Maya Long Count Updates

It has been a pretty busy couple of months. The first thing was that I ran into the problem with the glyphs. I got all of the new glyphs redrawn, scanned, cleaned up, and integrated into the application. That took about a month to sort out. I did get everything integrated and here's the screen shot from the main screen. Once that was done, I then submitted to the App Store. It was the first application that I've published into the App Store (link here). Given that it was a total "stealth launch"it's been doing a bit better than I expected. Last night I tweeted:
"This is cool. I've earned $3.50 US, $1.26 Australian, $0.70 Canadian, €1.08, and ¥60 from my app. Taxes should be interesting."
Overall there have been 17 sales in 6 countries. I'm interested to see what happens after the end of this b'ak'tun - whether there will be additional interest or if I'll see my sales drop to zero.
I decided to do a free, ad-supported version as well. Hooking up the iAd banner was surprisingly straight-forward. It took very little time to get the banners installed but when I started looking at doing the full-screen ads I've seen in other apps I found out quickly that the iAd network doesn't do it for iPhone - just iPad.
I've been playing with the idea of using Greystripe at one point and this provided the opportunity to get it integrated. With iAd's lack of full screen ad support on iPhone, Greystripe was the solution. The was a problem, though, in that the test ID that they provided failed to work properly. I "violated" the terms a little a turned on the ads while I was testing. Given that I had done most of the work already around the testing, going with "live" ads wasn't a gigantic hit on the volumes (I think I used 7 impressions for testing).
I did get the free (lite) version submitted to the App Store on December 12th and it sat in review for a few days. I did get a notification yesterday that it was being reviewed and very quickly went from "In Review" to "Ready for Sale". Here is the timing on that:

 I was amazed that it was less than 2 hours from start to finish. Overall it was pretty amazing to see how quickly they got it squared away. Admittedly there was already one there that was practically the same thing but it was a different application. My original app took almost 2 days in review. This was 2 hours.
Anyway, both apps are now officially available for sale and Otto Von Productions, Inc. has published and sold its first applications. Now I just need to get the other 41 ideas I've got swimming in my head completed and published. Maybe I'll end up making this whole thing work after all.

New glyphs are done!

So I spent a little time finishing off the glyphs for the app. I think they look "okay". At least "okay" enough to be in version 1.0. And, for me, they're "freakin' amazing". *sigh* As I said, my graphic artist skills leave MUCH to be desired. Anyway, without further ado, here are the glyphs I made for the app.

The glyphs for my app

Not bad, eh? Yeah, I think they'll suffice. I did spend quite a bit of time making them and hope that they'll be met with approval by the community. It was definitely not something I felt at all comfortable doing, but sometimes it helps to get out of your comfort zone.
I'll point out that these are the original drawings - I haven't cleaned them up at all. I will be extracting the individual glyphs and improving them before incorporating them into the application. From personal experience with other graphics exercises, this will take several hours. I just hope I'll be able to get enough time strung together to make it happen. I also need to get the description written for the application, so that's something else I need to get a block of time to accomplish.
So, there we are. Hope you like the preview here. Once I'm done and submit everything to the App Store, I'll post a link.

Using Kanban for Work

I've been using agile development methodologies (Extreme Programming (XP), RUP, Scrum, etc) for over a decade now. In every job I've had in that time I've touted the benefits of using agile rather than whatever process was prevalent (usually just basic waterfall). In some cases the teams totally bought into it and saw fantastic productivity improvements (like a 300% increase at one company). I've had grassroots support in the trenches only to have senior management balk at it ("too hard to track", etc. - the typical NIH issues). In some cases, the team decided to implement it anyway. Other times the team thought they knew the technology but just ended up with iterative waterfall (smaller waterfall cycles).

Example KanbanFlow board

For all of my work with Otto Von I've done agile in some way. I've been doing primarily XP with some modifications given I'm a one-man shop. But lately Kanban has been getting a lot of traction in my mind and I've just started using an online Kanban board (see this post for a little more about it). What I like about Kanban is that it's really better adapted to how I need to work and what I focus on from an agile perspective - take on a small chunk of work, complete it, move on to the next.

A slice of cake is like a story

So what does Kanban offer? First, as in all agile methodologies, you start with decomposing the work that needs to be done into small pieces. The key concept is to look at the entire project as a cake that you cut into vertical slices. In most applications there are layers that need to be built (back-end, UI, storage, database, etc). With the slice, you focus on doing all of the work on the layers at one time in the slice while providing some small element of value to the project. In the picture above you can see that I've got stories like "Add Friend". These require UI changes. back-end code, and DB changes. That's my slice for that piece of work. These can sometimes relate to "functionality" or "features", but traditionally features are larger than a story would allow.
Your first column is usually the "backlog" or "To Do" list. These are the stories that you've started to define but aren't really complete enough to really consider for developing. Ideally you prioritize the backlog so you can quickly identify those stories that you need to finish defining first. Your "Ready to Pull" list are the stories, in priority order, that can be worked immediately if you have the bandwidth. The "In Progress" is just that - things that you are actively working. Sometimes called your "WIP" (work in progress), this should contain only those stories that you can work on and complete in two weeks (the standard iteration/sprint length). This insures that you don't try to take on multiple tasks that de-focus you from working something through to completion. Finally, when you've completed a story you move it to the "Done" list. It's pretty straight-forward, but the challenge is making stories/slices that are usable and small enough. It takes a lot of practice and even after a decade I struggle sometimes.
Kanban allows you to have multiple work items in process (your WIP limit). For me that's generally one. I need to focus on that one thing, get it completed, and move on to the next. With a larger team than I have (i.e., more than one),  your WIP limit will be larger. Using the Kanban board lets me prioritize the work that needs to be done. I can add new stories, shift priorities - all things that are important in running a small project.
KanbanFlow, the free(!) online board I'm using doesn't have some typical user story fields (and no, I don't get a kickback for rating them so highly, but maybe I should; are you listening, KanbanFlow?!). For instance, it tracks time in hours not points. I guess you could use the "hours" field as a "points" field, but overall it's a small thing. So far I am very pleased with the software and able to work around (or ignore) the things I don't require.
If you're looking to get some focus on your work, Kanban is certainly one methodology that you should explore. And KanbanFlow is a very good free service should you choose that direction. Good luck and happy coding.

OttoJotts and other stuff

Been working on the back-end pieces of OttoJotts over the past few weeks. It's been slower than I'd hoped, both because I'd run into a small issue that was keeping me from moving forward with the game views and because I was finding other things I wanted to do instead (like catch up on Reddit and watch some videos). I've been a bit demotivated the past few weeks. Lots of stuff happening personally and financially that have added more stress than I needed right now.
On the OttoJotts front, though, things have been progressing reasonably well given the time I've spent on them. Right now I've got the account information and the main game list showing up. I still have to get the game details (the guesses and such) showing up and the ability to start games. Still a lot of work left but once I get these things sorted out it's a lot of playtesting and hooking it up to the iPhone.
iPad is still something of a question. I don't own one so I'll need to rely on people who do to test it out. I'd like to make sure that it works and that I have a good set of graphics for it so it looks reasonable. Just hoping that at least one of my friends is willing to help out. *wink wink*
The other issue I've been running across has been my ADHD kicking in wanting me to work on another small project and get it out. That's kind of what OttoJotts was supposed to be, so I hesitate to jump through the hoops to get something started only to end up on month 15 with nothing yet to show for it. I need to take a Kanban approach and just finish the work in progress and then work on the next thing. It's something I've struggled with for years and is once again rearing its ugly head. I wish I were more motivated to finish OttoJotts and get it done. Maybe I'm unable to complete things. Maybe I'm afraid of what happens if I do complete it (total flop). I don't know - it's just frustrating and adds to my stress level.
Anyway, lots to do at the "real job" (for now). I have tons to do still but I can actually pull this out if I can just get some focus on it. Send happy, supportive thoughts!

New OttoJotts UI Ideas

I was in the shower today getting ready to pick up Cathy from a birthday party (no, not that one - we unfortunately missed that one *headdesk*). This was not her cousin Zavi's party in Laramie but my best friend Dan's son Matthew's 6th birthday. It was at Chuck E Cheese's and now that I've wasted far too much time with off-topic over-explanation, let me get back to the point of this post - user interface ideas for OttoJotts.
So while I was in the shower I began thinking back to the days when I used to play Jotto and what usually had to suffice for Jotto sheets when we'd exhausted our supply. We opted for legal pads, a ruler, and a pen. So this made me wonder - what if I made the UI look like a legal pad (or at least just lined paper) and then had all of the buttons and letters be handwritten? I think it might be "retro", but I think retro is hip these days (it's so hard to tell sometimes). PLUS, it's something that I, with my limited graphic artist skills could likely pull off. That was a definite benefit.
I think it would be very cool to have a slick UI like, say, Words with Friends, but I'm just NOT a graphic artist. Been there, done that, got my wrist slapped. I may just need to accept my limitations on this particular point (not that I ever thought I was a graphic artist). What does this mean for Alpha 4? Absolutely nothing. I'm sure I'll find ways to try to derail myself from actually working on code and work on the cool new UI, but it needs to wait until Beta 1. The alphas are all about functionality; betas are about polish. So that's kind of the thinking for, say, April. And I've got a cool idea for the badges, but that's later as well.
I guess we'll see how well I can keep this "shiny new toy" on the back burner. I've actually managed to get most of the friend and game creation code done and in, which was surprisingly smooth. There's still a lot of hardening that needs to happen, but I think that once I get into that mode it will be straightforward to do pretty much the same thing to every file. Plus, I need to make the code a little harder to exploit, which I hope I can get done with a minimum of fuss. Let's just hope I can keep up some of the focus here to make this project FINALLY successful.

Alpha 3 Release

The announcement on Facebook!

It's official - I just sent out Alpha 3 tonight. I wish it were a little more solid, but I've been testing it for a while and it seems stable. I've had a couple of bugs that I haven't been able to reproduce, so I'm going to spend a little time this next build working on using the Build and Analyze functionality. The next version is going to be HUGE, so it's important to get it all working solidly.
As I posted previously, the UI and game play changes for Alpha 3 are pretty good. I've added difficulty levels (making the game a lot easier to actually play), and the UI is cleaner. I've also captured some things and sent it over to a designer friend I'm hoping will be able to help with the graphics and the layout. I feel like there are places where it's pretty good but that there are far more places where it's just clunky and not working at all.
Of course the big thing is that this should let people play a little more frequently as the game won't be quite as impossible as the original. Jotto was a pretty niche product (and my mom and I were firmly centered in that niche), but I think it just couldn't really excel as a game because of it's difficulty. I expect that the game will be much more approachable now and to a wider variety of people.
There is still one thing I need to sort out with the word list, though, which is creating a simple word evaluation page so that people can rate words as Easy, Medium, or Hard. That should help segment some of the much harder words from casual players. I'm hoping that some of my Facebook friends will be able to help parse the list (it's pretty extensive) and provide a basic clumping of words by difficulty. It should be a quick change to the code to enable that in the code.
The next big step (and the next Alpha) will be to have two player games, which entails a TON. I need to get user accounts set up, figure out how to deal with people who change phones but want to keep their information, creating friend lists, getting multiple games working, and, of course, manage the basics of having a server-based game as opposed to a device-based one. Definitely a big challenge, especially the back-end piece. Still, I'm hoping that I'll be able to get it done in time for Christmas - that's my big goal. Hopefully before Thanksgiving - that would be awesome.
So, now that Alpha 3 is out the door, I guess I better get working on Alpha 4!