Anyone who has ever thought of developing a platform game knows it’s a hard biz to crack. First you have to have a great concept, then you have to develop that concept into a marketable product. More often than not it requires you have a team of talented and motivated people working with you to achieve your vision.

On top of that Nintendo, Playstation, and the rest require you purchase a very expensive (multi-thousand dollar) software development kit from them and gain their approval of your title before releasing it. All of that is enough to discourage even the most motivated of people.

Bob is a solo developer who has created a 20-hour long 2D role playing game for the Nintendo DS – by himself.

Step back for a minute and think what that requires…better yet, I’ll quote him in his own words.

"bob’s game" is a sort of masterpiece for me. I’ve invested well over
15,000 hours into its development over 5 years of dedication-
That is no exaggeration, and it shows!

All concepts, story, code, sprites, tiles, music, samples, fonts,
etc. were created entirely from scratch by me- and I had to
teach myself the skills as I went along, with no training!

The code is straight C, the music is tracked, and the art is all
completely hand-clicked tiles and sprites- done the right way,
pixel by pixel, like the classics we all know and love.

I intend this to become one of the last great old-school
2D retail console games- truly the design of a single mind.

It’s the game I wanted to play when I was younger,
a vision I’ve been following since then.

This dude is a mad genius. A mad, obsessive compulsive genius. Some people are giving Bob a hard time on youtube, but I have nothing but respect for his effort. Anyone that can see out their vision with only their time and hard work is ok in my book. Props to Bob.

Problem is, Nintendo won’t even sell the guy a SDK so he can release his game on the Nintendo DS. Because of this, Bob is staging a 100 day protest. He’s locked and barricaded himself in his room, with friends delivering food once weekly. Man, he’s not just really smart and motivated – he’s crazy too! This could be the worst adult temper tantrum ever, or one of the most clever viral marketing campaigns to date. I can’t tell and I don’t really care. Gotta love a guy like that.

Anyhow, Bob would like for everyone to write Nintendo and tell them you want to play his game. Simple as that. Please take a few minutes out of your day to help him out. Crazy Bob should have the chance to succeed or fail, just like everyone else. There are a number of titles out for the DS that are of questionable quality, but they seemed to get released just fine. His game actually looks like something I might play.

Trailer for "bob’s game"

Making great software is a huge challenge.

The challenge only gets harder for those that have to wear multiple hats because of constraints, self-imposed or otherwise.

As most readers of the blog know I act as the main designer and developer for Cashboard (shameless plug #10384). This situation arose from many factors, but the main one being I wanted to get the product up and running under my own power. I’ve seen too many projects fail and I didn’t want anyone to blame on this one but myself.

I tell most people I’m a designer first, but I program out of necessity. Anyone in the software engineering field knows this is usually a bad idea and results in a shit product, yet I believe I’m able to pull it off because I’m able to "switch modes" or "switch hats" most of the time.

I’m damn good at what I do, but I’m definitely not above the classic problem. I routinely have to catch myself "designing like an engineer" instead of designing as a user experience person. Case in point, Cashboard’s "Account Preferences" screen.

Here’s a group of logos I came up with during the recent Cashboard rebranding.

The final, accepted logos are at the top left. Losers were rejected for a variety of reasons, but I thought some people might enjoy seeing the thought process that goes into an effort like that.

Sometimes I just can’t leave things alone. I refreshed the Cashboard brand a few weeks ago in preparation for an event I needed to attend. The results were OK, but nothing I was overjoyed with.

I’ve since taken the time to really update the brand. I believe the new look reflects the quality of service that we’re providing with Cashboard.

That, and I just love looking better than the competition…

Here’s a promotional business card I made for Cashboard a day ago.

It’s part of a larger rebranding effort which includes a site and application design refresh.

I love designing with letterforms.

Wish I had more time to design and could spend less time coding.

It seems that the copywriters (html developers?) over at Microsoft’s Photosynth project have a sense of humor about them.

When trying to install Microsoft Photosynth, I was greeted with this snarky and self-deprecating message on my Macbook Pro.

Is big bad MSFT striking back at Apple by using their own tactics? Can the microserfs out-hipster Apple?

Story developing…

Just dropped a redesign on subimage.com after four years of stagnation.

It was time for a change.

Wow, just got done watching the Helvetica documentary.

I consider myself a type geek, but I now realize my interest in letters is rudimentary at best.

The film interviews many high profile designers, as they explore the history of fonts, and Helvetica in particular.

Being a self-trained designer, the segment with David Carson was the most interesting to me.

If you have any appreciation for fonts and letterforms (or design in general), this is a must-see.

Ever wonder what the financial, racial, or marital status of your zip code is? Wonder no longer, ZipSkinny has the answers you’re looking for.

I’m impressed by the unique data visualization they’re using. Cool stuff…However, the rest of the site’s design could use some love and attention.

Zoom interfaces have interested me since reding Raskin’s The Humane Interface. Up until now I haven’t seen a modern example of one.

This changed today when I read a post over at SVN about the OLPC’s $100 laptop.

The interface team OLPC put together came up with something that throws the desktop metaphor right out the window.

Sadly, the “demo” is just a bunch of screenshots. Guess I’ll have to wait to try it out.

Looks promising though, and great to see UI people thinking about new ways to convey information on the screen.