A week or so ago, we were working on a free Brainy Smarty Party Lite version of the game, and bumped into a bit annoying thing. Lite version has a screen, describing full version of the game, and a link, which opens game’s page in App Store. The annoying part is, that after you press a button, instead of opening App Store directly, it actually opens Safari browser, which in turn redirects to a bunch of other URLs, and then launches App Store. Whoa… so much action for such a simple thing! As always, all knowing Google helped to solve the problem. And solution was… erm… interesting. 
URL that opens application in App Store is this: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=326683049&mt=8. Now, to fix the problem, all you have to do is change “itunes” part to “phobos”, so the URL would look like: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=326683049&mt=8. Sometimes you wish all the problems could be solved like that! Code for opening an app in a webstore is here:
NSString *buyString=@"http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/" \
"MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=326683049&mt=8";
NSURL *url = [[NSURL alloc] initWithString:buyString];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:url];
[url release];
So, the annoying thing was fixed, and BSP Lite is on it’s way to App Store! Hopefully Apple will approve it soon. Fingers crossed. 
Smilediver Game Development
Hey! I decided to move my blog to Joystick Ninjas domain and switch to WordPress, which will give me a bit more flexibility. I’ve redirected blogger.com’s url and feed to a new site, but still recommend to update your links, in case something doesn’t work…
New blog url: http://smilediver.joystickninjas.com
Blog feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/MakeGamesOrDieTrying
Blog comments feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/MakeGamesOrDieTryingComments
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Finally, after a long battle, with many losses and victories, the quest is over: Joystick Ninjas have finished their very first game: Brainy Smarty Party! Woohoooo! And the first thing I want to do is send a huge thanks to everyone involved, who helped to push our products out the door, and made all this possible. So thanks to Tomas Dirvanauskas, who was one of the first ninjas in JN and coded most of the parts of our game engine! Thanks to Justinas Vilimas, a special ninja, who actually implemented the game side in Brainy Smarty Party! Thanks to Lukas Lukoševičius, who made all eye catchy graphics! Thanks to Egidijus Čilčius, who composed and recorded an awesome sound track! And thanks to Tomas Jakubauskas, who was very kind to make a logo for JN! You guys rock! You are real ninjas!
Now back to the point… So what is Brainy Smarty Party? Simply put, it’s a collection of 15+1 fun and addictive games to train your brain. The coolest thing about it is an ability to post your hi-scores online, and compete with people all over the world. It also includes Sudoku puzzle, for those who are addicted to it! You know who you are. Since the pictures tell more than a thousand words, take a look at a few eye candies from Brainy Smarty Party:
For more screenshots check out Brainy Smarty Party web page here: clicky, or directly on iTunes here: clicky.
Other great news, is that we finally have our own logo! It was created by my good friend Tomas Jakubauskas, and I think the logo looks awesome. It conveys the message really well, and it literally is: we’re here to kick ass, and make great games! 
And here it is:
Ok, so enough reading, now go and check out Brainy Smarty Party, and buy a copy if you have an iPhone – ninjas need food too. 
Smilediver Joystick Ninjas, Products
