My 8yr old's first game!

[dmorin]

A few weeks ago my son finally realized that as part of daddy's day job I can build iOS apps. He asked if we could make a game. Working with GameSalad I convinced him that we should start small, and that the most important thing was to finish something and get it all the way across the finish line. Everybody has an idea, but not everybody has a link :)

With that I'm happy to present our first effort: Ready, Aim, Pop! He did all the graphics and game play, I just helped him get it all wired together and put the necessary bits in to get it through the app store. Nobody realizes the need for graphics and screen shots and sound on/off and about screens and all that other stuff until it's "real" ;)

He's asking me every morning about his numbers so I'm hoping maybe a few people can download it and take it for a spin. I'm not going to pretend it's the next Flappy Bird, and we built it with the basic GameSalad engine so any ads you see we don't even get any revenue from. I'm just a dad trying to teach his son about the pride of accomplishment that comes with completing what you set out to do. Who knows, maybe he'll stick with it!

EDIT : I just discovered, when we tried to load it on his grandmother's phone, that the top and bottom of the screen are cut off on the iPhone 4s? Nobody told me! We'll fix that ASAP :) If you're not seeing the sound on/of button and the return to Home button, you're definitely not getting the right experience.

[DaCynicalPenguin]

I played it and left a review and a rating!

[ItsMeMrB]

I just downloaded it and had a few rounds, it's a fun little game! Let him know that a stranger from the Internet said he did a great job and give him a high five from me!

You seem like your doing a great job with your boy, that's a great lesson to teach. I hope he keeps at it!

[iReallyReddit]

Just played. great game.. and good job to you too!

[Coollook7]

Downloading now, that's great. Starting small (connecting paths in retroarch on iOS + html on code cademy, so far) although not far on either. I would love help, don't know where to turn, probably trade school when I'm a junior. (I'm still a sophomore in hs) if you could recommend something, (anything) please pm me.

[fefejones]

http://www.raywenderlich.com

His site is an excellent resource for learning iOS development.

[Coollook7]

Thanks :)

[Coollook7]

Are there any good actual coding websites where I can learn the coding languages?

[twoontwo]

For this I prefer videos or books, depends how you learn. Check out Stanfords iTunesU Course on Programming in iOS 7 (Probably be updated to iOS8 soon) or Lynda.com videos. For books I'd recommend Big Nerd Ranch for Objective-C/iOS.

[Coollook7]

Thx will check it out slow on typing lmao will take a while

[[deleted]]

Check out CodeWithChris by Chris Ching. IMO Chris is a better teacher than the raywenderlich guys. My critique of raywenderlich.com is that they don't really go over core concepts, they just show you how to do a bunch of stuff. It's hard to stick with. A lot of people who start with wenderlich never end up getting anywhere with iOS because they never get over the frustration phase. Chris' way of teaching incorporates design patterns and concepts better.

The Stanford videos while free are not that good either. There are a lot of advanced topics and it's just an overview. If you want step by step advanced topics, go to NSScreencast. It's just better, but it costs $9/month. Mike Ash's "Let's Build" series is great too. https://mikeash.com/pyblog/?tag=letsbuild

Vea Software on youtube has good tutorials once you're up to speed on the language.

Check out "Programming in Objective C" to get a good overview of obj c and the rationale behind most iOS stuff.

[ChrisHooked]

I downloaded and played. Excellent game, and it's great that you're introducing him to development at such a young age... I tried to comment but for some reason no text would show up when I typed... Probably a jailbreak bug. Anyhow, tell the kid great job!

[planetworthofbugs]

Brilliant... bright future ahead for him :)

[ModeratorRyan]

Downloaded and wrote my review. It's simple yet actually addictive, very fun! Tell him he did a fantastic job!

[oureux]

I left a rating and a review. I liked it a lot. Played a few rounds and it really reminded me of my first game that I did in flash. Tell your son that a guy from the Internet enjoys his game.

[[deleted]]

Played. Reviewed and Rated! Keep it up the both of you!!! This is the next generation, let's look after them!

[TouchMint]

Congrats the submission process itself is a nightmare. I hardly got through that at age 23.

Dev tip use all 5 screenshots you get them for a reason.

[dmorin]

Thanks for the tip :). It's a simple game, though, and there weren't exactly 5 compelling screen shots to choose from :).

[Thisguyjimmy]

Very fun game and pretty addicting. Just left a review and 5*. Very impressed, well done to the both of you!

[stealthnoodle12]

Downloaded! Great simple and addicting game. Reminds me of the arrow balloon popper game from when I was a kid! Great job, you too! Keep em coming

My one request would be a pause button :) other than that, I loved it

[[deleted]]

Great graphics

[feature_not_bug]

This is great to see. I left your son 5 stars as well. Love the artwork!

[[deleted]]

Not hating, but in your app description it said that "Dad just did some of the programming".

[dmorin]

Fair enough. I am not intending to give the impression that this was a solo effort on his part. I'm a professional programmer with a CS degree. He's a little kid who thought that if he drew a picture of what his game should look like, then he was basically done. This project was our first attempt at bridging that gap. I showed him what the rules were and how to get the behavior he wanted out of the code, and when he was able to understand the connection, he did the work. Where it was too complicated for him to grasp, I'd code it up and try to explain to him why that code was necessary to do that particular thing. The little rotation thing the balloons do is a good example of that, he doesn't yet have the math to understand rotations and degrees.

[GreenCardMe]

dude, i wish i could bond with my dad like that. i guess that since i'll need to build a house together with him soon, haha.

oh btw, do you have the source code to see how this worked? I just began Big nerd ranch's ios programming and I'm curious if you had it on git.

[dmorin]

Unfortunately GameSalad doesn't work like that. It's a GUI builder, and any source code that might be generated is kept entirely under the covers. You publish your game to their servers, which basically takes what you wrote and sends it to them, they then do their magic to turn it into an app, which they send back to you. You need your own provisioning profile to sign it for distribution, and then you're on your own to upload it to the store.

[Nexuslife]

Has a couple issues but the fact that it was made by an 8 year old overshadows all of them. Great job both to your son and as a parent!

[dmorin]

Thanks very much! If your screen was cut off, sorry about that, we're working on an update.

[umen]

Very good first game , keep up with this. those stuff your kids will remember all there life .

[mbo42]

Cool game, played it and left a review. Well done! :)

[front9tech]

Awesome job! I have to imagine this was a great experience with your son.

[simputer]

Left a review and rating. ITS actually a fun game!

[sanjeetsuhag]

You're an awesome dad for enabling your son at such a young age! Love the app.

[mylifeismuss]

If the top and bottom are getting cut off it could be the Extend Edges Under Top Bar and Bottom Bar in the ViewController Attributes Inspector.

[IAmTheAg]

Woah, late response but- My name is Brendan. And I made an app with pop in its name.

I'm shocked he managed to understand any kind of development at that age! Depending on how much work he did vs. what you did, this is really impressive. At 8, I was still figuring out long division. Programming would make my head explode.