...which is probably about right all things considered. I wish I had more time to devote to hobby game developing. However, I'm not going to let that stop me from doing it here and there. Priorities. =)
I wanted to mention today that JSTileMap can be found on github here. It's reasonably useful, though it could be better. (Yes, I am a perfectionist, and the first thing I do is criticize my own work!) I should be bragging just a little -- it was used in iOS games by tutorials, and is one of my larger projects that I've developed and released out into the wild. And hey, I guess I can say that now I'm published! =) If you're doing anything with SpriteKit and TMX maps give it a look.
I've started this evening going through iOS games by tutorials and plan on looking at it for the next month or two, hopefully firming up my next project's ideas. I'm still toying with making a platformer in addition to the AI work I'd like to do that I mentioned in my last post. I'm not going to lie, life will be busy and time will be limited. We have 4 children's birthdays in the next 4 months (Nov, Dec, 2 in Feb) in addition to a family reunion, halloween, a baptism, thanksgiving (twice), christmas, possibly a trip back east and another trip south with my parents. Oh, and a cocoa conference I'm going to this weekend, with the possibility of a startup weekend in there somewhere. And that's just off the top of my head, on top of everyday life. Going to be busy!
I am hoping for a great Christmas break though, where I can get a day or two of coding time in. I hope to have a bunch of planning done by then so I can crank out some good code.
Anyway.
If you're interested at all in iOS 2d programming, it would be worth your while to check out SpriteKit. I've skimmed the first half of iOS games by tutorials and it looks very well put together for both beginners and advanced users. The former for learning, the latter mostly for reference.
One other thing I should mention is an interesting company called apportable. Assuming I actually get a game done and polished enough to release, I'm going to seriously consider using apportable to release on android as well. And I think they are working on an ouya style port which could be darn cool as well.
Lastly, I'd like to link to an article about a guy I've been following on twitter for a couple of years. He is known as @thegamedesigner and released a whimsical game called Electronic Super Joy. Even if you're not a big gamer, his story is a very interesting one, and definitely worth a read. Drop him a few pennies if you like what he's doing!
Good times ahead!
p.s. I've started trying to have more of a real presence on twitter (rather than re-tweets and links mostly, though that's still a lot of what's there). You can follow me if you're so inclined @slycrel for more about what I'm thinking about on a more regular basis regarding coding and game design.
