• Processor 2 GHz Intel Core i7
  
• Memory 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
• Graphics  Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB
• Software  OS X 10.8.3
• 2x500GB 7200RPM disks

I decided to replace the main disk with an SSD and now it literally flies!!! I feel like I updated to a new computer for just 200€! Be careful, don’t by the plain 840! even if it’s cheaper than the 840 Pro, it’s slower than the older model 830. I don’t know why but that’s what I found in many forums and benchmark sites. It’s worth spending a little bit more and get the 840 Pro Series. If’s faster than all the previous ones! I chose Samsung because a lot of people recommended it and because it seems to me that it was one of the most used as a disk replacement for Mac mini and MBP. There are other vendors. Do your research and pick up the one you like.

If you try to do this, remember that it’s not beginners stuff. You need confidence and some experience updating your computer hardware. Ask a friend or ask a professional. Don’t try to do this yourself if you don’t really know what you are doing, because the Mac mini is very fragile internally. It’s easy to brake something. Specially internal connectors are really tiny.

I followed the instructions of this video. This is one of the best step by step video tutorials I found so far. Anyway, even if you have some experience with this stuff, just be careful at the end, when you insert the motherboard back into place.

It’s easy to forget the existence of these metal brakes that can go outside the chassis and it’s really easy to bend them. And remember keep your screws separated because they are all different!

After you install your operating system, don’t forget to add TRIM control. It’s not yet supported for many third party vendors. So you have to do it manually. I downloaded Trim Enabler. After activating it and reboot, you should see in System Report the following configuration:

And that’s it!! I’m very happy with this disk, there is no way I will go back to install the OS on a traditional HDD.

In this video I show you the boot speed and loading of 10 applications.

DevoBots is a robot builder and a music synthesizer featuring unreleased Devo music & sounds from their archives. DEVO is an American New Wave band formed in 1972 and since then it has maintained a cult following throughout its existence. It’s not only for DEVO fans, it’s also a nice toy for adults and children, allowing you to create a huge number of robots accompanied with electronic loops recorded back in the 80′s with analog synthesizers. 

Some of the features:

1. Robot (avatar) builder.
2. Save your creations in the app or in your camera roll in full retina resolution.
3. Share your creations on Facebook, Twitter and by email.
4. Move, Rotate, Duplicate, Resize each robot part.
5. Use your camera to insert pictures as a background or from the camera roll.
6. Music Synthesizer!
7. Change the speed and volume of each sound in the sound pad.
8. Sample your own voice and mix it with the loops.

It’s two Apps in one!

Follow devobots on Twitter: @DevoBots

And like the page on Facebook!

Check out more at www.kit-robot.com

Let’s see how it works:

The following image is just fine, but what if I want to eliminate one of the flying torches.

The interface is pretty simple and intuitive to use:

Select the object with the brush tool and click ERASE!

 As you can see I did a bad selection, it wasn’t even close to the shape of the object I wanted to delete. Even though Snapheal was able to remove it and the results were not bad at all. If my selection were more accurate, the results would have been even much precise.  There are three erasing modes. Just try them until you get the best results. In this case I used the wormhole mode.

Two more tests. This time removing people from a landscape. For the original images, here and here.

For the next one after the removal I just have to use the clone tool a little and the results are pretty good:

Some clone tool and done!

If you don’t want to spend for image editors like photoshop, Snapheal could be a good solution. It’s cheaper and easier to use. It also has a retouch tab with mask editing like Lightroom and also an adjust panel for enhancements. This is not a image management software like LightRoom or Aperture, but it offers a good set of editing tools good for beginners and professionals. The removal tool is really cool anyway :)

Go to Snapheal’s web for more examples and information: snapheal.com

Also check its potential for artistic editing here: snapheal.tumblr.com

I’ve been interviewed by Barry Chignell in his blog: FreePhotoResources check it out here.

Sometimes simple shapes create a big impact, just because they are simple, they express simple colors, they express a simple message. Maybe we have so much noise everyday around us and we can find some shelter in simplicity.

This is an Instagram photo. Sometimes we can also take pictures of stuff around food, like bottles, glasses and so forth ;-)

Who are the people reflected in the water? When I took this picture I was thinking about that, what if things where just reversed, the train going in the opposite direction, the majority of people left-handed, keys closing clockwise. I was in the opposite side of the river that goes with the railroad, in Ichigaya station (市ヶ谷駅). It was december 2011 and it was really cold! I was in my way by walk from Kuramae to Shinjuku. It was a really long walk of about 10Km. I remember that, before reaching the shooting angle for the picture, I stopped in a convenience store to buy some fried chicken and a bottle of tea. I took a rest in that park, it was empty at that time. I remember that I was thinking that it could be problably one of my last photowalks in Tokyo for a long time. I knew I was about to leave Japan after few months. Of course I was sure I would come back. I didn’t know when, and I still don’t know, but I will and I hope it will be soon.

I’m in the other side of that river now. I have train stations, roads, traffic lights and people around in Europe but in some way everything is just the opposite. I still prefer the world from the shooting angle of that picture instead of this one. Like a mirror, I was able to know myself much better because I had to deal with a different culture from the beginning, questioning my own values and behaviors, questioning what was right and wrong. Traveling and living for a long time in a different culture is so important, everybody should do it, and farder away, the better. See you soon in the other side of the mirror :)

Using Instagram on that day

I always wanted to have a photoshot in the beach. Even it’s not summer yet, the weather in Barcelona was sunny enough to do it without catching a cold. The model name is Maika, she’s a beautiful girl from Barcelona with really nice eyes. The good thing about doing this photoshots is about freedom of choice and freedom of ideas. I’m independent, so no pressure from a client asking for a specific product. This was just our free will taking pictures. I like when the model improvises by herself, because that makes her feel better and more relaxed, even if sometimes the wind can play some tricks. Maika is pretty young but she’s talented. I’m sure I’ll work with her in the near future again. She has lovely green eyes and she puts personality in the pictures which make them more vivid and with content.

It was interesting to see the reaction of the people around: some just ignored us, some other people just tried to avoid us. Fortunately we didn’t have a lot of people watching, which is common in such situations. Maybe because it’s still winter or maybe because we were quite discrete. Just one exception. There was a guy, laying in the sand, about 10 meters from our position. He didn’t move, he just watched the whole scene for about two hours. I think he was interested in Maika and the whole show, specially when I asked her more hot shots showing more of all her gifts.

I decided not to use circular reflectors and just burn with direct flash light to make some sunlight contrast. It worked fine but I have to try something else next time.

What I found interesting was using backlight and the sea as a background. That plus a girl full of energy like Maika jumping all around. It was really funny!

I still have a lot more pictures of Maika that I will post, just wait :)

You can find more about her in Facebook and her page in the Spanish site equivalent of modelmayhem, called NoSoloTop

Slightly open, it makes the whole difference. A slightly open mouth represents so many things. Is she about to speak, to tell something nice, something wrong? Or is she just about to say something but at the last minute she thought it twice? Or it’s just the prelude for a kiss or something else? It’s up to you, it’s up to me, it’s up to her, it’s imagination, pure fantasy. Whatever it could be, that slightly open mouth means so many things and changes the whole portrait completely. I like to look at it, in direct eye line and I can’t avoid moving down to see her mouth. Maybe that’s why a picture is worth a thousand words.

She prefers to remain anonymous.

Bigger resolution picture in Flickr

1. Davide, give us an intro about you.

I’m a guy with a passion for programming, especially computer graphics, but not necessarily.
I started early as a programmer in Italy, working as a software developer on Mac, while cultivating my passion for graphics and video games on the Amiga first and on PC later on.
I eventually moved to the US in 1995 for my first real job in the game industry. Six years later I moved to Japan, in Tokyo, where I’ve been for about eleven years now.

2. What made you take the decision to be an indie developer?

Working for big developers was very formative and interesting. You get to try out the latest hardware, go to key conventions such as GDC and Siggraph and get to put your name in on famous titles. Which is something that as a programmer I don’t really care about, but still, there’s certainly pride in that and the recognition from people that wouldn’t otherwise remember that I existed five minutes after meeting me.

3. Why video games? Do you plan to develop another kind of applications?

Video games tend to be more fun than other kinds of software development.
At some point I contemplated quitting games to move to computer graphics, perhaps for movie VFX, where I’d get to work on more advanced graphics, but lose the interactive part of it.
However, at a personal level I care for writing code that is also interactive. Games to me are a way to interact and simulate things that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to do.
Games give a chance to simulate things that if done for real, they would require a life-long commitment, or they would be downright impossible.
It’s only a surrogate, but it’s getting better every day and it’s the only option anyway.

Of course I could just be playing games. But it turns out that I prefer developing them.
Every new game is an excuse to learn new things. Programming is only on the surface, but there are many more things implied. It’s a constant problem solving and an improvement exercise.
It can be very frustrating and it makes me not want to see the game again once I’m done working on it, but the end result can be very rewarding: I feel like I’ve learned new things and thousands if not millions of people will be playing the game. It’s my code running around the world!
I just wish it were as rewarding economically… but that will come as well.

4. Why Japan? It’s not a cheap place to start your own business.

Business in Japan because I live in Japan.
Tokyo is really the city I like. It may not the best place for a game developer, but it’s not the worst place either.
All in all, I think that it’s really important to get to choose where you want to live, and if I couldn’t do that as independent developer, then I wouldn’t feel that independent after all.

5. Which of your mobile games supposed the biggest technical challenge?

The latest and the baddest: Fractal Combat X
Frankly, the technical part wasn’t the most challenging, because it’s usually the fun part to me. The real problem are the boring bits, like setting up the UI and making it act. It’s a bit like doing business software development, with all that code to put into menus with all the whistles and bells that make no difference to the actual in-game experience, but those touches are apparently quite important nowadays.

Of course there are also true technical challenges. For example, the actual in-game rendering does require some compromises to balance rendering quality vs hardware capabilities.
On a PC or a console, things like HDR would come out rather elegantly with full-screen post effects, but on mobile I’m forced to use alternatives that aren’t as heavy on the GPU.
Also, I had to be careful in optimizing the shaders. It takes very little to drag down the performance of a shader, and that can immediately affect the frame rate of the game.

6. Are you doing the whole work or you have your own tribe? If yes, was it hard to find and put together the team?

I’m writing most of the code myself. I write on PC and iOS. Then there’s a friend that takes care of the painful Android ports and helps with the data build pipeline and other things as necessary, all in his spare time from his day job.
As far as art goes, I did most of it in “Final Freeway”, with the help of a couple of friends, one of which also designed a couple of tracks.
Giuseppe ‘MisBug’ Longo took care of the pixel art in “Final Freeway 2R”, and Max Puliero did most of the art for “Fractal Combat” and all of the art and level design for “Fractal Combat X”.
Audio tracks are done externally. The main track for “Final Freeway” was by Angel Studio from Nagoya, Japan. While the tracks for other games are by by Simone Cicconi of the UNDAtheC Studio.

I’ve been waiting for the situation to settle economically to then try to find some more consistent help. I don’t think that I want to keep going doing most of the programming myself. It’s also not very good to design most of the code on your own.

7. During these years, what was the biggest mistake and the best idea?

The best move was probably that of going independent, although it hasn’t been an economical success. But it certainly gave me more freedom and also personified my work more. Gone are the long winding projects that are often canned. Now I get to release what I work on, and friends and relatives see the fruits of my work. That’s really satisfying.

The worst moves were probably ignoring the evolution of the mobile market. I was late to catch the free-to-play train and I relied too much on word of mouth, or being noticed by sites to get reviews and being noticed by Apple to be featured on the App Store.
That’s a portion of the business that shouldn’t be left to chance. On the other hand, it was useful to experience some of those mistakes. Now perhaps I’m better at the business of selling games as well, although I don’t have a solution yet, and the market is a moving target.
One thing is sure: making a quality product and putting it on the App Store or on Google Play is not enough anymore.

8. Any plans for the future? Moving elsewhere or keep growing in Japan?

I’d like to keep my base in Japan. My dream is to earn enough to be able to take time off or simply to live and work somewhere else one month at the time. But so far Tokyo is what feels like home.
Although recent catastrophes happened in Japan have put many things into question!

9. Finally any advice for developers that are planning to make a career as an indie developer?

Like many say, quality should be there, first and foremost. That also means care for the detail in the UI and many other touches that make one feel like the game is “polished”, a term that I find somewhat ironic, but that best describes the attention to the details that is often lacking in cheaper productions.

Then don’t go on the market thinking that the game will sell. It’s hard on iOS, it’s very very hard on Android. There are developers that spend tens of thousands of dollars in marketing and still flop.
If you’re willing to share your revenue, going through a publisher could be a solution, but that also doesn’t guarantees success.

Perhaps try to test the waters making a free but ad-based game, maybe even with optional in-app purchase. Ads are unlikely to make you rich or even sustain your business, but they can be a good source of income.
We had some luck with iAd, Millennial Media, AdMob and Chartboost. Actually, at some point “Final Freeway (Ad Edition)” is what kept me in business. So, try to diversify your monetization models and if possible also try to diversify in the type of games that you make. And Good Loop!

Thanks Davide for your time!

Find more about Davide’s work at oyatsukai.com
You can also follow him on Twitter @109mae

Check out his games, I spent hours having fun with them!

Final Freeway

Final Freeway 2R

Fractal Combat X