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January 12, 2010

Mobzombies iPhone @ 7:24 AM

Wanted to drop a quick note saying that mobzombies, a game with multiple lives and numerous imd collaborators, is actually available as a real thing, a game you can play on your iPhone. As you can see here, the game started life at imd as a weird idea w/ very custom hardware. It's since changed a lot since then.

The new version still uses motion controls, allowing you to control your character by physically walking around. The iPhone version also introduces *lazy mode* touch controls, in case you don't feel like looking a bit silly, or are in a subway or whatever.

The game also introduces a mission mode, with tight integration with the mobile/social/network/game foursquare. Using the place data from foursquare, players can scan for nearby zombie hordes. The more foursquare checkins at a place, the more zombies in the horde. If there are foursquare users at a place at the same time you are playing, they get represented as special rainbow zombies that bleed unicorns. You know, that kind of thing. These interactions are available without needing a foursquare account, but if you have one, you can sync it with the game for extra stuff (like checking in via the game, etc.).

Anyway, I'd love to hear what you guys think of this. drop a note to will@mobzombies.com if you want more info -- I also have a couple of promo codes available, send me an email.

posted by will | comments (0) | permalink

March 3, 2009

Sketch 4, assignment + sample code @ 3:35 PM

The assignment for Monday is to build something with the iPhone simulator based on the code provided for you below.

This sketch is designed to get you comfortable looking at and editing objective-c code in the XCode environment, so your sketch should show that you've spent considerable time playing around with the code base, and have manipulated it in some distinguishable way.

I'll be in office hours on thursday, and I recommend if you are having troubles, come hang out.

The basic steps to get up and running in XCode are:

• Open XCode in Macintosh HD/Developer/Applications/XCode
• Alternatively, you can download and double click the "BallBounce.xcodeproj" file included below

I've tried to comment the code best I could. It's based on Keith Peters' Gravity Tutorial for iPhone, which is in 5 parts, which can be found here: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. Keith goes into quite a bit of detail about some of this stuff, and some of the later tutorials add some things like accelerometer control.

I've also added a bunch of little things to his code, which you can experiment with. Check the rather extensive README.rtf that you can view from within XCode after you open the project.

Download file

have fun!

posted by will | comments (0) | permalink

February 2, 2009

Readings for 2/9 @ 8:25 AM

I'll also be sending out an email w/ attached pdf. The web readings are here.

• Dan Hill: "City as Platform" (link)
• Anne Galloway: "The Rise of the Sensor Citizen" (link)

Short Extra Credit (not really, just if you are interested):
• Guardian recap of Matt Jones' Good Ideas Salon (link)
• "How the city hurts your brain" (link)

posted by will | comments (0) | permalink

January 30, 2009

New Location Example using home values @ 3:45 PM

Hey,

Here's a new file showing how to use a home values web service to build a little price thermometer. Basically, in the new sketch, we set a switch that makes the app react to either the temperature service, or a home values service, and then decides what to do with the returned values.


//set up the service type, either temperature or homevalues
String serviceType;
serviceType = "homevalues";

//use this new url to get either temp or home values
request = client.GET("/clients/405/services.php?service="+serviceType+"&lat=34.052187&lon=-118.243425");


in the libraryEvent method, we'll check to see which type of service we are using. If it's the homevalues service, we'll turn on the draw() animation loop using loop(); Otherwise, we'll just call redraw() to call the draw() function only once.


if(serviceType == "temperature") {
redraw(); //call the draw() function once
} else if(serviceType == "homevalues") {
//start animating again
loop();
}


Download file

posted by will | comments (0) | permalink

January 26, 2009

This week's reading @10:00 PM

Last but not least, the reading for this week can be found here:

Re-Place-ing Space: The Roles of Place and Space in Collaborative Systems

posted by will | comments (0) | permalink

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