

5-Year-Old Designs an iPhone App (video) - jeffio
http://jeff.io/posts/5-year-old-designs-an-iphone-app

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dkokelley
You have an adorable (and bright) son. Any plans to develop his game with him?

My favorite lines: "I get all the money cause it was my idea" and "It has an
apple on the back and that makes me hungry"

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jeffio
Well the game he's got in mind is a Harry Potter game so I wouldn't be able to
create it without getting copyright. But he is talking about maybe somebody
who made the other iPhone Harry Potter game will see his video and make his
game :)

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corin_
If that doesn't happen (seems fairly unlikely), could maybe find a non-
copyright idea that would interest him as much and work towards making an
actual game?

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dkokelley
He could certainly make a generic 'wizard' game, provided there is enough
separation to keep the Harry Potter people from getting upset.

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guynamedloren
What a brilliant kid. I'm only 21 right now, but I look forward to the day I
can bring new life (and accordingly hope/intelligence) into this world.

Inspiring.

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corin_
You have an awesome kid.

To anyone on HN who developes iPhone apps... please work with him (and his
father) to make this, would be amazing.

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alanfalcon
His game would work wonderfully.

Choose from three spells. Call them Expelliarmus, Immobulus, Stupefy (or
whatever). But really it’s rock, paper, scissors.

Swipe left to right on your phone to add a jolt of whatever spell is selected.
This moves the “center” 10 pixels towards your enemy if you’re using the same
spell, 5 pixels if you’re using the weaker spell, 15 pixels if you’re using
the stronger spell. Of course, your opponent is moving the “center” the
opposite direction at the same time, following the same rules.

You can switch between the spells at any time, but time spent switching is
time not spent swiping.

The idea is to push the “center” of the beam all the way to your opponent,
where he takes damage and the center is reset. Take damage three times and you
lose.

It definitely would work much better with Harry Potter characters and spells,
possibly a marketing tie-in to Deathly Hallows part 2.

Add sparks and glows and all manner of cool sound effects and special effects.
Include sound bytes from the characters battling.

Make one kid ridiculously happy.

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jeffio
I just read this outloud to Anim and he says he wants to be able to "pick all
the spells in Harry Potter". I think the rock-paper-scissors gameplay would be
pretty smart. I'll see if I can convince him :) Oh, he just said that you
could have the game for free because of your good ideas.

Thanks for your really detailed reply — and everybody else's too! Now I'm
thinking I'll have to build this for him. My wife's going to shake her head if
I tell her that I just added another sideproject to my list of sideprojects.

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corin_
If you do take this further, would be very grateful if you could email me next
time you post an update in case I miss it :)

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netcan
You have a very bright kid, cute too.

I was especially impressed that he represented the characters as dots instead
of trying to draw them, because it was obvious what they do. The "squares," he
drew out more completely because he didn't know what to call them and drawing
it was the best way to explain it (dad understood).

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dmix
My UI sketching workflow have been srsly lacking in sound effects.

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jeffio
Update: Some people have asked if I've done any apps with Anim yet and yes we
have! I should have linked it in the original post but anyways, the app is
called "DJ Baby", we created it last year. It's an iPhone app
(<http://bit.ly/djbabyitunes>) but we also have a free flash version here:
<http://www.cometcoast.com/djbaby>.

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PhatBaja
Wrap it up

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Samuel_Michon
"Win or not-win" is a great attitude towards multi-player gaming. 'Not-
winning' not only _sounds_ better than 'losing', it goes to the core of what
imho matters most in gameplay: social interaction, not competition.

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plusbryan
Kids these days have so many awesome tools at their disposal. Thanks for
sharing!

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orlandop
I'm really impressed with the way he imagined the UI, and his way of using
dots and the life gauges. You must be a really proud dad, as you definitely
seem to be.

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corin_
Completely off-topic: where does the name 'Anim' come from?

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jeffio
Anim comes from an Ojibway (Native American) word meaning thunderbird. We
pronounce it "ah-neem".

