Today we will be interviewing one of the legends on the Windows Phone Homebrew Scene Heathcliff74, this guys has got some great apps for the homebrew community the most known one has to be Windows Phone root Tools an app that all homebrewers should install. So lets try and figure out a bit more about this “Heathcliff74″ shall we ..
Hi tell us a bit about yourself .
I’m 37 years old, married and proud father of 2 kids. I have a bachelor degree in Software Engineering. I live in the Netherlands.
Hey you are not that Dutch hacker who held all those jailbroken iPhones hostage for €5 are you ? ( just kidding ) … well are you ?
Why Heathcliff74 ?
I chose Heathcliff74 as nickname because at the time I was watching the Heathcliff cartoon cat (long time ago). ’74 is my birth-year, which I added because on every forum there already is a “Heathcliff” :-)
are you sure it has nothing to do with lasagna ?
What do you do ?
I have been working for my current employer for almost 15 years now and we develop ERP software quite successfully. But I’d like to move to mobile technology professionally too. So I will see if this is possible with my current employer, or else I might consider a career-switch.
I have found a story from a Windows Phone developer that created a Local Scout type Augmented Reality app called Pinbucket (Link below). It tells of his struggle to get the app through Microsoft Certification through at least half a dozen resubmissions and a shocking three months in the process.
The cause of the certification rejections seemed to stem from the strict adult policy, even though the application had no adult features at all, here is an short quote from the article.
It’s no secret that I want to encourage more developers into the Windows Phone app scene and one of my favourite homebrew apps at present is the Battery Status app with Live tile support, from a developer on XDA-Devs, I contacted him and requested an interview and my request was favourably received.
We got the chance to speak to Josh and Samuel the guys behind Wario’s Jewels 7 and they informed us the NoDo version is going up today !!! If you want to get it as soon as it goes up I would suggest keeping en eye on their twitter account.
The devs have informed us : The build that is shown in the emulator is not the final build. The final build is much better and the UI is redone.
1. Tell us a bit about Wario’s Jewels 7 and how it works ?
Wario’s Jewels 7 (WJ7) is an emulator of the classical gameboy. It isn’t a GameBoy color emulator (not yet). It has been written in C# for Silverlight from a blank paper. WJ7 isn’t the best GB emulator ever but it works pretty well :)
2. Tell us a bit about the team behind Wario’s Jewels 7
The Team behind Wario’s Jewels 7 consists of a group of dedicated people who are passionate about 3rd party homebrew for Windows Phone and have worked tirelessly to get Wario’s Jewels where it is today. Samuel Blanchard is the developer of WJ7. Josh Bogolub is in charge of the communication of the product. Other members of the WJ7 team are testers.
We got the chance to speak to Jobi Joy, the Director of UX Technology at IdentityMine. Most of you might already know about IdentityMine, they are the folks behind some great apps on Windows Phone like the IMDb App and some new apps like White Pages , FoodSpotting etc are on its way…check out the full interview for more info
IMDb
Tell us a bit about IdentityMine? Who are you guys? What do you do?
We were founded in 2001 and have become a premier provider of technology services around the world. IdentityMine is a software application development firm, and we specialize in user experiences, interactive design, and natural user interfaces. We are a group of like-minded individuals that share a passion for meaningful and impactful applications. Our software developers, UX designers, project managers, and integrators all work closely together to build the software experiences many people use every day. We all work very hard, but we love to play too! We are explorers and boundary pushers – which has positioned us as a strategic partner for Microsoft; we are frequently entrusted to help roll-out new technologies and platforms like Windows 7, Surface, and Windows Phone 7.
Elbert Perez is probably one of the most successful indie Windows Phone developer out there with 8 games under his belt he is powering through the free games section on the WP7 marketplace. With the success of Impossible shoota he decided to go from paid games model to ad supported free games and this has worked out very well for him. With the almost unbeatable exposure xBox live games get on Windows Phone 7. Elbert Perez has managed to make his mark on the WP7 gaming world. Today we talk to him and find out what is his secret formula for success
Dont know Elbert Perez ? Hint One : Many be you will recognize him by his twitter handle @mechaghost.. still nothing ? How about Hint Two : his blog OccasionalGamer.com still nothing ?? here is a dead give-away recognize any of those icons on your start screen ? Then you are playing one of his games
This list is going to grow over time , we should have a review for another on of his games going up later today called ” Traffic Cop “, but before than lets learn a bit about Elbert Perez and what motivates him to develop for WP7.
QYou guys are new to us ( the Windows Phone folks ) so tell us a bit about yourself and the games you guys develop ?
Currently Different Pixel is composed by one programmer and one designer. We both have around 4 years of professional experience in game development but we are now making the first game as indie developers. We currently have a couple of projects and Vizati is our first finished game. It will be available on PC on June 11th.
QWhy jump in to WP7 development ? Are the games ported to other mobile OS like the iPhone or Android ?
We jumped into WP7 development mainly out of curiosity but it turned out great. Our internal engine is build on top of XNA 3.1 and when WP7 was presented we decided to see what would take to port the game to WP7. Also to test how good the game would be on such a platform without jumping right into IPhone. An IPhone version is currently on development, as for the Android we still haven’t made a decision.
QHow long did you guys take to port the game ?
Took us 3 days to port the game and get it running on the emulator. Our engine was flexible enough since we were already working on it for both PC and Xbox so the new changes to a new platform were relatively easy to make. We had to change some of the syntax to match XNA 4 and of course considering the touch screen instead of a keyboard/mouse.
Meon is one of the most successful game from any indie developers in the Marketplace. We recently reviewed this windows mobile game. Today we chat to the guys behind this amazing game and find out their thoughts about marketplace and learn what is in store for us in the future from Manbolo.
A short Note on yourself and Manbolo.com .. how and why it started… Is it a one man project … etc
We’re three friends living in France (that explain our poor English…), we’re developing and making games since we’re 14 years old! Three years ago, we started Manbolo to develop some games for us just for fun, on Windows Mobile. We would like to make casual games, cheap but which were well programmed (small size, work on every device), kind of game that you like to play when you’re on the way to work (or during some meetings…) and not reserved to hard-core gamers. We’ve chosen Windows Mobile (sorry Windows Phone) because three years ago, it was easy to develop and sell your product on your own website or on web-vendors website, and also because Windows Mobile was among the most innovative smartphone platform. Today, a lot of things have changed, but we keep confident in the platform. We’re currently developing games under our brand Manbolo and also developing more ‘serious’ app as contractors for thirds parties.
Xmel
antslava
Saijo George
Anonymous
Andrearommi
YellowStar
SAHITYA KUMAR
Benny
