Which game should I get?

We have launched three games in the iTunes App Store - Smart Run (currently v1.1), Match On and Mathlon. There are similarities in the game play, but the games are targeted for different users.

Match On is the ideal game for preschoolers. It is meant for young kids (2-4 years or so) who primarily enjoy and learn from pictures. It is especially colorful compared to our other games and the sound is more appealing to kids of this age group. It is also easier than the other games, as the game does not speed up as the game progresses.

Match On contains topics like animals, colors, shapes, food, tools, transport, objects and structures - the game play is the same - the kid sees the clue as a picture and when faced with three choices, picks the same picture from the three to earn points and continue playing.

Read a full review of Match On here, and get it here.

Mathlon is a game for kids beginning their math learning (ages 4-7) - beginning with counting, kids can progress through single digit arithmetic - addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The game is for slightly older kids, who can read, and are beginning to learn arithmetic.  Keeping in mind for these kids' need for challenge, the game gets faster and hence more thrilling as they get more correct answers. 

Read the full Mathlon review or download it from the iTunes App Store here.

Smart Run is a game for older kids and adults (ages 5+) - it covers a wide range of topics, and can be used to learn picture recognition, alphabets, spelling, reading, counting, arithmetic and geography.

You can pick different modes and topics, and the game accelerates as you get more right answers.

Read the latest Smart Run review here, or download it from here.

So, there you have it - three games providing learning and fun for people with different interests. For offers, reviews, tips and tricks for these games, check out our Facebook page.

Hardware, software and other useful resources

Smart Run was developed on a Macbook and an iMac, with Xcode and the iOS SDK. We tested the game extensively on two iPads and two iPhones and on the simulators for other form factors. The robustness of Apple devices and the high attention to end user experience made the entire experience a pleasure. 

My personal take on Apple devices: Among many other things, I love the effort taken by Apple to quality test every application that goes on their iDevices. While there are controversies surrounding some apps being rejected, and some concerns around the walled garden, there is a clear difference between the quality and the dependability of apps on the iOS app store as compared to other more open platforms. 

Additionally, we are very thankful for the various tools and resources that enhance the experience of game development in this ecosystem:

cocos2d-iphone - cocos2d is an open source source library (which means it provides a bunch of source files that you add and use within your project) that significantly reduces the time taken to develop iOS 2d games. More on the decision process that led to our choosing cocos2d, and how it worked for us (in a word, very well).

Sharekit - is a source level addon that allows us to easily add sharing capabilities on a large variety of social platforms - Facebook, Twitter, Email, Pinterest, Flickr, etc.

raywenderlich.com - this site hosts the widest range of some of the best tutorials for learning iOS development, ranging from iOS SDK to cocos2d to open GL to unity. 

learn-cocos2d.com - this site provides a lot of good content about everything to do with cocos2d game development. I learnt almost everything I know about cocos2d performance optimization from this site.

stackoverflow.com - whenever we got stuck with development or design issues, we used several developer forums, but by far, we found the best and most successful responses at stackoverflow.com.  

git and github - we used git for managing source versioning and github to collaborate between the two developers - git is a fantastic version control system and github made it really easy to manage our code.

Preview on Mac - The preview tool on Mac was a blessing when it came to scaling images in bulk - we had a lot of images of the same size that had to be scaled in a simple 1:2:4 ratio. Preview made it really easy to do this.

Automator on Mac - The automator tool on Mac allowed us to automate several repetitive processes of file naming, renaming and other manipulations. I have worked on enterprise workflow technologies for a long time, but automator makes workflow accessible to the common user.

gimp 2 - Even though the graphics in the game were created predominantly by a graphics artist, likely using sophisticated graphics tools, several quick fixes and manipulations were done on gimp 2 - a free open source raster graphics tool.

Texture Packer - This tool makes it real easy to create spritesheets - spritesheets are a great optimization to your images.

Our website was created using simple html, css and jquery and caroufredsel (a jquery based carousel plugin) to display screenshots.

There are several more tools that we used and evaluated, and I will add them to this list later.

Leave a comment to let us know which of these tools you would like more in depth details about.


  

Hello, Smart Run

Smart Run has launched in the iTunes App Store!

Smart Run is a running game with a good dose of learning  mixed in. 

You are running along a hilly fenced trail. A clue floats by above you. Soon, you come by a fork, where you have to jump to the right path based on the clue. 

Smart Run is fun for all ages and interests. Even a young kid can identify pictures of animals, things, food, tools and their names. Others may choose to run and jump while practicing their counting. Upgrades within the app get you arithmetic (Even full grown adults have been known to break a sweat while multiplying and dividing in a fraction of a second), maps, famous structures and spelling skills. The game gives you full control on what topics you want to enable depending on your interest and knowledge level.


As you get right answers, your score goes up, and so does the speed. Wrong answers and you lose points, and early on the run slows down a bit to let you catch your breath. If you don't jump across to a path in time, you fall off the cliff and the game ends.

A typical cycle begins with a hint floating by above you:

Next, you come to a fork, where three paths present three choices:

You swipe to jump towards your chosen path and the other choices fade away:

Smart Run works on iOS 4.3 and later, on iPhone 3gs and later, and on all iPads. It is also optimized for iPhone 5. 

Smart Run can be downloaded from iTunes.   

For more information, check out our website.   

You can connect with Smart Run fans (which includes us, of course) on our Facebook page or our Twitter account. We would also love to hear your suggestions, feedback or any issues you need help with directly by mail. 


Smart Run was developed by my family - Subha (my wife), Aadi (our five year old son) and Anand (me). More about us and how Smart Run came into being in this post. 

The team

Smart Run was developed by my family from our apartment in Bangalore, India - 

• Aadi  - Six months ago, all of five years old, our son Aadi loved running games. We wondered - is it possible to make his running game experience more fun by testing his knowledge? That was the inspiration for Smart Run.     Aadi also did most of our usability testing (brutally demanding at times, he brought a unique and refreshing perspective to the game well beyond his years).
• Subha - my wife, and software developer extraordinaire - coming from an enterprise software development background, she skillfully embraced the challenges of learning the gaming domain and the iOS SDK, as well as other required platforms and tools. 
• Anand - that's me. I come from an enterprise software development and project management background, mostly at large technology companies. I have been passionate about the consumer space and gaming on consoles and mobile devices, but primarily as a user until now. After dabbling with consumer web experiences in the visual and social space, the draw of the iDevice along with the concerns of a parent in an era of gadgets led to Smart Run as a small contribution to making games that encourage learning while having  fun. 
• The awesome game graphics and animations were created by Sonu, a part time freelance graphics consultant.  

It took us about six months from conception to launch of Smart Run, a good part of which was spent understanding the new technologies and business models of this space.  

Stay tuned for more posts around the Smart Run development, submission, marketing and launching experience. Leave a comment to let us know what you would like to hear about.