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Ok, so I got the board gems and another piece drawing so I really have only some simple gameplay checks to add in and it will be playing. Even added the preliminary level structures so it can create the levels, and the high score system is sitting there waiting to be plugged in.

 So yeah, the 3 days things is a little misleading as I obviously have some technology created for my other games that is being re-used. So what exactly is being re-used you ask? Well…

Start of some techie nerd stuff some of which may only make sense to me, but here goes: 

I have a landscape template project that I can just grab and plug in a new title screen graphic, new help, game, and settings background images, add a new icon, and change about 4 lines that have to do with the naming and it fires right up. I have a high score system that is pretty generic built-in and everything in place for saving the current game and asking if you want to play that saved game. I have the sound code and will probably be re-using a lot of the sounds from Poker Stacks. I have some Match 3 grid technology written for Poker stacks so I can just re-use the effects for spinning out or blowing up the gems and checking what is touched. I can plug in the pause button stuff as well and will probably use some of the background moving images from Jezster just to dress up the game  a tad.. I have a scoreview that does the score float animation and a timer view that draws a timer bar and time and the code that manages timing out during play. And Ill likely even use the game over’ type graphics from other games.

So, yes… I have a head start. But its all just sitting there and needs to be plugged together and attached to some different gameplay to make it official. If this works Ill gladly use this recipe over and over as I know of a couple other developers that are doing just that. It would be fun to get some sales so I can continue to join them…

And I really dont believe that the AppStore market is always a good indicator of overall talent. It just takes building that one fun game idea(and not necessarily done that ‘pretty’ even). And have people find it quickly… so basically get lucky…

Got an idea for the next great gem swapper, well anything really… Ill use my headstart for you too… Just drop me a line and will get that project going…(and don’t worry I’ll spend more time on the details on a project like that, actually you might be surprised at how many details make it in this game too).

Well, Ive now tried the ‘spend 2-3 months on a game and add polish to it experiment’ for iPhone. So now for something completely different. I am writing a game (using a lot of existing code) in just THREE days that I will put up on the AppStore. I invite you to follow along as I write it. Basically I came up with the idea last night, and I thought, hmmm…. I really like this idea for a simple variation on the gem swapping/Match 3 type genre, I should make it quick.

Some of my thoughts: 

Some of the games on the AppStore that are making insane amounts of money are VERY SIMPLE games. Stupidly simple in many cases. So what the heck.

Im not going to stop much to really tweak it this first go round. Why? Well because I dont want more than 3 days invested in it. I can put out a pretty good product by just moving ahead, and by looking at some of the games that are the most popular that have way more polished games they compete against, well Im not sure the iPhone market really appreciates the details like they should. So why bother. And then Ill only have 3 days of development invested in it instead of 2 weeks… So if it doesnt sell it doesnt sell, I almost left the market completely because my polished ‘Jezster’ didnt sell with 2 months behind it! But 3 days, well it is worth a shot…

I figured since I already have code that will handle about 80% of what this game will do thanks to Poker Stacks (and a little Jezster for some eye candy)…  

 I already have 95% of the graphics done in about 3 hours today, and the shell of the game working and showing the title screen and gameboard, so its a fun little experiment that who knows, might be the next big iPhone game.

 And as a little bonus experiment, I had a different name picked out, but my brother happened to mention that I should have the word ‘Ninja’ in the title. It doesnt matter whether the game has anything at all to do with Ninjas, people just like ninjas!! So ‘Gem Ninja’ it is…

 So follow along the next 3 days as I crank this sucker out. I wont give away the 1 gameplay mechanic that makes it different(though Im not guaranteeing completely different from everything out there, but its an original idea to me, so…). It should be fun….

Hoping to get the gem board drawing and the high score system in place by the end of the day…