July 11, 2010: Upcoming Apps

We're working on two app projects right now. Neither one is for sale yet, but both are progressing very nicely. Just the fact that we're doing two at once is a milestone for us . . . we're certainly not going to pretend to commit to a specific schedule. Even more than most things, they'll be done when they are done, and we don't even know which one will be available first.

The Munchkin Level Counter is coming to Android. The port is being coded by Jay Koutavas, of Heynow Software. We've been happy users of Jay's Savitar software for years; I have an instance open as I type this. The Android MLC is in beta . . . all functions are there and all of them usually work just fine, and Jay is now stomping bugs. We're very happy to be supporting Android, very curious about how it will sell compared to the iPhone version, and very grumpy about having to redesign the whole "app" portion of our website to take into account the fact that the iPhone is not the only mobile device in the world.

(We are often asked if there will be other versions. Blackberry? The new Windows phone? Reply hazy; ask again later. We really need an in-house producer to coordinate these things . . .)

The other app is our first actual game for a mobile device. It's a fully-fuctional Zombie Dice implementation for the iPhone, and it is SO neat. A lot of different talents went into it: Kira's coding, Alex Fernandez' art, Will Schoonover's zombie voice. The whole "look and feel" of the app follows Justin De Witt's graphic design for the Zombie Dice demo - but it has different and better background music from Tom Smith. Except, being Tom, he wants to be credited for "Background Noise."

This app is not quite in beta yet. It's been playable for months, but in a feature-light way. Now the features are coming together. Kira just finished some AI tweaks that make the zombie opponents smarter . . . The next build ought to be a real no-kidding beta. And yes, if the response is good, we'll see what it takes to get an Android version done.

I'll have more to say when these are in their respective app stores. This is merely a teaser progress report. What apps will we do next? I honestly don't know. So many possibilities, and only one instance each of me, and Kira, and Andrew, and so on. But there will be something. Probably multiple somethings. This is fun.

-- Steve Jackson