Just over 3 hours ago (Saturday 18th Jan 2017 7am Brisbane Time) Sushi'd was released on the App Store.

The rush of releasing anything creative to the world is both addictive and terrifying - it's like bringing your girlfriend or boyfriend home to meet your parents for the first time in a very public way... you know they are incredible but approval from Mum and Dad would be great.

The idea of mixing Kokeshi & Geisha inspired dolls jumping around a infinite Japanese Landscape filled with Sushi Rolls and Cherry Blossom came after 2 weeks of ideas and 2 months of executing them.

I listened to Casey Neistat's Daily Vlogs through out the journey of creating Sushi'd and the principals he talked about that ideas are cheap, execution is everything drove me to create something I'm very proud of. Casey's life story and Gary Vee book #askgaryvee where you can come from nowhere to create something every day that millions of people will watch and consume is awe inspiring.

I've added this paragraph post the original edit (Thursday 23rd Jan 2017) - what most people are interested in is "where do I get the time?" I get up very early in the morning and start working without distractions plus I use those tiny gaps that life sometimes presents... so while you're sleeping we're creating.

Enjoy.

Sushi'd

iOS https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sushid/id1191365495

Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.com.cloudbne.sushidv2

Twitter http://www.twitter.com/cloudbne

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/cloudbnecreate/

CloudBNE http://www.cloudbne.com.au

Email hello@cloudbne.com.au

Dragon Ready started off as a casual mobile game we expected to finish in a week, but it was many months before it was Appstore ready. This is our journey.

It began late 2020, after we’d finished creating “The Forest Talks Back,” an AR/AI short film. The lead time between a film being released to market/film festivals is usually a couple of months; we wanted to do something different after its completion.

The idea was basic. Make a casual game, nothing over the top with complicated story lines. We imagined something simple that could be played on public transport, a rainy day or waiting for kids sport practice to finish. It’s always interesting to a developer to see what people play on their mobiles on public transport. The ultimate feeling is seeing one of your games on a stranger’s phone.

The initial look and feel of Dragon Ready came together relatively quickly using digital assets we’d created or already owned (we spent weeks tidying up the code only to leave it almost the way we had originally found). Adding complexity to the code also made Dragon Ready a more complicated game, which took away from the casual gaming intention. Through trial and error we got a working product which we thought was ready for market, but we couldn’t go to market without going through a testing phase.

Testing phase is always terrifying - OMG! What if they don’t like it at all? The highs and lows will have been for nothing! It’s hard not to tell someone how to play the game and also not to be upset by a negative reaction. Thankfully the feedback was constructive and tweaks to the game were for the better. Improvements included having each dragon highlighted on the game board so you knew to press/select them, as well as have a tutorial screen pop up when the game is first run. Other ideas will be featured in up-and-coming Dragon Ready updates.

Testing phase also turns into honesty phase for a developer. Throughout the development of Dragon Ready, we asked ourselves ‘does this have enough sprinkles’ — that extra bit of polish that says so much but isn’t also 100% tangible. We toyed with going full-on sprinkles with a night and day mode of the game, but the mobile performance dropped so we removed it.

Those ideas and others were hand-written in a notebook as recommended by David Lynch’s masterclass (highly recommended!) rather than the usual digital. Interestingly, ideas seem to flow more easily with pen and paper. I feel uneasy talking about using a notebook to document development ideas in 2021 but for this project it felt right. It’s since become my favourite method of capturing and sketching new design, as it gives me time away from a screen which is when I find most ideas come to me.

Submission to the Appstore followed testing. After some back and forth with Apple we released Dragon Ready in March 2021. It’s free to download with in-app purchases.

You can download Dragon Ready from the Appstore:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dragon-ready/id1546819086

Android version coming soon

We’re always open to new ideas so let us know what you think.

Matt Kirby from CloudBNE

http://www.cloudbne.com.au