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I work for a company that restricts access to the internet. Today I set up my iPhone so that when it’s docked, my work computer uses its tethered 3G connection to browse the internet, bypassing the filter. Here’s how I did it. more »

I posted a lengthy Q & A about my upcoming Cuttlefish Engine – a cross platform cell phone game engine for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry – over on the Cuttlefish Industries blog, for all you cell phone game makers.

So I’m toying with the idea of writing a game – I’ve got a pretty good idea that, more importantly, has remained a pretty good idea for the last few weeks. Simple to implement, fun to make, fun to play. I should be happy, but I’m not.

I’m tearing myself apart trying to decide which platform(s) to create it for. For starters, there’s the obvious: the iPhone. Tons of free engines and code samples make creating a game for the iPhone a no-brainer. Unfortunately, that means there are thousands upon thousands of them, and getting any sort of attention in that crowded market would require more work to market and publicize than it would take to actually create the game.

Then there’s the G1 – its hardware is on par with iPhone, yet it has a much smaller user base. This is a blessing and a curse – less users means fewer sales but less competition. Same deal with Blackberry – I don’t have the numbers to back this up but my hunch is that the number of iPhone users dwarves both the number of G1 and Blackberry users. At any rate, Don’t Dial iPhone is outselling Don’t Dial G1 by at least a 10:1 ratio (but, that’s with a very iPhone-centric marketing effort). Maybe with some G1 exclusive marketing I can get that to 5:1.

The Blackberry has in its court a much less crowded market, and a push for quality (RIM has explicitly said they’re not going to tolerate the crap apps that Apple does). Also, I’d be a fool to sell my game for anything above $1 on Apple’s app store, but I could sell for $3, maybe $5 on Blackberry and remain competitive. G1 is probably the same story, but muted slightly due to the number of free apps, as well as the G1′s open source spirit, which attracts a user base that’s a bit less comfortable with paying for apps.

The really discouraging thing is that technically, the three platforms couldn’t be farther from each other. Don’t Dial has taught me that getting any meaningful code sharing across all three platforms is difficult if not impossible. I’ve toyed with the idea of building a cross-platform metalanguage that would “compile” down to ObjC or Java code, but doing that is a lot of work, and then you have to abstract all the functionality of the APIs you need.

Someone, somewhere, is doing this, or will be soon, so there’s that too – should I develop my own abstraction, or wait until one gets released? The phonegap guys are making good progress, but they’re all Javascript, which makes sense for web apps, but for games is a harder sell.

Lots of questions, very little answers.

Wow, arrived back in town to find a flurry of activity: Don’t Dial has hit the app store! So for the last couple of days most of my time at home has been dedicated to spreading the good word. I always prefer coding over PR because at least with programming you can tell instantly if something works or doesn’t work. Most of the time.

I’m missing the GDC. Every year before the GDC I think “yeah, too expensive” and then during GDC week I get all wistful and weepy about not being there for it. This has been occurring now for several years and is occurring yet again this year. And every year, I say this: maybe next year I’ll go back and say hey to all the gamedev.net guys and we can reminisce about how much better the conference was when it was in San Jose (or maybe not). Those halcyon days of the early ’00s!

And yeah, you can say I’m biased, but here’s truth: when it comes to GDC coverage, gamedev.net has consistently blown every other site completely out of the water. Even gamasutra. The gamedev team works their asses off, and I guess that’s my silver lining – all I have to do is sit in front of a browser and refresh obsessively. :)