I would like to share my story of Woolcraft. Here it is... Prakash First of all I want to say thanks to Prakash Arun Rajendran. We both works in the same company, Gastrogate. Prakash was the one who first show me how xCode works on a Mac. In another words - how to develope an app for iPhone. This was in november 2010. To bad that objective-C was totally new to me... When I asked Prakash if he had any experience of making games, he sayed no. But he gave me a tip, Cocos2d for iPhone. Thank you Prakash! Cocos2d for iPhone So I checked it out, that Cocos2d, and it blew me away. A framework specially made for making games. Home I had only a PC so in the next 3 weekends I was carrying a heavy 27 inch iMac back and forward between home and work to learn more about developing apps. (thank you for the loan, Elias Norstrom!) My boss (Elias) was not so glad about it so I decided to buy an iMac myself. It cost to much but my wonderful wife saw how happy I was about this project so she sayed "ok". I smile can change everything! So, thanks goes to Gastrogate, my wife and the people behind Cocos2d! An idea is born - Woolcraft In that time, beginning of december 2010, I hade no good idea of what type of a game I would do. Then I found Daniel Cook's Lostgarden. A profesional graphic artist, working with games, who unbelivable gave away some graphics for free. I was stunned of that. That was exactly the need I had. Something started in my head when I saw his contribution, an idea of a game. Woolcraft was born! A very big thanks to Danc for the graphics! The sheep I now started to do some more graphics based on Danc's originals. The sheep, Mr Mole and a couple more things. In that time I was thinking a lot of my game, but I realised that something was missing in the game... I had some levels and the goal was to guide a lonely sheep to the shepherd. It was to easy... Poker with my friends One night I played poker with some friends. Around midnight I played really bad so I was out of the game for I while. I looked at my friends and I thought that I was a lucky guy who have such a good friends and with friends everything is so much more fun... ...then I thought about my game and the lonely sheep... My idea evolved! Of course - more sheep! The hard work Hehe... every free time I had in december and january I was working with the game. I loved every minute of it! Hard work? That? No, I felt that I was 15 years old and everything was possible. The time just flew away and I was so excited over my little project. I did one thing thou. Before I started the project I made one thing clear to my self(!). I couldn't go on forever, so I come out with a plan: 1. The first version must be finished in january 2011. 2. The upload to Apple must be done in february. 3. The release of the game must also be in february. The sound A game needs a lot more than an idea and graphics. It needs some sound. As you know I bought a iMac and with that GarageBand was included. So most of the sounds in the game I made with GarageBand. Easy and all that I needed. The family Very early the whole family got involved in the project and that, I really enjoyed! They all was enthusiastic about the game from the start and they still are. As I, they are very curious what respond the game will have. We know that there is a lot of games out in the App-store and there are so many games that is released every single day. My youngest son, Adam In the game I wanted the sheep to sound as cute sheep... so I asked my son, 12 years, if he wanted to be a part of the game. If he wanted... it was never a doubt. We record his voice and I "tuned" it a bit in Garageband. So now you know that the "Oh-nooo", "Whiiieee" and "help me!" is actually my son! It also turned out that Adam is a smart boy... because he started to help me with the levels to the game. One day he came and sayed: "Dad, now I will do a level that you can't solve." After a while he comes back and I put the level in the game and then played it. Oh my god! It was a tough level. Took me sooo long to solve. And to honest with you - that level is now the last level in the game - because its the actually the hardest one. Made by a boy of the age of 12! My wife, Christina The next voice I needed was for the wonderful shepherd. My wife is a great singer so I asked her. In the game you hear Christina "kula" (Wikipedia - kulning) (a very old swedish way to call livestocks) when you want the sheep to jump faster. And if you touch the shepherd again you will hear Christina in a lovely, soft small song "to carm the sheep". Please, listen more of Christina at Youtube. My daughter, Ida She is, as I write this, 9 years old. She is a gamer. She loves all types of games so she is a perfect tester. And tested the game she did, and yes, she find some nasty bugs to. Of course did they all test the game. They have been playing/testing it for hours. They all think its a great game... hehe... I know they are partial because I am their father/husband... My oldest son, Jesper Jesper lives in Norway (I live in Sweden), but he also made something in the game. A special level. I am so proud of him because he construct the level just based on my explanation of the game. So, when the game comes out it will be the first time for him to see his level and the game. The plan Did I followed my plan? Yes and no. I did finished it in january 2011, but after(!) I uploaded it to App-store in february I found some bugs. I had to redraw it, fix the bugs and do another upload. The release I uploaded the game for review to Apple 11th of february. The 19th of february it was "Ready for sale". Release date was Monday 21st of February 2011 Version 1.1: Woolcraft - the Levels of the Woold The new version, out 27 march, includes the new cool feature called Levels of the Woold... The story is taken from www.woolcraft.net AppStore link: Woolcraft Thanks for reading!
It's awesome when people get their family involved with their games. Imagine if the whole family were developers, that'd be one insanely creative household.
Thanks for sharing your story. It's great to see how your friends and family helped in the production of your game. BTW, I listened to your wife's performance on the YouTube link you provided. While I don't understand the lyrics, the song was beautiful. Good luck with your game! Edit: I went to the appstore link and found a complaint about an individual purchasing the game twice because of the update. Is this going to be status quo for future updates, moving forward? Perhaps you can shed more light...?
Thanks! You like the story - good, makes me happy to hear! The update 1.2: Yes, some, but not all, had to reinstall the game or wait for the next update (1.21) who will come any day now (Apple must approve it). And Apple never let you purchase an app twice... I got mails from players all over the world and they all really love Woolcraft. For me that is so awesome! People like my game? They want more? Wow... and that's all I need to made up plans for the next version (again). Cause the most important thing is that I do those updates - so the game will last longer and got new features and new levels for all players that had purchased it (and plays it). I will tell my wife that you like her song. She too will be happy to hear that. The future for Woolcraft: - Woolcraft free/light version - Woolcraft Android version - Woolcraft Mac version ...and after that I will continue too release updates with new features and new good levels (with my familys support). If anyone had a suggestions for cool features, just tell me! In the next version I will have a boat/raft for the sheep, and that idea actually come from a player! Cheers...
