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The iPhone 3GS was announced last week. It's pretty big news, and really shakes things up for iPhone developers like yours truly.

* New and shiny ARM Cortex-A8 as main CPU running at 600MHz. New chip maintains 100% backwards compatibility with older ARM1176 chips powering original iPhone family - so no worries here.
* New PowerVR SGX chip serving as GPU. SGX family is a huge leap over MBX Lite which we saw in original iPhone. It is faster, has pixel and vertex shaders and supports a bunch of features you would normally get only on your desktop GPUs. It comes with OpenGL ES 1.1 and OpenGL ES 2.0 support too.
* New NEON™ SIMD unit which is a fantastic addition to help in number crunching operations such as mesh skinning.
* Double the L1 cache size and introduced L2 cache - this means speed.

So it seems that it has twice as much ram, a much faster and 'better' CPU, and a really fantastic GPU. We're probably looking at something comparable to the PS2 compared to something closer to the PSone or N64 with the iPhone 3G.

I've decided that, for the foreseeable future, I'm going to continue to target the iPhone 3G as my primary platform. However, it is fantastic to know that there /is/ a platform already distributing that has such great performance. It's also great to know that players will benefit from smoother frame-rates and faster loading in the games I make, so they'll be getting a nicer experience in general. However my games will be principally designed for the regular models.

In other news, I've been prototyping some new games! Some commercial and others not so commercial. Tumbledrop remains a priority though and I'm working hard on things like GUI at the moment. I'm looking forward to working on other projects though, and I'm finding these prototypes to be useful for learning a wider range of skills, especially with making 3D games. For now, however, it's time to work on GUI coding!

It's a well kept secret, but I'm actually quite a geek! ^_~  In order to support my geek-on-the-go lifestyle I have always been the sort to carry chargers for one device or another in my bag. Recently I decided to consolidate this into one small kit that I can keep in my bag at all times.

Okay, so here's what we have:

• Waterproof bag
• USB plug. This transformer with a USB socket has a detachable plug part so that it is less bulky, or can be changed to different countries.
• USB 'A to mini B', with additional 5v plug.  This can charge a PSP, but also anything that takes a Mini-B plug.
• iPod / iPhone cable. It's the old style iPod cable which still works fine for charging the iPhone.
• DS + DS lite cable
• Kensington Rechargable USB battery. This is a rechargable battery with a USB socket in it. It outputs 5v and can charge any of these devices from it. For example, I was able to recharge my iPhone to full in 60 mins and still had more than half of the battery left.

So, just like those girls that carry some spare knickers and a tiny deodorant in their handbag, I too am always ready for whatever might happen!

I'm getting to the point where I'm going to start making weekly builds of Tumbledrop iPhone to send out to testers. If anyone would like to help me test the game, I would definitely appreciate the help!

You need to have an iPhone or iPod Touch. You also need to have access to a Mac, because iphone test builds only work with the Mac version of iTunes. Send an email to tumbledrop@gmail.com with your UDID codeif you're interested. :)

As you can see I have started to add alternative island types into the game. This mixing up the gameplay quite a bit, but the goal is still the same - land on [one of ] the green islands. There are several different island layouts in the game, I'll be showing those off over the coming weeks. :)

(even pandas enjoy Tumbledrop!)

The last month has been pretty crazy! Working on iPhone has been a lot like throwing myself in the deep end, and Tumbledrop has turned out to be lots of work. However, it's all be worthwhile and the late nights have been worth it so far. I've been optimising like crazy, and ripping out masses of code to get the frame rate nice and smooth without compromising the contents of the game.

I'm now at a point where the game itself runs very well, and I'm starting to build the framework around it, as well as working on new levels and features. I'm pulling out all the stops with this game, and it will be quite a departure from the original web version.

So I've decided not to work this evening. Relaxation time is now!

Progress on iPhone Tumbledrop has been slow over the last week. I've been learning a bunch of new techniques, and I'm learning that I'll have to do some heavy changes to my code in order to get the game running how I want it to. This upcoming week will be quite hard work, but I think it will be worth it in the long run with this project.

I finally came up with a company name, with domain name and logo! I won't mention it just yet, but I'll hopefully have something to report soon enough. Of course, I need to find a new webhost so I can build a new website.

On other random topics, I just discovered Busymac which allows me to synchronise Google Calendar with iCal on the mac, which in turn syncs with my iPhone. This is really great for me, and should mean I have a better time using the calendars in general. I should start putting milestone deadlines for my iphone project on there.

Time to sleep before the busy day of work ahead of me!

Tumbledrop 6teen launched on CartoonNetwork.com today! :D This was the first thing I did when I went freelance. It's a version of Tumbledrop branded with characters from the show '6teen', including music and artwork. I am pretty pleased with how this came together. There aren't many changes to the content other than a few bug fixes, and there will be a new version of Tumbledop coming up on tumbledrop.com within a few months.


My mac is one year old now! It's been quite a rollercoaster of a year with me, and my mac is definitely one of the most positive decisions that I made. It wasn't just the mac, but rather it represented sweeping things to the side and starting afresh. It got me into game programming proper, and made Tumbledrop. It got me into making music, and now it's a hobby of mine I'm keen to pursue. It's an awesome machine and something I really enjoy using.

So, speaking of Tumbledrop and Macs, I should get back to working on the iphone version of Tumbledrop. Progress is slow and it's requiring more care than I expected, but I'm getting the quality that I want out of it which is the important thing at this stage. :)

My iPhone came on holiday with me to New York, and it was quite an experience. Even though my phone was crippled by the expensive data charges over there (£6/mb!), it was encouraging to know that I could look up a nearby restaurant if need be. In actual fact this only worked out well once, and more often than not lead us to places that were shut. (sorry about that, travel companions!) Because of the long journeys involved, especially the flights there and back, I developed the syndrome known all too well to keen PSP users, and some laptop users too.

A.B.C.
- Always
- Be
- Charging

The iPhone battery is pretty good, all things considered. The problem is more that I find there is 'too much to do' with the device. Browsing the internet, chatting on IRC, playing games, listening to podcasts, and even making the occassional phonecall... they all serve to drain the battery (especially the games!). This is potentially a bad thing, and I found myself wanting to keep my iPhone charged as often as I could when I was travelling. I also suspect that I'll keep its USB cable in my bag so that I can charge it if I'm ever out on trips or anything. This is a far cry from my old Nokia and Motorola phones, but this is simply because those phones couldn't do anything at all other than phonecalls.

I'm very worried about being one of those guys who is seen to be 'always using his iPhone', and I would encourage anyone to let me know if it comes across that way. I am constantly trying out new things on it, but that's largely because I need to know everything the device can do if I'm going to be an iPhone developer. However at the same time I don't think it's the be-all end-all device, and one of these days I'll share a big list of problems I have with it. However, much like the Mac itself, the overall effect is a device I look forward to using.

Speaking of Mac, I just picked up iLife 09. I spent a while last night using the faces feature to associate people with photos, and it was doing a good job of picking other photos with them in. I'm looking forward to using the Flickr upload feature - I intend to take a lot more photos this year, for that matter. I'm also keen to get stuck into GarageBand 09, which doesn't really have any new features, but the Tutorials look fantastic and just what I need at my stage in learning music.

Got back from New York a couple of days ago. It was an amazing trip and something I'll write up in full soon. Many thanks to Esjay... it was great to meet up after such a long time! Also thanks to Erin, Noah and Ed... the Ninja Consultant and Mangacast people sure know how to dine! Last but not least, I was very grateful to have an amazing selection of travel companions. I hope they all enjoyed it too! So, now I'm back at work, it's time to report what I'm up to...



I just got my first build of Tumbledrop running on the iPhone! I haven't been properly working on the iphone before now, as I had another project to finish off before NYC. I don't have 'clicking' working yet, so I can't actualy play the game, but that's my next thing to implement. For now, however, I'm pleased to have something up and running.

(note: the actual iphone Tumbledrop will look nothing like this! this is just work in progress)

I love my iphone, and I've been playing a lot of iphone games recently, in preparation for developing them. The games are very hit and miss, and not as many hits as I would have liked. It's too easy to talk about the terrible games, such as the horrible version of Katamari Demacy, or the misuse of tilt control or games that require you cover the play area with your hand whilst you play...

So instead I thought I would mention a few games that I DO enjoy.
(I also like that the iphone can take screenshots!)


Name: Wordjong
Price: £2.99
This is a word puzzle with a hint of Mahjongg Solitaire. You have to pick out words from the available tiles, revealing new tiles as you go. The really interesting thing about this game is that it gives you one new puzzle per day, and you're encouraged to get the best score on that one puzzle, rather than playing lots of different puzzles. Everyone who plays gets the same puzzle, so in theory you can compete with other people, but the game doesn't offer any sort of way to share scores. There is a target score to beat, however, and a lot of strategy involved trying to get long words. (I managed a score of 124 on Jan 26th, with longest word being 'Elemental')


Name: Scramboni
Price: FREE!
This is a multiplayer-only game, so you need to make sure you have access to internet on your phone. It works fine with 3G or EDGE wireless too though, so you can play it outdoors. It's a simple game, but pretty compelling when you're playing against twenty other people. (bonus points if you spotted the naughty word in this particular screenshot! XD)


Name: EDGE
Price: £3.49
This game is a little odd. It has a very retro aesthetic, but plenty of modern designer stylings. You control the game by pressing the screen and moving your finger relative, like a virtual analogue stick. This works great because the cube can only move one tile at a time by rocking over, so it communicates your intentions of movement but doesn't act upon them until you are more deliberate. The levels change shape whilst you roll around, and it's very charming in its execution.

It's obvious to me that the iphone is a serious contender when it comes to games, and I think it will start to get some killer apps within the next 18 months. At the same time, what makes a great iphone game is quite different to what makes a great DS game, so there's going to be some growing pains along the way. Exciting times!