Show HN: Learned Objective C as a high schooler and made this iPhone game | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Learned Objective C as a high schooler and made this iPhone game

itunes.apple.com

158 pointsFirecracker48 comments

An old guy here: I too was making video games in high school, but mine never nearly looked as good as this, nor did they ever get this kind of an audience. You don't know how good you've got it :)

Good work and good luck with whatever you decide to make next!

As someone who learned iOS development by myself in high school, I wish I had something like makegameswithus to help me along the way. There were plenty of resources available to learn Objective-C, but I found that one of the major pain-points was getting through the stuff that's not related to code (managing certificates, publishing, managing artwork/copy). Those are still valuable skills to have, but something mgwu seems like it would help a lot for someone who is starting out. Games are a powerful tool to inspire students to create something really cool. Good job!

Agree. While the title emphasizes Objective-C/programming, in this particular example/game, I think the visual/art side is more significant. Good job, indeed!

I'd like to think that the visual/art side is significant in all the games we've helped produce! Check out the one we released right before The Deeps: http://itunes.apple.com/en/app/killah-killah-whale/id5320424...

The thing is so far, none the developers of the 20+ games that we are currently producing knew Objective-C before they started, so the learning side of what we do is important too for many developers.

Thanks! The app store really is an awesome marketplace for creations that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Indeed the art looks solid enough that it makes me want to try it.

Possible design improvements (all can be seen in the last screenshot):

* the color of the text in the top left corner is uncanny, doesn't blend with the rest of the screen, and doesn't provide good readability.

* huge areas like the right side look too patterny. Using something like procedural generation would make it feel much better (see e.g Tiny Wings)

Thanks for the feedback! I handle sourcing and making the art for the MGWU games. Although I didn't directly work on the art for this game (I was recently hired), it is on the top of my list to redo the rocket icons/text. The "patterny" area you are seeing is lava and if you download the game you will probably find that it's slight deficiencies are not as noticeable in actual gameplay - some procedural generation could be great though.

We are into shipping product asap here; The Deeps is an awesome game (really!) and future versions are going to be even better.

> The "patterny" area you are seeing is lava and if you download the game you will probably find that it's slight deficiencies are not as noticeable in actual gameplay

I suppose per your description that it looks better in movement than statically, hence not the best thing to show in the screenshots.

Right, but particle effects and all the other scenery look better in motion too... You're right though. It would certainly be better to show only the edges of it so it looks less like a pattern.

Touché. We'll make sure the screenshots all look great for the next update.

You're claiming to be an "old guy here" and making video games in high-school?

wtf. that's not old. wait till you're in your 50s or 60s to call yourself old.

I think he meant that he _was_ making games in high school but is now "old" (e.g, 50s).

I am 36, and I know that I am not old, but sometimes I feel old here.

Nicely done! I noticed it was sold by http://makegameswith.us/ -- can you elaborate on why you chose them? I notice that they take 30% after Apple takes its 30%, leaving you with just under half of the selling cost as your gross revenue in exchange for help and promotion. How widely have they promoted the game? Your game is also translated into tons of languages; did you need to arrange this yourself, or is that something they helped out with?

Both the founders are alumni from my high school, so that's the connection that started us working together. I was one of their alpha testers, so I got 100%. Even so, I would say that 30% is more than reasonable considering that they provide the art and promotion. It would be easy to get lost in the sea of apps already out there, and their promotion really helped my game get noticed.

MGWU co-founder here, to clarify we take 20c of 99c (30% of the 70c post Apple) so the developer keeps majority :). The localization on iTunes showed up by accident due to the Appirater library (https://github.com/arashpayan/appirater) being localized, will be fixed in an update

Right, that was my understanding. 70% of 99c is ~70c. 70% of 70c is ~49c. 70% of 70% nets the developer 49% of the 99c selling price; just under half.

We'll definitely explain this in a clearer way as we move out of beta. Out of 99c Apple takes 29c and we take 20c leaving the developer with 50c, so slightly over half :)

The game looks fantastic, and I'd just like to say: I love the idea of MGWU. Coming out of an iOS game development course (aware that you don't offer traditional "courses", but still) with a polished iOS app seems like a great deal - even better when your profit is tied to the success of the apps themselves. Love it.

Fellow high school IOS programmer here. This is pretty cool, It's nice that you get help with the art, that is the main thing that keeps me from making games. Instead I just make apps for psychological researchers: http://hume.ca/ix

Hey, we'll make art for your games too! Drop me a line at jeremy@makegameswith.us if you're interested.

A friend of mine, who happens to be a psychological researcher, wanted me to make an app for her team that would allow them to get real-time survey results. Her manager refused to talk to me directly and insisted my friend act as a surrogate, so I called it off.

At least one research group saw a need for this sort of product, and it would be stupid easy to make. Have at it!

Just downloaded it. Curious - from start to app store, how long did it take?

Roughly 3-4 months. I was taking classes at the same time, so I worked about an hour a day.

I've always wanted to learn a language and make a game out of it, but procrastination always gets the better of me (5 years later, I still haven't learnt anything). Congratulations, good luck and keep it up!

Did you learn Objective C as part of your high school curriculum or by yourself in your spare time? I think all high schoolers should at least have an introduction to programming in high school, if not middle school.

I connected with makegameswith.us through high school. I first learned to program in a class freshman year.

Congratulations, Chris! I'm sure Mr. T and Mr. S are very proud, too. The work looks fantastic; Jeremy and Ashu have done a great job getting art assets into place for you guys.

-- A friendly HS alum

Thanks Matt! I'd like to think that I'm putting what they taught me to good use.

I've been trying to learn Objective C and make iOS Apps, where did you learn? Everything I've tried so far has been really, really boring or outdated.

Try going to makegameswith.us! That's where I learned.

Well done. What are your next plans?

With regards to this project, I'm considering making a sequel and an iPad version. Otherwise, I'm pretty busy at the moment, but I have an idea for a bigger mobile project that I'm not ready to unveil just yet...

Did you create the sprites yourself, or did you contract an artist?

I got help with the art and with learning Objective C from makegameswith.us They were awesome in making the whole thing possible.

MakeGamesWithUs (http://makegameswith.us) co-founder here - to clarify, Chris wrote the entire game himself. We just taught him Objective C and did the art (that's what we do). Chris is a rockstar.

I like the idea of MakeGameWithUs, but I don't have any Apple products... do you have any plans to include Android Development, or Desktop Development into it ?

We'd love nothing more than to make iOS development available to non-Mac users and/or have our games be cross-platform. We're working on ways to achieve this but we probably won't be going there for at least a year. In the mean time where there's a will there's a way to get OS X running on your machine.

I'm interested in the case where you provide all the artwork for 30%. I guess it shouldn't matter it is for Android or even the Desktop app, right?

Also, please make signing up available for people without facebook or any other soc.network website account.

Spiffy! Could you expand on how makegameswith.us helped you in the development process?

For sure! They helped guide us through the process of learning Objective C with Cocos2D, and lent a hand if we ever got too stuck. Also, they provided the art to complement our code and published the game out on the app store.

Did you look into any other frameworks besides Cocos? I just taught myself Objective-C this year and love it so far. I'd like to get into making games next and it seems Cocos is the the most popular/recommended so far.

I actually ended up using Kobold2D for the final app since it uses automatic reference counting. It works pretty well, but in my experience with tilemaps, somethings can be broken and require workarounds.

Do you have any gameplay videos or promotional videos?

MGWU art/marketing dude here...Thanks for asking. Gameplay videos will most certainly be part of our promotions package in the very near future (read: probably a YouTube channel). In the meantime, I can assure you that this game is legit and future updates will make it well worth your investment.

how much have you made off this game and how long has it been in the app store?

The App has been out for a couple of days. Apple's sales reports are delayed for yesterday so we're not sure how much Chris has made yet. While it was free it made top 25 puzzle and arcade games in 3 stores and top 100 puzzle and arcade in a couple more including the US!

It has actually only been out for a few days. It was free for the first couple, and the app made it into the top 50 puzzle games in the US and onto charts in some other countries. Following that, I decided to make it paid. The numbers for paid downloads are still rolling in, but it looks promising.

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