Patience at the plate

National Boss's Day has come and gone. In a baseball sense I have been patient at the plate. I wish the Dodgers were doing that now. I got into all kinds of trouble putting out "TheFirstDog" trying to time it for when the Obama's got their new dog Bo. I thought about taking advantage of National Boss's Day for about half a second. I have TV on all the time as well as internet access, nobody mentioned it at all. I didn't bite on the curveball (unlike the Dodgers) Timing your release to an event is not recommended in my opinion. Too many factors can alter your plans.

Apple just announced that their stock is rising and people are buying iPhones by the armful. Beat the Boss should be available right around the holidays. Hopefully all the gift recipients jumping on the iPhone/iPod Touch bandwagon will see the joy in beating up their boss with a multitude of weapons."Making contact" is how you score in the game.The Dodgers need to do the same thing today or get eliminated by Philadelphia.

Thousand Pound Gorilla

This project has been rather lengthy, over 6 months. It could have been done in much less time, but creating in the USA and assembling in India has it's challenges. Making a game is hard because in some ways you are never done. There are always things you can do to improve the experience. I don't want to make the game a thousand pound gorilla, but I also don't want to leave something out that is glaring. Sooner or later you have to put your foot down and say that you are done.

I want people to play the game and have fun. A time element adds to the game play, giving you a reason to beat the boss other than just primal anger. The game play gets kind of frantic as time gets close. I believe the element of winning has been included with the satisfaction of beating the crap out of your boss.

Next time CS5 will be used and ActionScript 3 will be the method. The more control I have, the less I am dependent on making changes that programmers consider a problem. I am very curious how hard it will be to create a similar experience using the new tools. My goal is to be able to create interactive iPhone entertainment with maximum control but still work with talented programmers.

More Time

It occurred to me while watching people play the game it gets kind of frantic. This is a good thing. The music loop combined with the game play makes you want to achieve each level before time runs out. My next move is to add a timer that records your overall time.

Recently at a street concert I heard someone say, "People will do anything for a free T-Shirt!" Sounds like a good idea to me. I will sign up with Cafe Press and send out a T-Shirt once a week based on the overall top score.

Another thought after watching people play is that I need to add a "sound off" button. After messing around with it, I changed my mind. If you play Beat the Boss, you have to listen to his bullshit. My goal is to get someone fired for playing my game.

Rokr Bluetooth Headset Update

My main reason I wanted the Rokr bluetooth stereo headset is to be able to ride my rode bike, listen to music and automatically answer the phone when I get a call. Sometimes I need a ride to organize my thoughts. This set up would be very cool. The guy at Fry's said that it works with the iPhone, he was half right. My first ride I got a call, it beeped in my ear and I hit the answer button...no action. I had to pull over, fumble, slide to the right, during which time it switched modes. Also changing songs forward or back does not work. I tried to make the face of the phone available for song changes but the problem is the face goes to sleep after a few minutes. You have to slide to the side to wake up, total pain in the butt. I almost rode into a tree. My guess is by Christmas time there will be plenty of compatible headsets available. Stereo bluetooth on an iPhone is very new, industry has to catch up. Motorola could score if they made an iPhone compatible Rokr, this one is really close. So, back it goes to Fry's. That place drives me crazy, but that's another story.

Chia Obama

This has very little to do with my new app but it''s worth mentioning. This morning I saw a post on Facebook from my niece's husband Tony. He was floored by the fact that he saw a commercial for "Chia Obama". About 6 months ago I had pitched Chia to do an iPhone app. I had a virtual board meeting discussing the possibilities of taking their brand to the iPhone. The owner is not a young guy, he believes all the youngsters he hires who say "yes" so they can keep their jobs. He showed us Chia Obama. I almost hacked up a hair ball. Joe insisted that the African Americans he asked thought it was a great product. Hoogaduh! hoogaduh! (That is the sound of a cat coughing up that hair ball)

Who would buy this? If I walked into any one of my friend's house and saw that on the mantle I would fall out laughing...then leave. My friend's are smarter than that. I can see it on some racist liberal hating college student's toilet tank, that's about it. It is flat out a bad product. Walmart pulled it from the shelves, but amazingly they said yes to the original order in the first place.

Joe was excited about an upcoming TV interview to be filmed. It ended up a foot in mouth interview where he appeared to be a "Cracker". His minions were on vacation unable to help in damage control.

What we suggested was do a Chia app that demonstrates all their products. Virtual iPhone Chia's. Charge $1, then donate the money to charity to try and save face. They were concerned people would not buy real Chia's if they could get one on an iPhone. My question was, how many of your customer's own iPhones? The idea was to spread the word. Instead his bobble headed "Yes Men" helped him design a Chia Statue of Liberty. It looks absolutely ridiculous, the French are offended and want her back.

National Boss's Day

I was getting worried that the game will turn out to be glitchy. There is a lot of interaction. I tested the latest version today up to 8 weapons. It works. I think the game play is a success. You kind of almost throw the phone by swiping your thumbs. It gets kind of frantic. It does takes some skill to beat the clock, but the game does have addictive qualities. It is starting to get interesting, I hope the public likes it. Soon it will be time to start the marketing effort. Not quite yet, the app needs to be completed and submitted to the App Store first. Soon, YouTube and a T-Shirt contest. I am hoping to be able to promote the app for "National Boss's Day" October 16th.