The Puzzlejuice emails document the nitty gritty of iOS development
Puzzlejuice is a really great puzzle game (really, a big mishmash of different puzzle games) that's available on the App Store right now. It was put together by developers Greg Wohlwend and Asher Vollmer, and Wohlwend has just published a post on his personal blog that's pretty spectacular: He calls it "The Puzzlejuice emails," and it's basically all of the email communication between the two developers as they work out the look and feel of this crazy game.
It's really long (he really did include everything, from first contact all the way up to release), but it's also a fascinating read, especially if you've been involved in iOS development, or game development of any kind. You can see the two devs hashing out everything as they go, from the look of the graphics to the meaning of the game's name, all the way up to the icon and setting up the website and price for release.
Wohlwend originally was just interested in the game as it was being made, but eventually the release turned into a partnership for the two, and there's all sorts of little trivia bits in there about things that did and didn't work during development. The emails are presented as-is, too: The devs had some concern about another word game that came out during development, Spelltower, but eventually decided the games were different enough that it was worth carrying on. I would agree.
If you have any interest in seeing behind the scenes on just what small scale iOS development is like, give this one a read. It won't teach you to make code or art, but it will teach you how these games are put together piece by piece.
