Unseen Things
Unity 3D and iOS Development
Running over clowns? There’s (about to be an) app for that
Dec 13th
Sparky the Road Clown, about a good clown gone bad, is available immediately in the App Store as a Universal App for $0.99 — here’s the gameplay trailer:
It’s running over clowns and available now in the app store — what more do you need to know? 
For press inquiries, contact us +1-919-886-7336 or press [at] unseenthings.net
BadgerSpot: My latest project
Sep 26th
What is a BadgerSpot?
I haven’t posted much here lately because I’ve been very, very busy with a very, very neat project called BadgerSpot. It’s an augmented reality location-based social networking app. I know that’s a mouthful, but here’s the short version: Anywhere you go, you can use it to create a virtual message board tied to that location. That’s the core functionality. We’ve also got some fun characters that jump out of boxes (that will tie into a character collection function not too far down the road), a large gun you can put on your arm (well, that’s what it looks like, anyway!) and a number of other fun things in the works.
Screenshot of us keeping our graphic designer in check with our augmented reality gun in BadgerSpot.
What can you do with a BadgerSpot? More >
How awesome is your iPhone app, really?
Apr 28th
A lot of things seem like a good idea at the time, and the program *always* works right especially if the person using it is the one who programmed it, right? Of course not…getting fresh eyes on a project is more than a good idea; it’s essential.
Why feedback?
As programmers, we get so wrapped up in seeing an app evolve from a vague idea into into a real game that we often miss a critical element of the process — user feedback. It’s essential for you to get your app into the hands of people as early as possible (even earlier than you think!) to get feedback from them. It’s been said that “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy” — and while our end user/test subject certainly isn’t the enemy, it’s pretty likely that they’re not going to use the app the same way that we would. The longer you’ve worked on something, the more it becomes second nature — just like years of Photoshop use builds a strong and fast proficiency with Photoshop, all the time you’ve spent working on your app will often blind you to basics or things you missed (like the word “test” in the text field for the user to enter some data — oops).
Make Your Game a Purple Cow
Apr 14th
Seth Godin points out in his Purple Cow book that no one will pull over, take pictures and call their friends to see a cow that looks just like all the other cows you’ve ever seen. However, if you were driving along and saw a cow that was purple… you’d have to stop and check it out, call your friends, take pictures, etc.
Check out the Disgruntled Fowl App!
With all of the apps in the app store today, it’s not enough to make one more Angry Birds clone. Or one more block dropping clone. Or one more doodle jump clone. Or one more… well, you get the idea. Seth defines a purple cow as something that’s remarkable — and his definition of that is simply that someone will make a comment (or a remark) about it to someone else.
People think that taking a successful idea and copying it will give them success. In some limited ways, they might see a little bit of return on their investment, but for the most part, you never hear about “that fantastic new game that’s identical to but not nearly as nice!” because most clones are not nearly as nice. The games that really stand out and do well (both in a hurry and long term) are games like Tiny Wings.
More >
Old School Code Review – Pen & Paper
Mar 31st
Every once in a while when I get to a certain point in a project, I like to back up and make sure I’m not missing the forest for the trees. That’s when I print out a lot of code and head for the coffee shop.
Forest for the trees
Getting down and dirty in the code and living in the code editor is what programmers really enjoy doing, but it’s good sometimes to take a few steps back. I start by identifying all of the major pieces of code (if a class has only has a few lines and one function, I can probably skip it for this review) and make sure I’ve got a stack of paper in the printer. Next, I make sure that whatever IDE or editor I’m using supports syntax highlighting when printing because not all of them do. When I’m programming with Unity, this typically means UniSCITE which has syntax highlighting in both code and print and supports highlighting the various keywords and comments and things like that. Of critical importance is that comments and comment blocks are colored, preferably in a color like green that is still readable but doesn’t just jump off the page. You want your code to jump off the page at you, not your comments. If your editor prints out page numbers and filenames on each page at the top or bottom — all the better.
Sparky the Road Clown – Evolution of an Idea
Mar 17th
When I tell people I’m making a game about running over clowns, I invariably get the “wow, how on earth did you come up with that idea??” look and/or question. This article will trace the evolution of that idea, the gameplay and the graphics from a silly name to a finished game.
Just a name
The name Sparky the Road Clown is actually a name I’d had in my head for years. When somebody would cut me off in traffic or something like that, I’d say something like, “Hey, Sparky- nice driving!” or “Watch it, Sparky!” and I imagine a lot of other people say similar things. Over time, I associated Sparky and road craziness and I came up with the name Sparky the Road Clown and even came up with a little backstory: he used to be Sparky the Rodeo Clown but had since gone off the deep end and became Sparky the Road Clown. This name (and the concept of rodeo clown to road clown) stuck in my head for several years before iPhones were even around.
Fun and profit from a game still unreleased
Mar 3rd
Welcome to my first #iDevBlogADay post — I hope it’ll entertain and encourage you as to how projects that haven’t seen the light of day can still be profitable. This is where we start:
1. Make Game
2. Don’t release it
3. Profit!!
Wait, that’s not how that scenario typically goes, right? Well, stranger things have happened…
The Name and the Game
It all started about a year and a half ago when I started working with Unity 3D and had a name in my head — Sparky the Road Clown. I wondered what I might be able to do with a name like Sparky the Road Clown such as, would it be a game like frogger but with a clown? Would he stand in traffic and mock cars as they went past? That was my initial idea, but it didn’t sound like much of a game. Eventually, I decided that it would be a showdown between clown and car in a dark alleyway. My 6 year old son was a big part of the inspiration, and the initial conversation went like this
me: do you like clowns? him: nooooo
would you like a game about clowns? nooooooo.
what if you were running them over? <pause> yeeeaaah!
From there, I got in touch with a couple of talented friends who were happy to bring my vision of clown vs car to life by doing the artwork and doing the voicework with me doing the programming. The gameplay itself continued to evolve over time to where it’s at now, which is still based on the “joust” type premise — you get one shot at the clown per round. You hit him, or you don’t, and the round is over. Score is based on how far you knock him each round (either by hitting him with the car, or with the large spinning mallet on top of the car) multiplied by how many unique items in the level that you’ve knocked him into over the course of the game so far (that doesn’t reset each round). But all that’s not important right now.
What is important for the focus of this post is that A) it’s nearly finished and B) while it’s not released yet, it’s still helped to earn some income. As for A, we should be going to the app store within the next few weeks. Sparky the Road Clown will be on iPhones and iPads and everyone will be able to get their coulrophobia treatment for their favorite iOS device. As for B, technically, it’s been out on Facebook since June, but that’s been in closed beta and pretty under the radar. And the game hasn’t sold any copies, so how has it made me any money?
Hey World, come run over some clowns
Nov 12th
My first Unity 3D indie game, Sparky the Road Clown, is now in open beta on Facebook. It’s integrated into Facebook via dimeRocker Arcade, which is a super platform and has provided a super easy way for me to add leaderboards, achievements, social media aspects (inviting friends, comparing scores), microtransactions and more. This is not a paid endorsement or anything — I just get to use their product and I’ve been really, really happy with it. The guys at dimeRocker have been super helpful, their devs and product managers really responsive and it’s just been a great experience overall.
Walk a mile in my big, red clown shoes.
Oct 28th
Well, last night I decided to dress up as the character in my indie Unity3D game, Sparky the Road Clown. I managed to make one small child cry and fulfilled a number of requests for hugs and people who’d like to honk my nose. Here’s the original character concept art that Chris Magee sketched and colored and a slightly disturbing picture of a clown, with me underneath that makeup and wig.
I plan on doing it again at some point, hopefully with a little yellow hat, the full costume (which I believe my wonderful wife is going to sew for me) and the rest of it. You can’t see ‘em in the picture, but I do, indeed, have big red clown shoes on.
In game related news, the game is coming along well, and I’m ready for people to start checking it out…