After MIX-MAX which will get a v1.1 update soon to fix a bug in the ABC mode follows iEgg for iPhone, a free App to send virtual Happy Easter greeting cards to your friends! Try it out!
Am 22. March 2010, In Allgemein, by Steffen Itterheim
Am 17. March 2010, In Allgemein, by Steffen Itterheim
Get it while it’s still free (until March 22nd)!
I worked on MIX-MAX from January 18th to March 12th 2010. Overall i recorded 95 hours in Acunote or 190 Pomodoros. More realistically it was likely a little more than 100 hours because i didn’t track the final polish phase as accurately and helped to overcome the usual App Store submission & iTunes Connect issues.
Initially i scheduled the project at 80 hours which was realistic until two late change requests added an additional 20 hours on top of it. It was to enable changing the language in all screens and we had to add a few more animals, which meant that the animals could no longer be neatly numbered from 1-26 (A-Z) in code. That meant that i had to change the data format so that animals from each language could refer to the counterpart in the other language even though they’re stored at a different index internally, since, for example, the Jellyfish is called “Qualle” in german and starts with a different letter. As a consequence i had to refactor a good amount of code and re-test everything.
There are two conflicting facts i extract from this:
A late change during software development is a lot more expensive than if the change were introduced in the design phase or an early stage of development. That unfortunately lead some to believe that excessive up-front planning is the way to go and created some of the most dreaded software-engineering practices of mankind (aka Waterfall combined with extensive documentation). Up to the point when Agile Development first showed up and embraced change.
What is more important is what Mary Poppendieck once said: “A late change in requirements is a competitive advantage”. And it is, in this case it made MIX-MAX a better product.
Am 7. March 2010, In Allgemein, by Steffen Itterheim
This is just a quick update about who i’m working with.
For one, since i’ve started working as iPhone Freelance Game Developer i’m working with Ravensburger Digital GmbH who you should know primarily as board game developers. For their “Digital” department i’m working on a number of iPhone projects, one kid’s game is close to being submitted to Apple and there are 4 more projects in the pipeline, primarily aimed at kids.
But that doesn’t stop me from taking on even more work. I was delighted to have caught the interest of Playmesh, creators of iFarm and iMafia. I’m working on a small iPhone project for them, i can’t really say anything about it but i’ll post it here when it’s released.
So much for that. On a side note, i’m rewatching every Monty Python episode and movie. Keeps me sane. 
Am 3. February 2010, In Allgemein, by Steffen Itterheim
I’m proud to announce that as of today i’m a member of Dr. Touch’s Core Team. Oliver Drobnik aka Dr. Touch is most reknown for his iPhone Anti-Crack technology and a celebrity to iPhone developers because of it.
As the Dr. Touch Team we will evaluate the numerous App programming requests Dr. Touch receives due to his popularity and outstanding references. We’ll then pick the projects most suited to our abilities and available time and create a proposal.
Personally it gives me a great opportunity to broaden my horizon towards Cocoa programming since so far i’ve specialized on cocos2d programming. But i’m also sure that eventually requests will come along that are a perfect fit for a game engine like cocos2d. From a business perspective i also appreciate the option of creating an additional revenue stream, one that can fit the gaps between bigger projects since the requested projects are typically developed in just a few days.
Am 2. January 2010, In Allgemein, by Steffen Itterheim
The iPhone project “51 Japanese Characters” on behalf of Peter Machat is now available in the App Store (iTunes Link) for free! This is my first, self-published project in the App Store and it feels fantastic! More commercial projects will follow, one is already finished and only waiting for the go-ahead of the publisher who will use it as a launch title for one of their projects. What exactly that project is will soon be crystal clear (hint, hint).
51 Japanese Characters also has a Flash website www.51characters.com on which the App is based upon. In the iPhone version you can also combine and create your own characters and send them to your friends via e-mail. You can also select specific characters to learn more about them in 3 languages (english, german, japanese).
The development time was rather short, the layout took the most time and one of the more difficult problems was the integration of “In-App E-Mail” because the cocos2d engine requires a bit of “trickery” to be able to use regular built-in Cocoa objects. At some time during development the App was over 8 MB and took about 35 MB of iPhone memory to run but i was able to save a lot of memory by creating several Texture Atlas with the help of the Zwoptex tool. The App is now only 4 MB in size (uncompressed nearly 6 MB) and uses just about 20-25 MB memory at most. Still there can be occasional problems like flickering loading screen and slow performance but these can be alleviated by simply rebooting the iPhone/iPod Touch. This means once again that the device’s free memory has been reduced by other badly written applications or development builds so that a reboot of the device will be necessary. Unfortunately, all Apps will have to deal with such issues sooner or later.
I would like to state that i take great effort to ensure that my Apps are free of memory leaks. I wish other developers would be just as diligent which is why i recommend the static code analysis tool from Clang. This article and its comments describe how it works and most of all how to get it to work with iPhone projects. The results are absolutely eye-opening and you should run an analysis after every larger step in development so that you don’t find yourself needing to fix hundreds of (potential) memory leaks at the end of the project and having to consider one after the other what to do with it and how to fix it.
Lastly, I would like to show you some impressions and screenshots of 51 Japanese Characters:
It can’t be long before the first two titles from me will appear in the App Store. Most likely some time in January and with a bit of luck maybe even this year.
The first project is a game which i built together with my colleagues as Prototype while founding our company. It’s a game with certain addictive Flight Control mechanisms. In space. Saving Earth and the usual. But it’s not as cliche as it may sound. You’ll see …
The second iPhone project is completely developed by myself in cooperation with the artist who made the Flash version. Hint: i’ve already mentioned it here. It’s not really a game but still very fascinating.
The third project will start very, very soon. It’s a contract work for a long-established german company which made games even as early as the 19th century! No computer games back then though. I expect the release not before March or April.
At the moment there are talks about another short iPhone project. The concept is currently being developed. So i can’t really complain about not having enough to do at the moment!
Am 19. November 2009, In Allgemein, by Steffen Itterheim
Here’s a website that I enjoyed (this sounds like one of those spam comments). It’s called 51 Characters and displays some Japanese cartoon characters. You can randomize them. I like them. I think they are cute. And I don’t just post this here out of boredom. 
Am 7. November 2009, In About Me, by Steffen Itterheim
November 2009 – I start working as a freelancer and work for hire. After over 10 years as employee in the game industry it is the right time for me to bring my know-how and experiences to the table and work for various companies and clients. On this website I present myself, my achievements, my references and my vita – in principle everything you need to know about me and will hopefully convince you that I’m the right partner for your project. I would be delighted if you take a closer look at the services I offer and my extensive references I have accumulated over the years.
I am looking forward to you getting in contact with me and to talk about a possible cooperation. Write me an Email or subscribe to my RSS Feed so I can reach out to you from time to time.
