Writing code is not only about writing instructions to a machine / computer, but also about writing something that could be read, understood, and maintained by others. That's why, I like Cocoa.
In the last 12 years I have been an artist in game development for Consoles and PC. Worked on lots of up-there titles - Heroes of Might and Magic, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, Alpha Protocol (releasing soon) and my partner worked on the coding side on KOTOR 2 and Neverwinter Nights 2.
After all these years working with big teams on high-risk titles it's very enjoyable to be experimenting in the mobile arena. There's a long way to go but honestly it's such a blast just concentrating on creating fun little games, I hope to enjoy it while it lasts!
11 years Technical Architect at Sun Microsystems, was thinking about voluntary redundancy (with the Apps development taking most of my spare time) but got declined (again!) - so the Apps are still in the evenings and weekends with some 'farming out' now done...
Once a Microsoft Developer, will always be a Microsoft Developer.
LOL. Not true. I did Java for 3 years!
And Direct3D/DirectX since it's inception.
I programmed games on my Mac IIse in the 80's for 8 years with Borland C++. Started with a classic when I was a kid.
I used Oracle for a little.
I also started a progamming company doing Commodore 64 games.
Forgot I was writing games in Borland on DOS in early 90's when I got out of college and didn't fell like getting a job. Microsocenter was across the street. So I had a free library at my disposal.
Oh wait I even did FutureBasic with zedcor on the Mac, before I purchased Borland c++. If anyone remembers that language. I created a rip off of "The conquest of the empire" board game(risk clone).
Take that back!
lol j/k man
__________________
Once you go Mac, you'll never go back!
Writing code is not only about writing instructions to a machine / computer, but also about writing something that could be read, understood, and maintained by others. That's why, I like Cocoa.
Have a dad who has always been in IT and so been around Macs/PCs since a kid.
Never really a programmer until a few years ago. Working now as a web developer full time in Japan, mostly PHP and Javascript and freelance Flash support on the side (negotiated to work from home several months ago!).
I recently landed a contract as a work from home, part-time iPhone developer with a fairly big systems firm here and am in my first "trial" month now, doing a basic but still challenging enough for me educational app.
I'm using that to force my iPhone skills up so I can hopefully make my own niche apps soon and worst case is that I will be very employable for an iPhone / Cocoa development position here.
I'm a Apple fanboy from many years ago and am so happy to see them leading the way with the iPhone.
The current firm hiring me for the iPhone job asked if I was interested in programming for the Android platform too and I laughed and said, sorry, I am after $$ to support my family and I don't see any money in Android yet..
I'm 27 now.
At first, I was very lost and took me quite a while to get my head around the Obj-C iPhone language, but once over the first steep learning curve, my object oriented PHP experience helped with the language and Flash Actionscript exp. is helps with the concepts of listeners (NSNotifications) and the animation coding.
I would be very happy to be coding iPhone stuff full-time. Not sure I'll get into Core Graphics yet, but if I do, I'm sure there'll be some cool jobs available at the Nintendo main office, which is very close to me here
Have a dad who has always been in IT and so been around Macs/PCs since a kid.
Never really a programmer until a few years ago. Working now as a web developer full time in Japan, mostly PHP and Javascript and freelance Flash support on the side (negotiated to work from home several months ago!).
I recently landed a contract as a work from home, part-time iPhone developer with a fairly big systems firm here and am in my first "trial" month now, doing a basic but still challenging enough for me educational app.
I'm using that to force my iPhone skills up so I can hopefully make my own niche apps soon and worst case is that I will be very employable for an iPhone / Cocoa development position here.
I'm a Apple fanboy from many years ago and am so happy to see them leading the way with the iPhone.
The current firm hiring me for the iPhone job asked if I was interested in programming for the Android platform too and I laughed and said, sorry, I am after $$ to support my family and I don't see any money in Android yet..
I'm 27 now.
At first, I was very lost and took me quite a while to get my head around the Obj-C iPhone language, but once over the first steep learning curve, my object oriented PHP experience helped with the language and Flash Actionscript exp. is helps with the concepts of listeners (NSNotifications) and the animation coding.
I would be very happy to be coding iPhone stuff full-time. Not sure I'll get into Core Graphics yet, but if I do, I'm sure there'll be some cool jobs available at the Nintendo main office, which is very close to me here
Nintendo is the bomb. I tried to get a job there a few times.
Andriod is gettting hype with black berry and palm fixing to bust out.
__________________
Once you go Mac, you'll never go back!
Never really a programmer until a few years ago. Working now as a web developer full time in Japan, mostly PHP and Javascript and freelance Flash support on the side (negotiated to work from home several months ago!).
I recently landed a contract as a work from home, part-time iPhone developer with a fairly big systems firm here and am in my first "trial" month now, doing a basic but still challenging enough for me educational app.
You're lucky that your company allows you to do that. Most contract work that I met are energy draining if it combined with full time job, if I'm not quick enough, I could get frustrated and end up not to pursue it anymore.
Developing on my own or partnering (if there's a partner) provides more peaceful mind.
Writing code is not only about writing instructions to a machine / computer, but also about writing something that could be read, understood, and maintained by others. That's why, I like Cocoa.
You're lucky that your company allows you to do that. Most contract work that I met are energy draining if it combined with full time job, if I'm not quick enough, I could get frustrated and end up not to pursue it anymore.
Developing on my own or partnering (if there's a partner) provides more peaceful mind.
I get frustrated every day, but mostly due to my full-time job. Said company is behind the times and I would be happy to resign from there if the part-time iPhone contract gets extended beyond the first month...
If I get big web systems projects, it's not so bad, as I can fudge my expected working hours a bit, but I'm expected to be on call during normal biz hours which restricts my movement a bit... Now thanks to iPhone OS 3 and Beejive instant messenger with Push notifications, I can appear to be tapping away at my keyboard when having a beer down the pub
Now I must post somewhere on the forums re updating UITableViewDataSources and other fun things
Update: A handy free VNC viewer also allows me to control my Mac quite quickly (on 3GS) anywhere I go.
Last edited by iphonatic; 07-19-2009 at 03:37 PM.
Reason: cool update!
I get frustrated every day, but mostly due to my full-time job. Said company is behind the times and I would be happy to resign from there if the part-time iPhone contract gets extended beyond the first month...
If I get big web systems projects, it's not so bad, as I can fudge my expected working hours a bit, but I'm expected to be on call during normal biz hours which restricts my movement a bit... Now thanks to iPhone OS 3 and Beejive instant messenger with Push notifications, I can appear to be tapping away at my keyboard when having a beer down the pub
Now I must post somewhere on the forums re updating UITableViewDataSources and other fun things
Update: A handy free VNC viewer also allows me to control my Mac quite quickly (on 3GS) anywhere I go.
I have tried 3 freelance gigs. 2 I was fired because I would not do more than 5 hours a week in it. I'd rather have beers and take my son to places. I'm on one and I love it because they give me info every other month so I can pick the time. Oh yeah and world of warcraft.
I like doing work for myself because I pick the hours and can only get mad at myself. Which is usually solved by a 6 pack. My company is global and I usually do 60 hours a week....my co worker does 2 free lances and hit 60 hours...I have no idea how he stays alive.
But I live for making games...
__________________
Once you go Mac, you'll never go back!
Well, this seems like a fun thread Taught myself programming myself at age 12 on an Atari 800XL, and have dabbled with most every language and OS since that point. I run my own business- industrial automation and systems integration work mostly, with some database and Visual Studio work (VB, C#)... In between big consulting projects I keep myself amused with my own pet programming projects.
I hadn't programmed on Macs since the early 90's when they still had Motorola CPUs! During a lull last fall when no industry wanted to spend money, I decided maybe I needed to see what modern Mac programming was like... Rogue Touch was born from that. Had a lot of fun, learned a new language, and even made some money!
Can't wait for my current projects to wrap up so I can start another iPhone game!
__________________
ChronoSoft - Rogue Touch Available now in the App Store! ... Version 1.5 available now!
Interesting thread. Amazing how many students are making apps!
I'm doing iPhone for a few hours a week, and it manages to pull in a few k each month which so far has paid off credit cards lol
Full time I'm a consultant in business analysis working in government departments. I also run a few websites on the side, and am starting my own e-business in the coming months.
In terms of coding, I'm primarily a Ruby on Rails developer. I consider myself a noob at c, but the knowledge I have from my Sydney UNI days seems to be enough to do iPhone apps.
I'm mainly a .NET developer for my day job. I also do some server administration Windows/Unix, and I also administer the Avaya phone system. I'm also going full time (all day saturdays) for my MBA. I finish that up in December, then it will be job hunting time.
I started programming in obj-c to learn something new and to create an iPhone app that I wanted to use. I wasn't thrilled with the choices that were out there in the app store. Once I'm done with school I plan on devoting more time and develop a game.
I work for a major bank in the uk. 9 to 5 Mon to Fri plus overtime at the weekend. I also have a 2 year old daughter... therefore i have very little spare time!
Ive spent 1 to 2 hours after 8pm everyday for 3 months learning app dev. My contract at work was due to end on 31st July but on my second last day they extended it three months! (Good or Bad?)
I had loads of plans to do with my app ideas and i was holding off until i could spend all day doing them, but now i am still restricted to after work/after family hours again...
Ive spent this weekend doing loads and really happy with the results so far. I reckon with a few more weekends like ive had i should have my app in 5 different lanuages on the app store soon.
Ive spent 1 to 2 hours after 8pm everyday for 3 months learning app dev. My contract at work was due to end on 31st July but on my second last day they extended it three months! (Good or Bad?)
Good, you don't need to quit a regular income, if you don't have to.
Unless you're very sure your apps will be successful.
Writing code is not only about writing instructions to a machine / computer, but also about writing something that could be read, understood, and maintained by others. That's why, I like Cocoa.
It sounds like the bank is dicking you around, waiting til your second last day to extend your contract. I would keep taking their money as long as you can, but don't give them any love.
I've also got a 2yr old daughter and another one about to pop out. While we are pressured to spend as much family time as possible, if there's no food on the table, it's not a very happy family, right?
I can't say for sure yet if iPhone dev will pay off for me, but I'm investing heavily with my time as I hope it will. I am also being careful not to burn my bridges until I can see a steady income coming in from iPhone stuff.
Remember if you get the skills up, there's always freelance work and companies willing to pay you to work from home doing iPhone dev. For the same amount of money, I'd rather do that than work for "the man"...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Picoman
I work for a major bank in the uk. 9 to 5 Mon to Fri plus overtime at the weekend. I also have a 2 year old daughter... therefore i have very little spare time!
Ive spent 1 to 2 hours after 8pm everyday for 3 months learning app dev. My contract at work was due to end on 31st July but on my second last day they extended it three months! (Good or Bad?)
I had loads of plans to do with my app ideas and i was holding off until i could spend all day doing them, but now i am still restricted to after work/after family hours again...
Ive spent this weekend doing loads and really happy with the results so far. I reckon with a few more weekends like ive had i should have my app in 5 different lanuages on the app store soon.
Alex
Picoman Games
__________________
"The attraction of knowledge would be small if one did not have to overcome so much shame on the way" - iNietzsche iPhone App
To strive in iPhone app business "on your own", you will need to have "resources", either in the form of loads of useful data or materials that you owned and have the right to use, or productive developers, or money, or genius mind with expert skillsets.
Each of this should coexist, complements each other, etc.
Resources don't have to be "big", it's just enough to support you to develop your apps.
In my opinion data and useful materials are the hardest to obtain.
If you already have those, then you can rely on your luck.
Writing code is not only about writing instructions to a machine / computer, but also about writing something that could be read, understood, and maintained by others. That's why, I like Cocoa.
Last edited by mnemonic_fx; 08-09-2009 at 10:17 PM.
Reason: "should complements each other"
The current firm hiring me for the iPhone job asked if I was interested in programming for the Android platform too and I laughed and said, sorry, I am after $$ to support my family and I don't see any money in Android yet..
So the company hiring you weren't going to pay you any money? I don't understand your logic? Or are you saying it is not worth your time learning android, time you could spend on iphone apps?
I think android will be quite big, there are so many phones coming out over the next year that support android, some exciting devices. iPhone is clearly the way to go for now, but android could be the platform to think about as well.
Writing code is not only about writing instructions to a machine / computer, but also about writing something that could be read, understood, and maintained by others. That's why, I like Cocoa.
Its a good thing to have 3 months of income to keep me going because even if i submit my app today, it would be at least 40-50 days before i get wired with some money and who knows how much that would be! Ive spent alot of time preparing to write my apps and gathering resources and knowledge, so now it is time to just get down to it.
Professional freelancer for nearly 25 years. Mostly Windows stuff but I code pretty much anything. My main gig is currently a banking type app in C#. The iPhone apps tend to be small and can be developed quickly for easy cash. Lots of demand.
The big stumbling block for me is, love it or hate it, the dev environment is light years behind C# and Java and the OS is, uh, inconsistent. On the other hand that means more work for the people that can handle it, can't argue with that.
The big stumbling block for me is, love it or hate it, the dev environment is light years behind C# and Java and the OS is, uh, inconsistent. On the other hand that means more work for the people that can handle it, can't argue with that.
Eric
How do you find the OS inconsistent? I find it much more stable than XP or Vista . But I just started iPhone a while ago.
I'm used to xCode now. It's not so bad. And you can always use VisualSudio since opengl is platform independent. There are a few 3rd party tools that allow you to do it. But I think it's a waste of time.
I do wish Apple had better documentation with examples like MS. The simplest things in MAC have become huge hurdles.
But, another 2 months and I should be at a normal pace.
__________________
Once you go Mac, you'll never go back!
I'm a high school student that has been programming in flash and i've tried some C# for XNA Game Studio Express, but once i tried iPhone Programming, I really got into it. I think it's so much easier to learn mostly because Apple has such a wonderful sdk, they document everything fully, and its such a big platform that there are thousands of tutorials available.
Taught myself programming myself at age 12 on an Atari 800XL, and have dabbled with most every language and OS since that point. I run my own business- industrial automation and systems integration work mostly, with some database and Visual Studio work (VB, C#)... In between big consulting projects I keep myself amused with my own pet programming projects. 
Linear Mode
