If it isn’t obvious from the gap between this post and the last one, many things are happening!
Letter Taps Is Out Now!
My indie educational game, Letter Taps is available in the Google Play and iOS App Store now! This is the product of my last six months and I can’t tell you how good it feels to have it up for download and receiving positive feedback. Beside some very kind reviews and personal messages, one endorsement in particular really made my day (and many days since).
This super cool new app for kids does simple things beautifully! Engaging-by a guy who grew up inspired by Clarissa! https://t.co/3S4xsViwnS
— Mitchell Kriegman (@mkfresh1) February 21, 2017
Yes. That’s Mitchell Kriegman of Clarissa Explains It All and Bear in the Big Blue House fame, and too many other accomplishments to list here. I wrote last year about all the hilarious homebrew PC games Clarissa made on her show in the 90s and Mitchell liked it enough to share it around. When I reached out about what I’d been up to since, he couldn’t have been more gracious.
Seriously, go support everything Mitchell Kriegman does.
Kid Tested, Teacher Approved!
As part of launching an educational indie game and product line, I searched high and low for opportunities to gain insight and feedback on what I was doing. I knew my game helped teach my son to count and recite the alphabet quickly, but I wanted to go further in the play testing department.
Luckily for me, certain schools here in the Greater St. Louis region have unprecedented levels of commitment to getting kids interested in and excited about technology, and software development specifically.
I was blown away when the Francis Howell school district invited me to be a guest speaker for students and parents just as I was preparing to release the game. My wife got to join me and grabbed some great photos. We had a blast! Sure enough, kids and teachers alike expressed enthusiasm about Letter Taps as a learning tool. I was sure to set up the app for optional bulk licensing for registered educational organizations in both app stores.
Great thanks to all those involved in those phenomenal two days at the Francis Howell school district. I will not forget it!
Lending my voice at Gamasutra
Finally, I put together some thoughts about launching a studio, carrying out a game development project, and launching a product line revolving around young kids over at Gamasutra. The post falls squarely within the “shop talk” category but it’s the kind of stuff I love reading from other studio heads. I hope it’s of use–or at least some entertainment–to other newcomers working their way into the game. Please feel free to comment or even share it around if you find it useful!
More soon! CodeWritePlay is still designated as “home” for keeping up with my appearances and work around the web. Hoping to do some more development blogging in the very near future as things start hopping again.
Drop me a line and check out Letter Taps!
Todd Mitchell is a US Midwest-based comedy writer and game developer with bylines at Weekly Humorist, Fanbyte, Slackjaw, End of the Bench Sports, and more. He’s the author of Inside Video Game Creation, the founder of CodeWritePlay, and host of the GameDev Breakdown podcast. Follow him on Twitter @Mechatodzilla.