database with full searching & reporting capabilities, all by just “printing” them! The software would be worth it for just that feature alone. Imagine having all those Amazon, Apple Store, eBay & PayPal records immediately accessible or never having to submit a replacement request for a lost license key. Remember, though, that the software is not limited to receipts. You can save any HTML page or any document from any program as PDF and store it directly in an organized document library within ReceiptWallet.

Integrating It Into Your Personal Workflow & Mindset

ReceiptWallet doesn’t come with a magic wand that will turn you into an well-organized life form. You will need to find the best way to integrate it into your daily/weekly workflow. That’s easy for electronic documents and receipts but requires a bit of discipline at first when dealing with those bits of paper you quickly tuck away into bags or pockets each week. I suggest using a physical drop box where you place any receipt from any purchase during the week and then designate some small period of time during the week to process the data from the past seven days. That way you have a focused task for brief period time that is long enough to mentally allocate without considering it a distraction (which would probably be the case if you performed the task daily).

The title of this post includes the word “budget” and ReceiptWallet can be a powerful tool when it comes to helping develop and stay on a budget (which is one of the best ways to get started managing your finances). If you are diligent in scanning, importing & itemizing your expenditures, then you will know just how much you are spending on, say, groceries in general or even specific items and use that to change behavior (if necessary). You’ll know and have a record of anything that you can deduct from your health spending account (if you have one). You’ll even get a good picture of what you spend each week on eating out (this can be a real eye opener). You can use all this data to develop a baseline of what you think you should be spending and then use it to keep yourself honest. I guarantee you’ll save enough in one year to pay for the cost of the scanner and software if you use it to create and stick to a budget.

One final feature that I’ll mention (there are more facets to the software than I’ve touched on) is that the IRS (for those in the US) will also accept scanned receipts as evidence during audits, and ReceiptWallet makes it simple to keep solid backups of all your key data in the event the government comes-a-knockin’ at your door.

If you’ve been using ReceiptWallet for a while or have come across another solution for organizing your receipt and document mess, please drop a note in the comments if only to help the next pilgrim in search of the best means to getting his/her life in order.

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