Creating a video game [Part 4]

Visuals Even though this game wants to stay minimalistic, I desired the animations to be crisp and attractive. The rotation had to feel satisfying. I wanted it to appear like each arc was loaded with tension and had a physical mass that developed momentum and transported energy to its successor. I experimented with around 150…

Creating a video game [Part 3]

In the last episode we have established the very basic concept of this game. Yet we do not have a game yet. We discovered the fundamental mechanic which we have to still develop a fun to play game around. The mechanic itself is already satisfying: I had a very, very unproductive day lying in my…

Creating a video game [Part 2]

After deciding that I wanted to develop around the idea of chain reactions, I started to brainstorm about the different kinds of them which I could use. It needed to be usuable in a space limiting, 2 dimensional game environment and not be overly random. As a long time gamer (pseudo) randomness is something I…

Creating a video game [Part 1]

After drowning myself in work after a breakup last year, I desired something to relax. I released the big feature update for Condense in late Summer 2014 and was not in the mood for another serious project. I wanted to take a closer look at animations and so I went ahead and created an app…

Creating a video game [Part 0]

I grew up in a neighbourhood with not a single child to play with and my allergies also denied me a pet companion. I was a very, very curious kid and absorbed every piece of knowledge I possibly could. My parents decided against the easy way of putting me in front of a television set…

Homescreen April ’15

For the first time I’ve taken a new approach to my homescreen: Since my life has become very busy and I cannot really hide from mails and messages anymore, I wanted to remind myself about sticking to minimalism a bit more. I moved everything one page back, trying to eliminate quite a bit of distraction….

Homescreen March ’15

Sometimes I feel like I obsess a bit over the fact which application makes it to my homescreen, but every app has to earn this privilege. A homescreen says quite a lot about the device owner and since I get asked a lot about app recommendations: Behind every icon you can see here, hides software…

Apple Watch?

Since I occupy the spot as the go-to Apple-Geek in my family and circle of friends, I’ve been asked one question particulary often within the last couple of months: “What do you think about the Apple Watch? Should I get one?” In general I would say, that if you have to ask this question, the…

Learn to cook

The year is 2015. You can order your food via an application on your smartphone, pay online and receive it within 40 minutes. All for pretty much the same price you would pay for fresh ingredients. So why should you even bother to learn cooking? Just to put in the extra work? Didn’t we make…

MouseBeam released

As a long time fan of Apple’s Macintosh platform I saw great features come and go: Exposé, multiple Desktops and active corners once were great features and a match made in heaven… Until they became unusuable in Lion. Their long and horribly laggy animations (even on state of the art Macs) and the fact that…