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Thursday March 5th marked our arrival in true bush country. We spent hours driving across the plains, following trails in the dirt that were barely visible. Our first stop was a site in Endonyo Narasha – a shell of a clinic that was built almost a decade ago, but is still awaiting utilities, supplies and staff. The surrounding area was practically deserted, but we were told that it’s a thriving community at certain times of the month, and during certain seasons. We met with the local chief, and we got a brief tour of the facility. We assessed the work that remained to be done at the site, then continued on our way to our primary destination.

Olkinyiei is a sparsely populated area far from any major towns or cities. The people are fortunate, then, that they have a functioning clinic in their midst. The clinic in Olkinyiei is a small building with several visiting rooms lining a central hallway. The nurses that work there receive drugs and other supplies from the government, as well as from our mission efforts. There are two Irish missionaries that live in the area, Gary and Mary Reid, who have helped to maintain the clinic. Gary recently installed a solar power system that provides electricity for the lights, equipment, and cell phone charging (many people from the community come to the clinic to charge their phones). The facility has a gas-powered refrigerator, but they are hoping to replace it with an electric fridge (gas for the current fridge is expensive).

When we arrived in Olkinyiei, the medical people worked with the clinic staff to provide support and training, where useful. Since the facility is maintained so well, the less medically-inclined of us had nothing to do, so we decided to pay an early visit to the missionary compound.

Acacia Grove Mission is a compound that Gary and Mary have built, with the help of the Maasai in the community. They help spread the gospel of Christ by planting churches in the surrounding area, helping with the clinic, and doing whatever they can to aid the people. After a welcome tea break, Gary put us to work building a laboratory bench to be used in the clinic. Gary was skeptical of my construction abilities after learning that I program cell phone games for a living, but I like to think that I was able to redeem myself. “Measure twice and cut once,” my dad always used to say!

Javaground’s first independent game, UniWar, is now available for purchase on the iPhone and iPod Touch through the App Store. We plan to charge $7.99 for the game (believe me it’s worth it), but to boost awareness of the game, we’re currently only charging 99 cents. Golly, that makes me want to go get an iPhone just so I can buy UniWar for a dollar!

If you missed my feature post on the game, you can read it all here. And if you do buy the game, feel free to challenge me to a match. My player name is ‘jason,’ and even without an iPhone, I have my own means of playing the game.

We also found another preview of UniWar, which is noteworthy because it refers to Javaground as the developer of Wheel of Fortune for the iPhone. It looks like working on such a well-known game may pay off through name recognition!

Additional versions of the game, which will allow you to play with any other players, including iPhone users, will become available soon.

My latest project, which I finished right before leaving on my Kenya trip, is rather high-profile. Wheel of Fortune is one of the most popular TV shows in America, and the iPhone is all the rage right now. I had the honor of programming the mash-up between these two giants, the Wheel of Fortune mobile game for iPhone and iPod Touch, which we affectionately refer to as “iWOF.”

Now don’t let me take too much credit here: I didn’t write the whole game, just the iPhone version. The biggest task for this project was to create flashier, higher-resolution art that matches the latest season of the television show. Plus there were a number of minor rule changes, the most noticeable of these being the addition of the Million Dollar Wedge. Yes, you can win ONE MILLION DOLLARS on Wheel of Fortune now, but meeting all the requirements is statistically impossible. Still, that didn’t stop this woman. We also added trophies. Because, y’know, you gotta have trophies. Even Sony agrees now.

As for the mobile game itself, it’s been a roaring success. We watched the game’s sales ranking rise daily after its release. I had heard that at one point, it reached #13 on the iTunes Top Paid Games list. Currently it’s hovering in the middle of the Top 50 list at a respectable #29.

The reviews for the game have been exceptionally good as well. Everyone seems to praise the gameplay and art, while only criticizing the same small list of shortcomings: no Pat Sajak or Vanna White (Sony would bankrupt themselves trying to license their likenesses),?no multiplayer. What’s been funny is people who complain about the rules of the game, without understanding how the latest season of the show works. I’ve seen people criticize the wheel layout (it’s copied directly from the design layout for the show itself), and the biggest complaint is that when you select “Normal Mode” it starts with Toss-Up Rounds. Normal Mode is meant to replicate the game show experience exactly, and the show starts with two Toss-Up Rounds! Overall, though, it seems like most people who like the show love the game, and that’s a great feeling.

There are also some more in-depth web-based reviews that are worth checking out. I love this guy’s mocking criticisms of some of the puzzles. I agree that some of the puzzles seem totally random, but they came directly from the show’s writers, so I don’t know what the deal is with that. And this guy supposedly has a video review of the game, but it’s actually just a silent video of him playing, with some jazz music overlayed to spruce things up.

Amanda, Teddie, and I went camping at San Clemente State Beach last Friday with a few friends. The best part was when Teddie got skunked. We had him off his leash, and he was behaving very well. Then we saw a dark critter run across the road next to our fire. Amanda and I both saw it at the same time, and we grabbed for the dog. But he had already taken off. He darted after the animal, sniffed at the bush that it dove into for a split second, and then just as quickly did a 180 and ran back towards us. Once he got off the road, he started rolling on the ground, rubbing his face and side in the dirt. At the same time, this weird smell like garlicy onions began assaulting our nostrils. Luckily there was an unoccupied campsite nearby, complete with running water. Amanda and I grabbed a bottle of shampoo and dragged the dog to the hose. Luckily the skunk must have only gotten him a little bit, because it wasn’t too difficult to get the smell to go away. Oddly enough, it didn’t smell like onions or skunk on the dog. It smelled like burnt rubber.

And, speaking of burnt rubber, I melted the sole of my shoe that evening as well.

Javaground is finally releasing its first internally-produced, original IP game: UniWar. This game is our CEO Alex’s brainchild, and it’s turned out amazingly. UniWar is a turn-based multiplayer strategy game, and it’s incredibly addictive. You can play with up to eight players in various team configurations or free-for-all, and there are three races, each with their own totally unique units. You can believe that balancing those units took some time, but the game plays very well now.

Alex has been doing a lot of promotion for the game. My favorite article includes a video demo of UniWar that Alex demonstrated at the Game Developer’s Conference a couple weeks ago. He’s absolutely right when he says people at the office are addicted to the game. I have multiple matches going on at once, and occasionally take a break from my work to play. So in a way, I’ve also been doing Quality Assurance work lately…

There are a few other articles talking about the game as well, here at Pocket Gamer and elsewhere. My heart goes out to the poor soul on this forum who claims to be checking the internet every few hours for UniWar updates.

The game was just submitted to the Apple App Store for release on the iPhone and iPod Touch this morning, so if all goes well, it should be available in a week or so. The game will also be released for a whole slew of regular cell phones, so more likely than not you’ll be able to play the game on whatever phone you have! More updates on the non-iPhone versions to come soon.

That's my green army on the left. Go Sapiens!