Som(a)niloquy

Celebrate good times, come on!

We are used to planning for disaster, disappointment, failure or bad news. How often do we prepare to celebrate? Celebration is such a critical part of business and company culture.

Today we are celebrating our Code-Monkey’s title Bok Choy Boys game we made with A&A Global being featured by Apple’s New and Noteworthy section on the iTunes store. Our team was obviously energized and excited about the news. We instantly made plans to celebrate and congratulate all of our friends, collaborators and hard working artists that made this happen.

So why don’t we plan for things like this? Something common to our staff in discussing the topic is that all of them have the experienced the opposite.  People opt out of walking when receiving a degree.  First steps, words and birthdays are lauded but as we grow older we shy away from them.

So at Soma and Code-Monkey we want to break the mold. We are taking time out to cherish this a bit. If you are near our office we invite you stop by and have some fun. We will have an open house from 1-3 pm this next Thursday June 30th 2011.

And if you find yourself in our shoes take a minute out of your schedule and value celebration.

Taking back the boxed games?: Do you prefer eVersions

Are you buying family games this Christmas? We are. We bought a few favorites for the kids, but actually took them back in favor of the eVersions. This was a choice my wife made. That really surprised me. Let me just say in our family, she is not the gadget freak the rest of us are. My Kids and I play games on all of our devices (we have many, one of the perks being in the gadget/game/app development business). She has always resisted using them…until now. To set the scene, about two weeks ago the kids introduced her to Angry Birds on the iPad. She was instantly hooked. Then this last weekend the  Electronic Arts sale was announced and I grabbed many of the titles for 99 cents that were usually $6.99 – 9.99. One of the games happened to be the same as a boxed game she had bought, Piktureka, as a Christmas present . After playing as a family and enjoying the sounds, unique and enjoyable playtime, she bagged up the boxed version and took it back to the store.

I asked her why,  and she said that it just  made sense. The iPad version reduces clutter, is more fun to play, you can’t lose pieces,  and she really likes the sound effects. And to top it all off this is coming from the least techy person in our house. So there you have it. What games are you buying this Christmas. We are also enjoying Clue Spy, Yatzee, and the kids really like Life, although Life for me feels a bit claustrophobic on the iPad.

The Mouse is Dead! Long Live Touch!

I’l never forget the moment I first understood that the iPhone was something magic though at the time I wasn’t sure what it was I was observing. My pastor, who is one of the most dedicated MacHeads I know, had an iPhone without 38 seconds of them being released. A few days later he was showing a photo of his grandson, on the iPhone, to Beth. Beth is one of those people who maintains a kind of  love-hate relationship with all technology. She’s not a gear-head by any stretch, but nor is she a Luddite like Rebekah. (I do SO love you sweetie, even if you resent my livlihood.)

Beth took the iPhone, cooed appropriately at the charming picture and began to hand the phone back to Bill. As she did the photo rotated and scaled and Beth gasped. She pulled the phone back to herself and the photo spun around again. Eyes like saucers and her mouth agape she starts spinning the phone back and forth back and forth in awe until Bill snatches it away from her with a protective ‘give me THAT’ kind of look.

Without any expectation and no penchant for TechWow Beth had seen something that connected with her emotionally and intuitively. In that instant I think I glimpsed the future.

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The Lament of a Flex Developer

or “Why Apple broke my heart and Adobe is holding the pieces”

by our very own Ryan Green

April 8, 2010 was the day the first salvo was fired, all out war declared, and the following day an Adobe employee named Lee Brimelow had his emotions get the better of him. His blog post told Apple collectively to… well… ahem. Apply screws to themselves.

See, the following Monday, was a day that I, as a Flex / Flash developer, loyal Apple fan-boy and AppStore developer had eagerly anticipated with bated breath. Monday, the 12th, was the day when the world would open up. When those, like me, whose livelihood depends largely on the Adobe Flash Platform would finally be allowed into the mobile space; unencumbered; invigorated; and empowered.

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Pride Comes Before A Fall

I just read an article in Bloomberg Businessweek called ‘Apple’s Endlessly Expanding (App) Universe‘ in which Steve Jobs is quoted as saying “We only shipped [the iPad] on Saturday, and on Sunday we rested.”

…Selah
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Coming Down Off The Flash Fence

For the last several weeks (or has it been months now?) I’ve watched the Flash wars from a distance. Not for lack of interest but for lack of time. It’s been a busy season around here and for all the rhetoric I think I sensed that for all the headlines I really didn’t have the information I needed to make an informed decision. But I’ve had the chance to get more-or-less caught up and I think I’ve come to a place where I’m willing to come down off the fence.

I think Steve Jobs is right.
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