Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Inch Worm 2.0




Thanks to some fast work by Apple’s review team, Inch Worm 2.0 is now available in the App Store. It’s a free upgrade. So you can immediately start using the leaves to make bridges and dealing with those annoying dragonflies. There are 48 new puzzles. Go for it.

Thanks to everyone who helped with testing this time around. Star ratings and reviews for the new version are needed and appreciated.



Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Inch Worm Released!


This email arrived September 6th at 12:01 AM:


By morning Inch Worm was available in the App Store:


I'm pleased to have gotten this far, with a lot of help from friends. It's a first step. I'm trying to spread the word. Then it's on to a couple additional series of Inch Word puzzles, and another app.


Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Who knew?

Who knew what it would take to get a simple game for kids released in the App Store? Engineering - my speciality - was just a small fraction of the work. But we’re getting close…



Inch Worm is scheduled for release on September 6th. Whew!


Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Inch Worm Beta Testing



Beta testing is underway. Let me know if you'd like to help. 

Rick Meyers
rick@whitepixels.com


Friday, July 1, 2016

Inch Worm Testing



Big Picture

“I love this game.”  -  Jack
“What I like about it: it’s tricky a little.”  -  Hazel
“OK good. No. Not good.”  -  Aaron
“Oh, man.”  -  Brian

Getting Stuck

“I won the first one.”  -  Devan
“Great. Now I’m stuck.”  -  Titus (with a smile)
“Just to tell you, there’s a big trap.”  - Oliver
“Oh, I trapped myself.”  -  Joey (with a smile)
“I have an idea.”  - Sophia

Cherries

“I love cherries.”  -  Sophia
“I need a snack first.”  -  Violet (before eating a cherry)
“Grab that cherry at the beginning.”  -  Aidan 

Acorns and Snails

“The acorns are the hardest.”  -  Leif
“I forgot I can’t go to the edge.”  - Zachary
“Snails these days never listen!”  -  Simone

Strategy

“I know the secret.”  -  Emmy
“I just have to plan things out.”  -  Elsie
“There are actually two ways to get through.”  -  Charlie
“I’m not going to tell you the answer. It’s pretty obvious.”  -  David
“Finally. Took me long enough.”  -  Sean (big smile)

Bottom Line

“This game is actually quite fun.”  -  Titus
“Addicting.”  -  Michelle, Patti


Many thanks to everyone who tested Inch Worm. Each of you helped make Inch Worm a better game. Watching you play forced me to fix things.  ;-)


Testers:  David, Charlie, Ryan, Isabel, Violet, Jack, Brian, JD, Jude, Beth, Aaron, Josiah, Micah, Aidan, Devon, Jenn, Leif, Juliet, Birger, Zachary, Sophia, Simone, Hazel, Jenny, Oliver, Sara, Emmy, Elsie, Erin, Erik, Titus, Jeremiah, Joey, Patti, Matthew, Sean, Sally (wants to swipe), Kathy, Dennis, Erin, Michelle, Wes (the voice of Inch), Jeff (color consultant), and Karen (solved all the puzzles, multiple times).

Friday, June 17, 2016

Playing and Learning






"Play is a big part of how kids learn."
  
           zoopz.com

"For kids, especially kids under the age of 12, playing is learning and learning is playing.… So when we think about playing and we think about learning, the distinction between the two is very blurry and I think that as an organization, as an industry, we need to be a little bit more aware of that…
  
           Debra Levin Gelman
           http://uxpod.com/design-for-kids-an-interview-with-debra-levin-gelman/
           http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/design-for-kids/

"Better games. Smarter kids."
  
           whitepixels.com

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Favorite Kids' Books

In designing educational games for kids, some of my inspiration comes from children’s books. Here’s four of my all-time favorites:

Doggies
by Sandra Boynton
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
by Eric Carle
Mouse Paint
by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Make Way For Ducklings
by Robert McCloskey


I’ll never match this level of quality or appeal, but it’s nice to at least know where I’m aiming.

What are your favorites?

Saturday, April 16, 2016

Aplia Values

       

It's been a couple of years since I retired from Aplia. Before I forget, here's some of the values that helped make Aplia a great place to work.




Hire people that are smart and nice.
    They can learn everything else.

Get to know your users.
    Figure out what would make life better for them.

Design the best product for students and instructors.
    Everything else (sales, profits, ..) will follow.

Keep the design simple.
    White pixels are free!

Build a little. Test it with users.
    Then build some more. Then test it again.

Measure it. Fix it.
    Then measure again to see if you fixed it.

Give bugs top priority.
    Don’t build more if you have bugs.

Avoid add options for this and that.
    Add an option, go to jail.