Interview with iPhone Developer John Kassimatis…
Had a short talk with iPhone developer John K. who has recently launched the Binary Game for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Edited version
Brodie Beta- So you started the development in late December. Can you take me through the genesis of the whole project ?
John K- Sure. The original idea is based off of a small game I used to play about 10+ yrs ago, that was similar in concept. So in late December I finally started reading an iPhone Development book I had bought a few weeks before. After the first few chapters I wanted to try out some of the examples, but I wanted to try them out on a project of my own, instead of blindly following the book. So the first idea for an app that popped into my head was this game, because I had so much fun playing that earlier version so long ago.
Brodie Beta- Is Objective C your first programming language?
John K- No, I’ve been a web developer for 10 years. This however was my very first time playing with Objective-C.
Brodie Beta- What languages do you use in web development?
John K-Currently it’s mostly PHP, Rails and ASP from time to time.
Brodie Beta-Talk to me about the team you worked with on this project.
John K-I actually work at the Wine Library, for Gary V (Gary Vaynerchuk)
Brodie Beta- Aha!
John K- I did all the development for the project. I had a few friends help with graphics. Gary was involved with the concept, and of course marketing. It was his idea to include the global high scores in the initial version – which is what has made the game so competitive.
Brodie Beta- Who are Erik Kastner and Brian Woolley?
John K- They’re both really close friends, and they also work at Wine Library with me. They had a huge part in the graphics. Erik also created the kick ass WordPress plugin that currently is used to display high scores on the game’s website.
Brodie Beta-You mention the book “Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK”, was it helpful? Would you recommend it? Another resource you mention on your blog is the site iPhone Dev SDK. Were they helpful?
John K- I would highly recommend the book. It doesn’t waste too much time, and gets you coding really fast. The iPhone development community is pretty damn amazing. I mainly used http://iphonedevsdk.com which is an awesome resource full of great people . It would have taken me many more weeks without that resource, for sure. Another place i’d like to mention is http://icodeblog.com which has great tutorials – Excellent for people just starting.
Brodie Beta- Are you happy with the development process and the SDK provided by Apple?
Johk K- Mostly happy. The provisioning and submitting of the final binary to Apple can be a bit intimidating. Then of course you have the wait for Apple to approve (or reject).
Brodie Beta-How was the app submission process? They seem to have approved your app rather quickly.
John K-It took 7 days for Binary Game to be approved, I think 7 days is about average right now - But it seemed to take ages.
Brodie Beta- Aside from the resources you have provided..what other tips could you give prospective iPhone devs?
John K- Don’t give up. It might be scary at first, specially if you never used Objective-C, but it’s really not bad. When you get stuck go to forums and search. Ask for help, most people are super friendly and always willing to help. In the end you’ll be glad you stuck it out.
Brodie Beta-Do you have any other iPhone projects in the pipeline?
John K- I have a few ideas for two or three updates to Binary Game. Hoping the first one makes it out there in the next 2-3 weeks. I am also working on a second game which is about 40% completed. Many ideas, so little time!!
Brodie Beta- Can you give me any tips to dominate the high score boards for the Binary game?
John K- Yes, Most people seem to hold the phone with two hands and use their thumbs hitting the numbers. I would say that use one hand to hold the iphone and use your index finger to hit the numbers.
At least for me and a few people i’ve spoken with, it’s much faster.
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