Financial Times Moves from App to Web App

“We’re encouraging our readers to switch immediately to the new FT web app, as many new features and sections will be added over the coming weeks. Make sure you don’t miss out on these updates.”

Financial Times have just announced that they are discontinuing their iOS apps and moving to a web app format. Not only do they no longer have to pay Apple 30% on all subscriptions, they also state the following advantages:

  • Web browser access – No download needed
  • Automatic enhancements – No need to visit an app store for the latest version
  • Reading offline – The latest edition is automatically stored for offline access
  • Speed – Improved performance on most connections
  • Greater range of content – Including video on iPhone

It will definitely be interesting to see consumer reactions to this.

The new Financial Times web app can be found at: http://app.ft.com

2011 – The Year of the MacBook Pro Clones

It seems like both Dell and HP like the MacBook Pro Unibody design.

Here’s the new Dell XPS 15z versus MacBook Pro 15:

(Image from Engadget)

And here’s the new HP EliteBook 8560p versus MacBook Pro 15:

(Image from Notebookreview forum)

As you may have read HP consumer PC sales dropped 12 percent in Q1 2011, while at the same time Apple Mac sales increased with 28 percent. It’s easy to see how they must have reasoned internally regarding the re-design of the Elitebook laptops.

Strong Growth for Unity

The game development platform Unity has doubled its user base the past 6 months:

“Unity Technologies, provider of the Unity development platform for awesome games and interactive 3D on the web, iOS, Android, consoles and beyond, today announced that its registered user base has doubled to more than 500,000 users in just over 6 months; 150,000 of these users are active monthly users representing well over a million hours of game development every month. In addition, installs of the free Unity browser plugin for playing web games have surpassed 60 million.”

Read the full press release

In a related press announcement, Game Developer Magazine readers named Unity the #1 game engine they use for traditional and casual games. Read the full story.

I have used Unity myself for almost three years now, and have always believed firmly in the potential of the platform. Congratulations to David Helgason and his crew for the success, you deserve it!

Game Development with Unity

Yesterday I presented a longer version of my seminar Game development for iPhone, iPad and Android devices that I held at the Scandinavian Developer Conference, three weeks ago. I did not film it since I already have the Scandinavian Developer Conference version up, but if you are interested you can now download the individual steps to create a game with Unity below.

Download the updated presentation as a PDF document here

You can view and download the individual videos below:

Game Development with Unity 1/9
In this video I will show you how to create a menu background and buttons with Photoshop:

  1. Create a new document 1024 x 768 for iPad
  2. Draw a gradient background
  3. Create normal and touch down buttons
  4. Save background as PNG
  5. Save each button as PNG
    Note: each button is saved as a 1024×768 image
  6. Save image as PSD

Game Development with Unity 2/9
In this video I will show how to create a game level with colliders in Modo:

  1. Zoom to right unit scale
    Unity uses 1 unit = 1 meter
  2. Create game level objects
  3. Set materials
  4. Create colliders
    Prefix with Cn (CX = Box Collider, etc)
  5. Save as Modo object
  6. Use Modo2Unity script to save FBX
    Script removes camera, light, etc

Game Development with Unity 3/9
In the video I will show how to import menu graphics and level data, and set up colliders, lightning, lightmaps and dynamics:

  1. Create new Unity project
  2. Create some standard folders
    Materials, Scripts, Textures
  3. Import Level1.FBX, Menu graphics, Helper scripts
    AssignMaterial.js, BuildColliders.js
  4. Drag Level1.FBX to a new Scene
  5. Save Scene as Level1.unity
  6. Change Camera near / far distance
  7. Add a Directional Light
  8. Create Colliders from meshes prefixed with CX
  9. Create Lightmaps
  10. Add Rigidbody + Sphere Collider to our Ball
  11. Change Project Physics settings (precision)

Game Development with Unity 4/9
In this video I will create a script to control the ball by tilting the device:

  1. Create BallController.cs script
  2. # Get device Tilt values
  3. # Normalize Tilt values
  4. # Add Tilt force to the Ball
  5. Drag BallController script to the Ball in Unity

Game Development with Unity 5/9
In this video I will add script logic to detect if the ball falls down:

  1. Open BallController.cs script
  2. # Store original Ball position
  3. # Store original Ball rotation
  4. # If Ball Y position < 1.0 then reset values

Game Development with Unity 6/9
In this video I will create the menu system with EZ GUI and Sprite Manager 2:

  1. Create a new Scene: MainMenu1024
  2. Set camera to Orthographic
    Size = 384 (half height of 1024 x 768)
  3. Add EZ GUI: UI Manager
  4. Add EZ GUI: Simple Sprite for background
  5. Add EZ GUI: Load Scene Button for Play button
    Set it to load Level1.unity
  6. Add a material for the background
    Shader = Unlit / Texture
  7. Add a material for all buttons
    Material will be created by EZ GUI Build Atlases
    Shader = Unlit / Transparent
  8. Size and position the Play Button
    Using EZ GUI Size Sprites
  9. Add Level1.unity to the Build settings
    So it can be loaded by the Play button

Game Development with Unity 7/9
In this video I will create the end game menu screen with EZ GUI and Sprite Manager 2. The steps in the video are the same as video 6/9.

Game Development with Unity 8/9
In this video I will show how to disable PVRT texture compression on menu textures in Unity.

Game Development with Unity 9/9
In this last video I will show how to add a trigger to our goal object to load the end game menu. I will also switch target platform to iOS:

  1. Add a Trigger collider to our Goal object
  2. Add OnTriggerEnter() to BallController.cs
    Load the level “GameEnd1024” once the ball enter
  3. Add the scene GameEnd1024 to Build settings
  4. Switch target platform to iOS
  5. Play the game!

SSD Tips

If you have a Mac laptop with 8 GB or more RAM memory and an SSD drive, the default Sleep setting in OSX will significantly decrease the lifespan of your SSD drive.

By default, OSX will always save the full contents of your RAM memory to your SSD drive every time you put your laptop to sleep. This feature, called “Safe Sleep” is handy if you have your laptop in sleep mode for weeks and the power runs out. For most use cases however it’s more or less useless, and can safely be disabled.

I have posted detailed instructions on how to disable the Safe Sleep feature on my Mac OSX tips page

Seminar Week

Yesterday I talked about mobile trends at the EasyFairs expo in Stockholm, and today I will be speaking at Kunskapsbaren arranged by HiQ Stockholm about Mobile Trends and App Strategies. I just finished the final touches to the presentation, and it looks like it might be my best trend seminar yet! :)

Game development for iPhone, iPad and Android devices

Are you interested in game development for iPhone, iPad and Android devices?

This week I held a seminar at the Scandinavian Developer Conference 2011 with the topic “Game Development with Unity for iOS and Android devices”. The topics of the seminar included:

  1. Introduction to the Unity game development platform
  2. Comparison between Unity and the Unreal Development Kit (UDK)
  3. Hands-on: Creating a complete game from start to finish with Unity, Modo and Photoshop

I filmed the entire seminar, and you can now watch it online:

You can also download the entire presentation as a PDF document. Happy coding!