My "Bear and the Bees" iPhone Game Mockup
The first iPhone appventure I had was all about a game idea. I wanted to make a 2D side scrolling video game about a bear that needs to get from one end of the forest to the other in the course of a day. Along the way he needs to fill up on honey and other good things while avoiding the unruly bees that don’t take well to him, for obvious reasons. As a designer I jumped into the fun part and started mocking up some concept artwork in Photoshop. I also started writing down ideas for how the game would work, what would be unique about it, what’s the story, how would the controls work, etc. It’s really the first time EVER that I’ve thought about how a game is designed. I’d always enjoyed video games, but never imagined I’d build one. Now with such an amazing platform such as the iPhone, who could resist!?
Currently the Bear and the Bees game (not decided on a name yet) is on hold. At this point in my journey I made a very solid attempt to get back into the nitty gritty of programming, but soon became overwhelmed. Turns out that building a game for the iPhone is WAY more complex than something more standard like a utility app. Games, especially ones like mine, require lots of crazy stuff like 2D spiriting, lots of event management, more memory management, artificial intelligence, etc.
It’s not that I didn’t think I could do it, but the more I knew the more it seemed like I didn’t know. The bunny hole just kept going deeper and deeper, as if there really was no stopping point. Eventually I gave it a rest because I’m a busy guy, with a family and a day job and freelance projects on the side. (I also taught an HTML class for the first time in 2010, and that was quite a load of work). So I figured I’d learned enough for the time being and I’d come back around to the Bear and the Bees eventually.
As a side note, if/when I’m ready to dig into GAME development for the iPhone I think I want to take a closer look at Cocos2D. I also have a book wish list, take a look at some of the titles in my iPhone Development Bookstore!
