Hi everyone, thanks for all of the great feedback. Honestly, I feel lucky to have the tools, technology, and support to build games like Cheese Miners. Sorry that I haven't responded to all of your comments yet, I will get caught-up later this weekend. My school has a camping trip and I have been prepping for the trip most of day and walking out the door now and will have no internet access while camping (no phones allowed, and I agree!). Such is the life of a 14 year old at boarding school. When I get back I would love to continue this discussion. Your comments have been very inspiring and there are some really good suggestions I need to follow-up on. Thanks for the great discussion. HN rocks!
Show HN: I'm 14, I learned Objective-C, and this is my first iPhone game
161–170 of 191 posts
Re: Show HN: I'm 14, I learned Objective-C, and this is my first iPhone game
#162thanks for sharing . I really didn't even thought about copying unix. Anyhow,i think if you're learning domain specific language then it is not good to implement unix . Consider php,it came up for web . so it would be nice if we solve challenges or do stuff which matters.
I use to check stackoverflow question and try to learn it .
Anyway i will mind your advise .
thanks
Re: Show HN: I'm 14, I learned Objective-C, and this is my first iPhone game
#163Sometimes I'm a bit skeptical about these kinds of posts "I'm X age, I made this". I feel like, why would a 14 year old want to make sure his age is on the post title?. It's not that extraordinary I think, I mean it's great that his doing this, but it's not that un-ordinary, sometimes it seems like someone else is driving this for promo.
Because he's 14 and super stoked about accomplishing something that many people twice his age couldn't do, so he's showing off a bit. Sometimes I'm baffled by how hard it is for seemingly intelligent people to grasp very simple human behavior. Spend an afternoon with a kid once. I promise you they'll let you know when they think they've done something cool.
> Because he's 14 and super stoked about accomplishing something that many people twice his age couldn't do
So what? Why does age matter so much? A 28 year old may have less programming experience and help from sites like MakeGamesWithUs and still complete similar projects. Why is it so important that he's 14? He obviously isn't the only 14 year old coding and completing a project, it's not even that rare anymore. Probably not as rare as a woman making iPhone app, at least. With today's technology, everybody over the age of 12 can learn programming, build apps and complete university classes.
I post my projects to HN too, I have only once reached the front page. I never mention my young age, and I won't do it here, because it doesn't matter and it's not relevant.
Re: Show HN: I'm 14, I learned Objective-C, and this is my first iPhone game
#164Congrats!! Keep it up.. Why are so many HNers being dismissive of this young fella? He has done something cool and he is really proud of that. He learnt something that is considered very hard for the majority of population and put his work out there on app store for real test (by real users). Lets applaud him (like some of the posters). EDIT: Don't forget to contact your users. They will give you feedback and it will…
> Why are so many HNers being dismissive of this young fella?
I feel like I should explain my reasons:
He acts as if his age is very important in his accomplishment. Why is it in the title? Why does it matter so much that he is 14? Maybe he has been programming for much longer than the 30 year old who released a website yesterday. Nowdays, anybody over the age of 12 can take online university classes, publish apps (especially when they get the art from sites like MakeGamesWithUs) and learn programming much more easily than 10 or even 2 years ago. 14 year old programmers aren't that uncommon anymore.
I've posted some of my projects to HN a few times. I only got to the frontpage once. I never mentioned my young age, because it's not relevant. I've probably sat in front of a computer many more hours than the Average Joe. If anything, I'm under accomplished. The success/experience ratio matters more than the success/age ratio in my opinion.
But the game is cool indeed, and it's always nice to see somebody complete their first project.
Re: Show HN: I'm 14, I learned Objective-C, and this is my first iPhone game
#165I was writing/learning HTML with FrontPage 2003 and Flash 5 (6? 7? I thankfully don't remember anymore) when I was 14 - while knowing almost no English (thus, not understanding even what the menu items and controls mean!) and without a manual or teacher and just clicking around and seeing what happens to the code :-( Hard, hard times it was. But I enjoyed it nevertheless. But still, I'm jealous of you. If you were to…
Heh, when I was 14, I published my first book: Game Programming for Teens, which eventually became an international best seller in 6 countries. I even got a monthly tv spot with Leo Laporte on what was then called Tech Tv. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdh5dqbvrDE And still...none of my games have ever been as cool as OP's. Great work man
I miss TechTV! I owe so much to The Screen Savers, Leo & Pat! Wow nostalgia.
Re: Show HN: I'm 14, I learned Objective-C, and this is my first iPhone game
#166I was writing/learning HTML with FrontPage 2003 and Flash 5 (6? 7? I thankfully don't remember anymore) when I was 14 - while knowing almost no English (thus, not understanding even what the menu items and controls mean!) and without a manual or teacher and just clicking around and seeing what happens to the code :-( Hard, hard times it was. But I enjoyed it nevertheless. But still, I'm jealous of you. If you were to…
Heh, when I was 14, I published my first book: Game Programming for Teens, which eventually became an international best seller in 6 countries. I even got a monthly tv spot with Leo Laporte on what was then called Tech Tv. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdh5dqbvrDE And still...none of my games have ever been as cool as OP's. Great work man
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Re: Show HN: I'm 14, I learned Objective-C, and this is my first iPhone game
#167The game looks very polished! Did you create the art as well?
Re: Show HN: I'm 14, I learned Objective-C, and this is my first iPhone game
#168legos from the beginning .in elementary school they had a cool program in my neighborhood run by motorola engineers where you could take courses on logic design and build simple cricuits (combination locks, tic tac toe...). when i was 12 i built and electric go kart, 13/14 - a minibike. 15/16/17 - a solar powered car (from scratch http://www.sphssolarknights.org/). Moved into more CE/CS type projects now but once you start building you will never stop! Keep it up. :)
Re: Show HN: I'm 14, I learned Objective-C, and this is my first iPhone game
#169legos from the beginning .in elementary school they had a cool program in my neighborhood run by motorola engineers where you could take courses on logic design and build simple cricuits (combination locks, tic tac toe...). when i was 12 i built and electric go kart, 13/14 - a minibike. 15/16/17 - a solar powered car (from scratch http://www.sphssolarknights.org/ ). Moved into more CE/CS type projects now but once yo…
also - as much as my fiance hates it. I still have all my legos! ;-)
Re: Show HN: I'm 14, I learned Objective-C, and this is my first iPhone game
#170Congratulations! A nice slap in the face too for those people who constantly rant about kids/young people being distracted too much and unable to learn much nowdays (by the Web/new technologies/gadgets). It's the adults who get distracted and become unproductive, kids' brains adapt more easily.