About Me
- Sue Parler
- New Jersey, United States
- I'm currently in my 32nd year teaching at DePaul Catholic HS in Wayne, NJ. I teach Game Design, Cryptology, and Spanish -- yes, it's an odd mix -- even I admit it. I am the IT Coordinator at DePaul Catholic as well, which means I manage the network, the student information system, the website, and the 900+ computers in the building. Yep, keeps me busy.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
PE1_iOS Development Tools: Unity 3
OK, I took the plunge. And I blame Karl. It’s all his fault that I have an iPhone… and an iPad. Ok, ok... yes, I have the new iTouch as well – but it’s still all Karl’s fault.
Until last June, I was a dyed-in-the-wool Windows PC User. Yes, I once had a Mac – the Mac SE. It was my first personal computer. It was a 9” monochrome computer. I think it had a 512KB hard drive – yes, kilobytes. I did foray into the Mac world one other time and bought a G4 laptop that I used exclusively for Final Cut Pro video editing.
Other than straying off the Windows path on those two occasions, it’s been a long string of 3.1, 95, 98, XP, Vista, and 7 operating systems for me. Yes, I managed to escape the ME debacle.
Then last June -- June 27th to be exact -- I opened the Full Sail computer of choice: The MacBook Pro. And I hated it. Everything was in the wrong place. By the end of MLR, I at least knew a few shortcuts and just about where everything was. Then came MLT and Karl Peterson joined our previously established Team Xtreme. He did a very cool presentation of iOS devices in Education.
So…
I bought an iPad. While I was waiting for its delivery, I bought an iPhone. While I was waiting for its delivery, I bought the new iTouch. OK, I have to admit I had previously owned an iPod (first generation video), a Nano (just for the Nike piece), and the original iTouch (which I ruined when my ChapStick melted through it – sigh).
But I still blame Karl. His presentation was just so captivating. He was the first person to whom I sent a message with my new iPhone too. It said quite simply “I drank the Kool Aid”.
So today, I signed up to delve into iOS. It’s scary. I had to apply for an Apple Developer’s Certificate, create an Application ID, create a Provisioning Profile, and Associate my three devices.
I’m using Unity as the game engine, which I’ve worked with before, but never on a Mac. Nor have I ever used XCode -- Apple's Integrated Development Environment -- and a necessary component to a successful Unity project.
Unity recently (the last week in September) released Version 3. I had previously worked with version 2.6, and before that 2.5. Any software developer will tell you that increments to the right of the decimal point are relatively minor, while to the left of the decimal point are generationally major.
Well, combine the generational change, with the OS change, with the device change and it’s like me speaking Russian -- large learning curve.
But the potential rewards are well worth it. For those who may be entirely unfamiliar with Unity, it is a 3D game development engine. Yes, I plan to create a 3D educational game, suitable for the iPad, iTouch, or iPhone. Don’t expect the second coming of Angry Birds (would that be Angrier Birds?), but if I can get a good game of a QBert nature up and running in two weeks, I’d be beyond thrilled.
I’ll keep you posted later this week with a few screenshots of how I’m doing. Or a photo of the hole in the window my iTouch made in frustration.
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2 comments:
You crack me up. I love the way you write. Curious- What color was the Kool Aid?
I can't believe there is a tech tool you are not familiar with using. But...I bet you didn't take you long to figure it out?
So far I have an ocean that when you turn the iTouch you change the direction of the waves. There's a sphere there too, but I can't find where it goes after the first two seconds -- it shoots off somewhere.
I get excited about learning anything new -- that's exactly what makes technology so appealing.
The Kool Aid, by the way, was red -- isn't it always? ;-)
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