TOKYO (Tom Bluewater) – Yesterday, I released the same Sprite Kit game in two different development platforms – iOS and macOS. A lesson that I had learnt from working on these two different platforms is the following. Never create sprite images without using an application. If you work on a game for iOS and macOS at the same time, you will have to produce three different sizes for the same sprite picture. In my case, I had to develop a totally new application while working on the last Sprite Kit project.

Anyway, I submitted a new software title to Mac App Store several minutes ago. This new release is called Sprite 1-2-3.

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TOKYO (Tom Bluewater) – I submitted the iOS version of the Sprite Kit game to Apple’s App Store a while ago. This new submission is called The Emoji World.
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TOKYO (Tom Bluewater) – It’s been more than two months since I released the last software product. Well, finally… A new software title that I submitted to App Store some 10 minutes ago is called GIF Mania.

GIF Mania is a free iOS app that lets you create GIF animation out of a video clip on your device. Simply, select a video clip and let the app extra frames as pictures out of it. The app also lets you set the number of loops and delay seconds for GIF animation. With an in-app purchase, you can add a text comment to every frame.
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TOKYO (Tom Bluewater) – These days, I’ve been using CloudKit to develop iOS and macOS applications at the same time. CloudKit is an amazingly useful tool for software developers although it’s a bit difficult to learn due to lack of information. Anyway, at the end of the last year, I thought to myself “Could I possibly use CloudKit for the Scrapboard project? I know Scrapboard users want to have access to the same dataset whether they use a desktop computer or an iOS device. And the answer is Yes. A desktop application that I submitted to Mac App Store a while ago is called Scrapboard Cloud.

The history of Scrapboard Cloud goes back to April 2013 when I submitted StickHere to App Store. It’s an iOS app that let the user paste text notes and pictures on a virtual bulletin board. And I then released Scrapboard for Mac users in October, 2014.

Anyway, Scrapboard Cloud lets you use a multi-page virtual bulletin board to create and post text notes, pictures and more. As the name suggests, this application lets you upload data to iCloud so that you can use the iOS counterpart to get access to the exactly same dataset. Use of the iCloud data server is optional. If you don’t plan to share data with other devices and machines, you can use your virtual bulletin board, saving data locally.   Continue reading →