Tic Tac Toe? Ten!

Brandon Middleton est un developpeur passionne qui vient de sortir une nouvelle application sur Android…

C'est toujours une actualite interessante pour essayer de comprendre ce qui se passe reellement sur Android, et la comparaison avec une application iPhone reste un repere utile a cet egard.

J'ai pose quelques questions a Brandon…

ServicesMobiles : Why developing this kind of
application ? In what consist Tic Tac Toe Ten?

  BM:  I created this application in college
because I'm a big fan of strategy and puzzle games.  I thought that this
concept would be something interesting for people both young and old.
 Until mobile apps came about I really didn't have another outlet to get
my game into the hands of lots of users.  So I'm thankful for the creation
of things like the Android Market and the App Store.

    Tic Tac Toe Ten consists of 10 3×3 grids
(1 master grid and 9 small grids embedded into the master grid).  The
object of the game is to win on these 9 small grids.  You can configure
the game's winning condition to be "first to win one grid",
"first to win two grids", "first to win three grids", or
"first to win three grids in a row".  Playing against my killer
AI algorithm and being able to change the winning condition is something that I
felt would keep the user coming back for more. 

ServicesMobiles : In terms of development, submission
to Android platform, any tips ?

BM:    In comparison to the iPhone
development process, coding up Tic Tac Toe Ten for iPhone was pretty much a
breeze.  It was a lot less expensive and a lot less restrictive than
coding for the iPhone platform as well.  I was more comfortable with Java
than with Objective-C prior to starting mobile development, but once that
learning hurdle was crossed, the playing fields leveled out a little.  As
far as tips are concerned, I'd say check, double check, and then triple check
that your app is as bug free as possible before you submit.  Apple has a
very strict review process to police apps, but Google leaves the responsibility
with you for the most part.  Make sure what you're putting out there is a
quality product, if it is people will love you and praise you but if it's not
then you'll damage your reputation and the people might never give you another
shot.

ServicesMobiles : Why Android ? How do you see this
platform developing?

 BM:   It's easy to see Android catching up
with iPhone in terms of mobile market share.  I respect Google and the way
they make decisions and I believe that this pretty much open Android platform
might be able to swallow up Apple's more closed approach to mobile computing.
 We'll have to wait and see but it's not a big stretch of the imagination
to see Google closing ground quickly.

    I see the platform developing to
integrate Google Apps and services into an 'everything device' (maybe the Droid
or Nexus One . . . who knows?).  Google's intelligence in the cloud
coupled with these devices will ultimately make people's lives easier because
they will have ubiquitous contextual data at their fingertips on a 24/7 basis.
 So I see Android as a platform that will enable ideas and transactions to
happen quicker and hopefully easier and this is all because it's closer to open
source approach than Apple's way of doing things.

ServicesMobiles : Any figures to give us ? How to
make money on Android?!

  BM:  I'd like nothing more than to tell
you that I'm retiring from my day job because of how successful I've been with
my apps but it's just not true . . . yet.  Honestly, I'm pretty new to
this Android mobile marketing stuff.  As far as monetization goes I'm going
to try to partner with a couple of brands to have some mobile challenges and
competitions that their customers/fans take part in.  These types of
activities create good publicity for all parties involved and turn into a
little money for me hopefully.  I learned on iPhone that you don't really
make that much money by serving ads in your app so I've decided to make Tic Tac
Toe Ten for Android ad free for now.

ServicesMobiles : more on your background ? Any
new plans out of iPhone,  or android ? Like iPad?!

  BM:  My background is a lot like Superman or
Batman.  By daytime I'm an IT guy and an app developer (Clark Kent, Bruce
Wayne) but by night I'm a hip hop artist, a producer, and a gigging musician
(Superman, Batman: check out http://www.myspace.com/brandontimothy).
 I live in Silicon Valley, CA now but grew up in Chicago, IL not far from
where the Obamas used to live prior to the White House.  I'm a big fan of
sports as well: spectating and playing.  I play soccer everyday and
basketball occasionally to keep in shape.  Ok I think that's enough for
the background . . . I don't want to bore you too much.

   As far as plans for the future, I just
released an update today for the iPhone version of Tic Tac Toe Ten and I'll
keep quiet on my iPad plans for now.  Don't want to give away too much
info before it's time.  I'll be having fun for the next couple of months
trying to figure out how to make this Tic Tac Toe Ten idea of mine a worldwide
phenomenon.  Watch out France, watch out Africa, watch out China, watch
out everywhere . . . Tic Tac Toe Ten is coming to a computing device near you
soon!!!

Brandon Middleton, un developpeur bien sympathique !

Voici une video de l'application, c'est toujours mieux en image !

Ceci est un reportage de l'envoye special dans la Silicon Valley Phil Jeudy