Where has the time gone?

Looking at our blog, it would seem that we have not been very busy the last two years; our last post was in January of 2011.  What's been going on you ask?  A lot!

Re:Creative Studios released "Tailgate Cornhole" in September of 2011 as a follow-up to the popular Tailgate Games app.  Tailgate Cornhole was well received and was further improved throughout 2012 to include numerous scenes, gameplay options and a fine-tuned AI to make the game more challenging.  We also saw increased competition in the Cornhole app space in Fall 2012 with the release of a highly marketed Cornhole app by The Home Depot.  Fortunately for us, this marketing push only increased the number of people downloading and playing our Tailgate Cornhole game!  Tailgate Cornhole has now been played over 1 MILLION times.  That's a lot of bag tosses!

We've also been working on numerous client projects that have kept us particularly busy.  Our most recent client project release is "Me As A Dog!" which lets you choose from dozens of dog breeds to morph friends and family pictures with.  You can post your mash-ups to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr for all to see.

Stay tuned for further updates, we have a lot of exciting news coming up for 2013!

Facebook & Twitter

We're now officially on Facebook! Check out our page and "Like" us. We will be utilizing this social friendly technology to advertise as well as communicate with our clients and customers. We are hoping to get our name out there more and what better way than the 2nd most used site on the web. Tell your friends about us too! Click on the Facebook icon to check it out!




If you would like to follow us on Twitter. Guess what!? We're there too! Click on the Twitter icon to follow @rgeade on Twitter and get updates on what we're working on and where we are!

Verizon iPhone

As it turns out, our previous blog wasn't too far from coming to fruition. A few days after CES the big announcement came that on February 10th Verizon would now be releasing the iPhone. Hooray! For some of you this may mean that you now get to carry the phone you have envied for some time; for us this means more customers, more money and more work. If you're really into all the ins and outs about it check out this Engadget article.

As far as we're concerned this is what how we think this will play out in the market.

• There will be a lot of (continued) AT&T bashing for the network issues and poor customer service. See this link if you haven't heard enough of it already.
  
• AT&T loyals will continue to rip the Verizon version for the inability to receive calls while using data.
• None of the above will matter.
• Some users may jump ship for the Verizon version, but ultimately the big goal here is another burst of new iPhone users
• The increased growth will fuel more app purchases which in turn will, hopefully, help our wallets.
  
• Verizon Android users that switch to an iPhone will already be used to the plethora of apps and will be eager to purchase iPhone apps.
• Bottom line, more iPhone users, further spreading the platform; great for all iPhone developers.

Although we are developers we are also users of the market and the phones. We have been waiting quite some time for the ability to utilize this technology within our own network and are all giddy inside with excitement for ours to be delivered to our doorsteps. Maybe we'll even give the UPS guy a hug.

New in 2011: App store updates

With CES going on this week we were expecting some great things in the world of technology. Some we expected, some we've yet to hear about and some came out of nowhere.

What we expected: 3D GIANT televisions, new tablets, and lots of smart phones.

We are also obviously very excited about the new addition of the Mac app store. After huge success with the iOS app store (iPad, iPhone, iPod), Apple has launched the Mac app store. It has a similar purpose, but sells apps for the Mac, price points are in line with the mobile store, but slightly higher due to the more robust nature of Mac apps versus iOS apps. This has potential to change the way most software is distributed (hard forms of product, versus software download and retail/indy release versus Apple releasing). To get more information straight from the source check out Apple's website. To find out more from the tech side, check this out.

What we weren't expecting was more competition in the Andriod app market. The Android app store (Market) has not been as successful as the iOS app store. The Android Market has an image of containing lower quality apps as they have no approval process in the Android market, any developer can add an app to the store. In somewhat of a surprise release, Amazon has decided to introduce it's own Android app store. The Amazon app store would operate more like the Apple app store. All apps will be submitted for approval before their addition into the app store. Amazon will handle all billing and will pay developers a cut based on sales. Read more here.

We're happy to see some competition in the Android market as we are hoping to start developing for those platforms as well. We're always looking for new challenges and ideas and Amazon has now provided us with what looks to be a more organized platform for selling apps.

Also unexpected, a joint release from Polaroid and Lady Gaga(NSFW video). They have glasses that take pictures and video as well as a bluetooth printer you can use to print pictures from your cell phone. Read about it.

What we did not hear from CES: no iPhone for Verizon, yet. All in due time. We will patiently wait on your announcement Steve Jobs.

PaperNappkin

Since it has been a while since we've posted I'm going to give a quick update on our newest client. They have been keeping us quite busy, thus the lack of posting.

PaperNappkin is a company focused on "cool ideas and outstanding apps". Just two laid back guys looking for the next big idea in app development. They provide us with a number of ideas and we focus on the development. We have been working diligently on apps for the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Check out their website: http://papernappkin.com/

We have one app in the store already called Celebrity Lookalike GOTCHA where friends take pictures of each other and the app pretends to find a celebrity lookalike when in actuality you are choosing the phony result which could be anything!

We also have 2 apps in the development and testing phases; Trust Bust and FotoFarm. FotoFarm is geared for the younger crowd and does a basic Google image search. Trust Bust is more for the older crowd looking to catch snoopers on their phone.

We are really enjoying working with PaperNappkin and look forward to many more apps to come.

Our Family Christmas Card 2010

Retro Plaid Christmas Card

Get custom photo Christmas cards online at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Carolina Chic Events Mockup

This layout is for a company that my wife and a friend of hers are starting. One of the most time consuming parts of the design is the victorian looking design in the top left of the header. I found several brushes that I liked, and ended up placing around a hundred of them on the screen to create a larger looking shape.

I especially like the background, I think it helps give the design that "Chic" feel.