5 ms·

Finally, someone who has the guts to admit that their app wasn't built in a weekend!

Someone1234 12y ago
Honestly and the claims seem to be getting shorter and shorter all the time. First it was "we built this in a month," then a week, and on to just a weekend. Recently people have been saying they built the entire app in a single "hackathon" (basically one day). If you really look at almost all of these claims they're false. Often times people would have built three similar apps and for their "new" one they just combine elements of the three and call it done.
- dmix 12y ago
  Eh I don't know, I've been on HN for years and feel like people have stopped posting articles like this. The look-at-my-app-I-built-in-24hrs is definitely past it's heyday. The programming languages, design frameworks, and PaaS infrastructure that allowed people to start making apps quickly has been around for a very long time now (2007?).
- general_failure 12y ago
  Well, I did write my app when I was waiting for the food to cool down after I put it out of the microwave.
  - actionscripted 12y ago
    So you wrote yours in a singe snackathon? Congrats!
    - 9point6 12y ago
      Depends on the food, there're things I've heated in the microwave that have been cooling down for the past two weeks
- ttty 12y ago
  I've actually build the first version of Planets Multiplayer game and looks like in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fAwL1Pv48A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fAwL1Pv48A in 2 weeks. The code was a mess and took me another 2 weeks only to refactor properly. Now looks like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SANFF5FYYHE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SANFF5FYYHE
  - nacs 12y ago
    Looks good. This is a Canvas/WebGL based game? What libraries did you use?
forrestthewoods 12y ago
I built a game with a few other people that took... 30 weeks! We built an infographic to show progress that I'm quite proud of. (This is ~2 years old now) https://outland-live.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media/downloads/30weeksOfOutland.jpg https://outland-live.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media/downlo...
- mind_heist 12y ago
  Your game is awesome ! I just took part in a GAME Jam this weekend and it was my first time attempting a serious game. I had written some mock side scrollers in pygame before. your art work looks amazingggg ! Few quick questions ... Do you have sprites in the iOS world too ? Is your player , coins and enemies all sprites ? And one more thing is , are you blitting a scene graph ? I am having a hard time thinking about this data structure. Would love to hear you explanation. Thank you!
  - forrestthewoods 12y ago
    The art is amazing. I can say this because I'm just the programmer. Eka did most of the art. The end of the 30 weeks image shows who worked on it and for how long. The simple 2d sidescroller you see is surprisingly complex. The characters and obstacles are full 3d models. The animations are authored in 3dsmax and have something like 20 bones. The course environment is flat polygons with clever UV mappings to get the most out of texture sheets. The background is a flat 2d image. It's all rendered orthographically with careful depth values to make sure it layers properly.
- sebkomianos 12y ago
  I remember reading your story here and writing my thoughts about it: http://blog.nerdvana.gr/index.php/2013/03/humble-beginnings/ http://blog.nerdvana.gr/index.php/2013/03/humble-beginnings/ Maybe I should do a rewrite..
gearoidoc 12y ago
I built my first game (and native iOS app) in 6 weeks - its Sim City for tech startups and its called Hipster CEO :)
- mikeleeorg 12y ago
  That actually sounds interesting, so I looked it up. I'm guessing this is it, yea? http://www.hipsterceo.com/ http://www.hipsterceo.com/
  - gearoidoc 12y ago
    Yup, thats the one. I'm busy building the sequel right now - hope to have it ready for December this year.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
computerjunkie 12y ago
Agreed. Its realistic, and something that can be achieved in that time frame. People who claim to build applications in 3 days, I'm wary of them. Sure you can hack your way to an application in a couple of days, but I think it will be bug prone and not fully optimized. Congrats to the developer and his friend. I'm inspired to create my own applications one day.
neddiejam 12y ago
I've done a couple of apps as a hobbyist - I find they take about 6 months from idea to deployed with a couple of updates. I try and do everything myself for the interest and challenge of it. Unfortunately, google banned the free version of my latest masterpiece yesterday. I even called it Bikinis vs Zombies rather than Strippers vs Zombies to make it less inflammatory. I designed it to be compliant with the sex and nudity guidelines but it got banned anyway. The paid version will get banned shortly I'm sure! Currently looking at other distribution routes - anyone got any suggestions? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.neddiejam.bvsz https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.neddiejam....
- logfromblammo 12y ago
  I'm guessing that "Whores vs Hordes" and "Bimbos versus Zimboes" would only make it worse. Have you considered that the name is not the bulk of the problem? Just change the art assets a little. Turn one side into nurses, and the other into infected patients, and call it "Ebola Nation". You're welcome.
  - neddiejam 12y ago
    Yeah I'd thought about that, but I figured it's no worse than gta - which you can get on google play. Lots of good fun ideas there, unfortunately the Christmas edition's going to have to wait

Honestly and the claims seem to be getting shorter and shorter all the time. First it was "we built this in a month," then a week, and on to just a weekend. Recently people have been saying they built the entire app in a single "hackathon" (basically one day). If you really look at almost all of these claims they're false. Often times people would have built three similar apps and for their "new" one they just combine elements of the three and call it done.

dmix 12y ago
Eh I don't know, I've been on HN for years and feel like people have stopped posting articles like this. The look-at-my-app-I-built-in-24hrs is definitely past it's heyday. The programming languages, design frameworks, and PaaS infrastructure that allowed people to start making apps quickly has been around for a very long time now (2007?).
general_failure 12y ago
Well, I did write my app when I was waiting for the food to cool down after I put it out of the microwave.
- actionscripted 12y ago
  So you wrote yours in a singe snackathon? Congrats!
  - 9point6 12y ago
    Depends on the food, there're things I've heated in the microwave that have been cooling down for the past two weeks
ttty 12y ago
I've actually build the first version of Planets Multiplayer game and looks like in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fAwL1Pv48A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fAwL1Pv48A in 2 weeks. The code was a mess and took me another 2 weeks only to refactor properly. Now looks like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SANFF5FYYHE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SANFF5FYYHE
- nacs 12y ago
  Looks good. This is a Canvas/WebGL based game? What libraries did you use?

forrestthewoods 12y ago

I built a game with a few other people that took... 30 weeks! We built an infographic to show progress that I'm quite proud of. (This is ~2 years old now) https://outland-live.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media/downloads/30weeksOfOutland.jpg https://outland-live.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media/downlo...

mind_heist 12y ago
Your game is awesome ! I just took part in a GAME Jam this weekend and it was my first time attempting a serious game. I had written some mock side scrollers in pygame before. your art work looks amazingggg ! Few quick questions ... Do you have sprites in the iOS world too ? Is your player , coins and enemies all sprites ? And one more thing is , are you blitting a scene graph ? I am having a hard time thinking about this data structure. Would love to hear you explanation. Thank you!
- forrestthewoods 12y ago
  The art is amazing. I can say this because I'm just the programmer. Eka did most of the art. The end of the 30 weeks image shows who worked on it and for how long. The simple 2d sidescroller you see is surprisingly complex. The characters and obstacles are full 3d models. The animations are authored in 3dsmax and have something like 20 bones. The course environment is flat polygons with clever UV mappings to get the most out of texture sheets. The background is a flat 2d image. It's all rendered orthographically with careful depth values to make sure it layers properly.
sebkomianos 12y ago
I remember reading your story here and writing my thoughts about it: http://blog.nerdvana.gr/index.php/2013/03/humble-beginnings/ http://blog.nerdvana.gr/index.php/2013/03/humble-beginnings/ Maybe I should do a rewrite..

gearoidoc 12y ago

I built my first game (and native iOS app) in 6 weeks - its Sim City for tech startups and its called Hipster CEO :)

mikeleeorg 12y ago
That actually sounds interesting, so I looked it up. I'm guessing this is it, yea? http://www.hipsterceo.com/ http://www.hipsterceo.com/
- gearoidoc 12y ago
  Yup, thats the one. I'm busy building the sequel right now - hope to have it ready for December this year.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

computerjunkie 12y ago

Agreed. Its realistic, and something that can be achieved in that time frame. People who claim to build applications in 3 days, I'm wary of them. Sure you can hack your way to an application in a couple of days, but I think it will be bug prone and not fully optimized. Congrats to the developer and his friend. I'm inspired to create my own applications one day.

neddiejam 12y ago

I've done a couple of apps as a hobbyist - I find they take about 6 months from idea to deployed with a couple of updates. I try and do everything myself for the interest and challenge of it. Unfortunately, google banned the free version of my latest masterpiece yesterday. I even called it Bikinis vs Zombies rather than Strippers vs Zombies to make it less inflammatory. I designed it to be compliant with the sex and nudity guidelines but it got banned anyway. The paid version will get banned shortly I'm sure! Currently looking at other distribution routes - anyone got any suggestions? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.neddiejam.bvsz https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.neddiejam....

logfromblammo 12y ago
I'm guessing that "Whores vs Hordes" and "Bimbos versus Zimboes" would only make it worse. Have you considered that the name is not the bulk of the problem? Just change the art assets a little. Turn one side into nurses, and the other into infected patients, and call it "Ebola Nation". You're welcome.
- neddiejam 12y ago
  Yeah I'd thought about that, but I figured it's no worse than gta - which you can get on google play. Lots of good fun ideas there, unfortunately the Christmas edition's going to have to wait