Tell us what's happened to you recently (that's interesting)

PeterGinsberg · 2009-09-14T10:33:48.000Z

Hanzii:

Edit: And my wife the english teachers says that the visual cues (word) in the game where you have to match a letter to a fruit shouldn’t be cloured too, since kids will just pick the right colour and not learn the shape of the letter.

Thanks for the sale :). Your wife is right of course, we actually had it that way and changed it to color coded because our playtesters were never getting that game. Really what the game needed is a difficulty setting, which we should probably add in the next version update. We didn’t do it because we were really obsessed with the idea of a minimal interface, but I think we overdid it.

mouselock:

So how long did it take to put that app together? If it was relatively simple (the actual -game- looks relatively simple, but that doesn’t mean programming it was) then I guess I can begin to see how iPhone devs make things work. If you can and are willing, I’m sure some other folks than myself might be interested in how the net economics work out. (Although perhaps in a Hardware & Tech thread would be more apropos.)

This one took about 2 months, but that’s mostly because I was also learning Objective C, XCode, and all the iPhone APIs at the same time. And my business partner (the art guy) was learning about atlas sprites and the like. We’re doing another one now and I think it’ll be about 3 weeks total.

As far as the finances go, we’ll get a good return on one of these games if it continues to sell at the same pace for another 6 weeks. It’s a weird marketplace and I can see why a lot of big publishers are leery of it – although Madden seems to be doing very well. I could go into more detail but this feels like a weird thread for it.

Lorini · 2009-09-14T12:30:16.000Z

Then start a new thread! I know I’d love to hear more details.

JonRowe · 2009-09-14T13:30:51.000Z

Went to a team meeting this afternoon. They did a whole speil on a project I spearheaded, and I wasn’t mentioned once. This goes into a whole bit of detail that would take hours to explain. The newest members of the people working on this project were recognized and awarded, and the people from the start got nothing.

B.S.

Athryn · 2009-09-14T13:32:14.000Z

tiohn:

But tomatoes are fruit, you fruity fruit.

Scientifically yes, culinary, no. :)

JonRowe · 2009-09-14T13:49:03.000Z

Jon from 2 years ago would have sent the angry letter to his boss that is now a saved draft in outlook. Jon of the present is going to wait till tommorrow.

Tortilla · 2009-09-14T14:02:29.000Z

Smart man Jon. Sit on that until tomorrow at the minimum.

I absolutely hate it when that crap happens. Unfortunately in some workplaces you’ve just got to play the politics because the management isn’t on the ball enough to recognize and reward the appropriate people.

You aren’t doing anything wrong if you give management the behavior they reward, not the behavior they ask for.

cheapfilms · 2009-09-14T14:35:27.000Z

It appears the market is thawing a bit. Got an offer Friday after five months of looking, and taking a year off to ‘figure stuff out,’ which was mainly writing and hanging out. It was a crazy-quick hiring process, too. Sent resume Tuesday, got call Weds for interview Thurs, interviewed with CTO and dev next day, offer Friday. Not looking forward to rush hour.

JonRowe · 2009-09-15T08:57:57.000Z

I hate phone interviews. I don’t know how that one went. I really hate it when you get asked a question and have to waffle while you try to figure out what you want to say. I suppose everyone does the same thing. But in person, you have eye contact and can use visual cues, smile… etc. It is just dead silence on the phone.

UGGH! So much easier in person, I need eye contact!

Dravalen · 2009-09-15T09:29:15.000Z

Yep, I thought I bombed my phone interview at my current place. Turns out I did pretty well(and did it from the parking lot of a grocery store at that).

Griddle · 2009-09-15T09:40:31.000Z

tiohn:

But tomatoes are fruit, you fruity fruit.

That’s what she said?? :P

TheTrunkDr · 2009-09-15T10:29:40.000Z

Dravalen:

Yep, I thought I bombed my phone interview at my current place. Turns out I did pretty well(and did it from the parking lot of a grocery store at that).

They do indeed suck. I would hope most phone interviews are simply to figure out if it’s worth the company’s money and more importantly time to have the person come in for an actual face to face interview. If a company is skipping that step it’s a red flag.

Stepsongrapes · 2009-09-15T10:54:47.000Z

TheTrunkDr:

If a company is skipping that step it’s a red flag.

I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. For positions with relatively stringent requirements (certain degree, certain work experience, etc.) it’s not uncommon to skip a phone interview.

It’s only when a company has to deal with 50+ candidates that all nominally qualify that phonescreens become necessary.

5-10 qualified candidates for an important position? Bring 'em all in.

Eilonwy · 2009-09-15T11:26:44.000Z

I just handed the approved and measured final draft of my thesis to the Dean for a format review. She said it’ll take a couple of weeks to get back to me, but as of right now I’m registered to graduate in November with my MA.

I’ll just be glad to return all these fucking books to the library. I am sick of looking at them.

TheTrunkDr · 2009-09-15T11:31:21.000Z

Stepsongrapes:

I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. For positions with relatively stringent requirements (certain degree, certain work experience, etc.) it’s not uncommon to skip a phone interview.

It’s only when a company has to deal with 50+ candidates that all nominally qualify that phonescreens become necessary.

5-10 qualified candidates for an important position? Bring 'em all in.

I meant skipping the face to face interview, not the phone.

Stepsongrapes · 2009-09-15T11:47:54.000Z

TheTrunkDr:

I meant skipping the face to face interview, not the phone.

Ah, my apologies for the mis-read.

TheTrunkDr · 2009-09-15T12:30:36.000Z

Stepsongrapes:

Ah, my apologies for the mis-read.

Rereading it I think my wording was ambiguous, so my bad, I should have been more specific.

CLWheeljack · 2009-09-15T12:34:18.000Z

Jeez, get a room you two.

JonRowe · 2009-09-15T12:35:14.000Z

Just got a call from a staffing company specializing in lab jobs, they want to interview me! Woot!

WarrenM · 2009-09-15T12:39:46.000Z

We’ve got a recruiter cold calling (what seems like) all of Epic. Someone down the hall was called an hour ago and I just got mine now. Everyone basically laughs and hangs up on the guy but with all of the game developers out there at the moment who need jobs, why call people who have jobs? Seems counter productive.

PeterGinsberg · 2009-09-15T12:59:26.000Z

Well, between that and all the recent “new job/interview” post, I’d say the key QT3 employment economic indicator is pointing towards recovery!