Bikini Poker: A Postmortem

In late January 2009 I was sacked from my management job so I decided to try my hand at developing indie games while I figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life. I knew the iPhone was a hot platform and I'm sick of C#/Java/SQL/web development so I figured I'd target the app store because it really is indie friendly and it would allow me to learn something new, or something old like Objective-C. With 20+ years experience in software engineering, working for both large and small companies using dozens of languages on just about every popular platform since the 80's, I've become an extremely cynical yet versatile developer and I have a highly optimistic nature so I still love writing software and learning new skills. No soul-sucking board of directors will ever take my passion for creating cool stuff away from me. Simply put: I'd rather be poor than a sell-out.

The experience I have allows me to really work the tools and technologies instead letting them work me. iTGB is great because it is a source product and if you need it to do anything specific you can always customize it to meet your needs. I actually did try to use Unity and found it to be cumbersome, confusing, and I didn't really think I could make a quality game working solo with it. I've been a TGE owner for a long time so I decided to jump in with iTGB and now I'm sure it was the right decision. One note: I asked Garage Games if I needed both iTGB and TGB to develop iPhone games at a cost of $750 and they told me that I did need both packages. When I got iTGB, I was given everything I needed to develop iPhone games so I don't really know why I had to buy TGB for an extra $250. I don't mind because $750 is still a fair price, but I think GG should better clarify why one needs both packages.

The first app I wrote I did in pure Objective-C and it's a simple latin percussion drum set called iConga. It took me about a week to write and it has sold about 100 copies per week at the tier 1 level so I decided to commit a few weeks to working on a game full-time because the game section of the app store is where most of the sales are by about 3x from what I can tell. In other words, the best business or music app is only selling 1/3 of what the best games sell. This is an estimate, but I think it is common knowledge now that the app store sells more games than anything else.

Once that I had realized that games were the best earning potential, I started studying popularity trends on the app store. I compiled a list of dozens of do-able game ideas and I ultimately decided to do a card game because I knew I could produce a quality game by myself in a short amount of time and still make some $$$.

I went through every card app on the app store and realized that nobody had attempted to publish a version of strip poker. Much to my wife's chagrin I decided to try a strip poker game much like the one I played on my C-64 in the 80s. I figured if I kept it "bikini" oriented like bikini blast or the various wobble apps, I could probably get it published without Apple giving me the "South Park" reject treatment. I also knew that I could quickly generate sexy content using Daz and Poser (www.daz3d.com).

The hardest part of development was the poker engine itself. I recommend that every game programmer tries writing poker AI as an academic exercise. Actually, TorqueScript made the task easy and I'm proud of the fact that the girls in the game are quite capable poker players! My poker engine also leaves me plenty of room for updates and improvements over time. It's important with iPhone apps to choose your features wisely and ALWAYS leave room for improvement. Improving your games/apps helps keep them at the top of their queues in the app store over time. I would say don't try to jam every feature you can think of into version 1.0 of your game. Start with the fundamentals and add to it.

I rendered the cards using Blender and The Gimp and hacked TorqueScript in vi until the sun came up for the better part of two weeks. Once I was satisfied with the poker gameplay, as well as card animations, sounds, etc. it was time to add the girls. I used Daz3D to render the girls in various states of undress. I used the Gimp to build the splash and selection screens. With the poker engine done and all the assets in place I was able to glue the game together, test it thoroughly, and prepare it for sale in about a week. I want to point out that this is working full-time for 12-16 hour days 7 days a week. Funny, it didn't *feel* like working! :-)

My wife and I had great fun modeling the girls for this game. We even had a couple of "Weird Science" moments making unrealistically large breasts. Even though we were having fun, during the making of this game I often thought about the social aspects of making a game that exploits the female form. I mean, I have daughters. But, I realized how lame this world would be without hot chicks in bikinis and so I kept writing code.

Pricing the app was tough. I finally decided to price the app at tier one because that is what I feel it is really worth. Part of the problem with the U.S. and its economy is the greedy tendency to over-value stuff. No single CEO is worth $250 million a year to employ and no iPhone app should cost more than a couple of bucks. I went with the 99c price because I saw other apps being very successful at that price. I also know that I've never paid more than 99c for an app myself so why should I expect others to pay more?

Once the game was done I started the process of submitting it to Apple. The process they have created seems daunting at first, but it really isn't that bad. Build your code using the proper provisions, upload a zip and some graphics, write some text and that's pretty much it. I did update my website (www.roguetemplar.com) and added a youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq2Kz_MFi-k

That was about the extent of the work involved in publishing an app with Apple. It's not a complex process, but it can be time consuming and you may have to wait a week or two before you see your application on the app store. I've worked on shrink-wrap games that take months to get from code freeze to production so the App store seems pretty easy to me.

Now I wait and see what sales are like. I have modest hopes really. The pleasure for me comes from writing and publishing a game. The money will follow. (I Hope)

Anyone who is reading this and was expecting a more technical discussion I apologize. GG and iTGB made the technical aspects of the development process really easy - punctuated with only moments of frustration really. I understand that iTGB isn't perfect, nor is the documentation or GG or anything for that matter. The fact is that I was able to take an idea for a game and single-handedly turn that idea into a reality using iTGB. If I can do it, then I guarantee you can too.

I'm starting the design phase of my next iPhone title now and I'm SO looking forward to it. I will say that working on OSX has made the whole development process much more appealing to me. But, that is understandable since I have always loved UNIX workstations. My application stack for the next app is Blender, iTGB, Gimp, vi, xCode, Instruments and Logic Audio. I have to say I don't miss the Visual Studios, Eclipses, NetBeans and such. I tried using Torsion at the beginning of the Bikini Poker project, but it was too much like the bloated tools I've grown to dislike. The tools that I use are very efficient and help me have a productive workflow. I know a lot of developers who hinder themselves by trying to force all of their development through a single workflow pipeline because it is "what they know". If you feel trapped by your tools, then you may need different tools, or you may need to learn how to use the tools you have in a different way. During Bikini Poker development I never lost sight of what the input, processing, and output needed to be for the application and I forced the tools I had to provide what I needed. One thing to keep in mind about iTGB is that it won't write the game for you! You need to sculpt your game out of the iTGB clay.

Cheers!