The Making of Uketility

Almost two years ago, I was casually browsing Amazon and saw that they had some ukuleles on sale. I wrote something about it on Facebook, and one of my friends encouraged me to get it--"It will change your life."

So I got one… and of course I was really bad at it, though I had a lot of fun passing it around with friends during a Blue Band bowl trip and a few other get-togethers.

About a year later, I got an iPad and, naturally, my first thought was, "So what kind of app am I going to make for it?" It didn't take me long to imagine holding the iPad like a ukulele and using its multi-touch gestures to play it; it made perfect sense! Plus, maybe I could use it to get better at playing the real instrument!

A screenshot from a week into development

Now at the time, I thought of this as just one of those dumb little ideas to tinker around with. But after getting it working, I showed it to the same friend who encouraged me to get a real ukulele--and she thought it was great! I knew if anyone liked it, it would be her, but I was inspired to turn this into a real "thing" all the same.

With her help, we even got one of the greatest ukulele player in the world (and also the nicest person you could ever meet) to try it out. After attending one of his concerts, he chatted with us and suggested ways we could improve the app.

I could have never predicted something that awesome would have ever happened when I started working on that "dumb little idea" months before!

It's been a few months since then, and lots of improvements have been made. It's a relief to finally release Uketility for everyone to try, and I can't wait to see what people think of it!

Uketility is now available!

Uketility is out now for iPad and Android tablets! Follow one of these links!

Uketility - Coming October 2nd to iPad and Android tablets!

Well, it certainly has been a long time since we released a new app, but I think you'll see it's been worth the wait!

Uketility transforms your iPad or Android tablet into a ukulele. You can hold it just like the actual instrument, using multi-touch gestures to press down frets and strum just like a real ukulele!. The frets are labeled and color-coded to distinguish between pitches, and the second ukulele on the screen shows exactly which frets are being held under your fingers.

There are also some built-in tools to teach you how to play a ukulele:

The Rhythms Tool lets you play through 15 rhythm-game-style patterns, each with 3 difficulty levels. You earn silver and gold stars based on how well you perform.

The Chords Tool shows you the fingerings for the major, major seventh, and minor chords.

The metronome helps you keep a steady tempo as you play your own music.

Uketility is a first for Cyclone Kick Studio in many ways, including being our first tablet-exclusive app and the first app we've made that isn't primarily a game (though the Rhythms tool helps make up for that). It's development was a real adventure, one that I'll write about soon.

In the meantime, if you have an iPad or Android tablet, mark your calendars for October 2nd! It will be available in the App Store and Google Play for $2.99, and we couldn't be more excited for you to try it!

Happy National Ice Cream Day (completely relevant)

Still working on a few projects, but since it's a national holiday, here's a peek at the next game.

Just released: Bugs and Bacon for Android and B&B Free for iOS

Bugs and Bacon is now available on both Android and iOS devices now for the delicious price of FREE! You can play through the first 5 unlockables for no charge, and you can optionally spend $0.99 to get access the 5 more unlockables and help support us so we can keep making games!

Bugs and Bacon Free, available April 24!

Just a quick heads-up: Bugs and Bacon for Android and the free iOS version will be available this Wednesday, April 24. I'll post the links to Google Play and the iTunes App Store when they launch.

Also, if you have an incredibly accurate memory, April 24 will be exactly half a year since Fight on State was released, so that's something, I guess. Boy, how the time flies...

We're still hard at work on at least a couple more apps that we plan to release in the next few months, so keep checking back for news on them. (Or follow our Facebook page, as it tends to get updated more frequently than this blog.)

Announcing Bugs and Bacon for Android (and a free iOS version)!

Last October, Cyclone Kick Studio launched not one, but two new games. Of course, the one almost everyone would remember is Fight on State. Unfortunately, FOS's success left the other game, Bugs and Bacon, in the dust.

I blame myself for this. I worked on Bugs and Bacon for about 3 months over the previous summer before starting Fight on State. Although it was nearly finished as development on FOS began, I couldn't be bothered to divert any focus away from FOS (other than, you know, for student teaching and Blue Band).

I still wanted Bugs and Bacon to be released before FOS, so I managed to put the rest of it together. Make no mistake, I did not release it until it met the level of quality I expected. The problem was that I basically did nothing to promote it at all. I'm willing to bet that, on the day Bugs and Bacon launched, I was more focused on putting the final touches on FOS.

Well, two weeks ago, I decided to make things right (hopefully) by porting the game to Android, where it would hopefully get the attention I thought deserved. From everything I read, I noticed that paid games–to be blunt–pretty much disappear amidst the free games in the Android marketplaces, so I took a different approach to this version.

The initial download of Bugs and Bacon for Android will be free. After you obtain 5 of the 10 unlockables, you will be asked to pay $0.99 for access to the other 5. While I'm still not very comfortable with using in-app purchases, this seems to be more of a benefit for the player; instead of paying $0.99 up front like on iOS, anyone can download the game and play this version for free, spending that same amount only if they are enjoying it (or just keep playing without the other unlockables).

Speaking of iOS, it wasn't too difficult to create a new version of it, which I'm calling Bugs and Bacon Free, that I just submitted for approval. It will work exactly the same way as the Android version and is not meant to replace the paid version, for those few of you who already bought that.

I made a few changes to this new version of Bugs and Bacon, such as adding two new backgrounds and 12 Game Center achievement on the iOS version, but the core gameplay is basically unchanged. Click here if you'd like to read about that.

Assuming everything goes smoothly, I'm planning to release the new version of Bugs and Bacon for both iOS and Android very soon, just waiting Apple's approval of the iOS version. I'm very much looking forward to seeing what more people think of it!