I just love hackathons. For those who doesn’t know what a hackathons is, in short; Hackathon is usually a software developers gathering where teams and individuals create something from scratch before the hackathon ends. It usually lasts 12 to 24 hours. And why I love it so much? I learn something new each time I attend a hackathon; I set a goal to complete the project on time; and all that by hanging out with the like-minded people. Love it!

A month ago, WhoHack (WhoAPI startup) team went to Osijek to OSChackathon #2. We have built something amazing and even too ambitious. We created a car racing game built on these technologies: Objective C (iOS App), node.js/socket.io (for multiplayer), HTML5 (front-end game engine). Too bad I can’t show you, haven’t record it yet. It requires few people to demonstrate :) But.. you can watch us presenting it, without a sound and not the best picture quality but hey, at least something: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjGisKZE1DY#t=3124s

My latest adventure was at the local’s 10 people (friends) hackathon, officially called HackWorks. Our lead hacker, Damir Sarcevic, had the best project, prepared the grill and fed us all :). I was working on a remake of the game my old game development team and I made, long ago. The game is CaveShip.

You can check the PC original here:
http://generationstars.com/?game=4

Hackathon mobile version, here:
http://budimilic.com/games/caveship/

Open it on you phone in landscape mode and touch the screen to keep the ship up from the gravity pull. If you still want it to try on your PC, press the UP key for the same effect. Game still doesn’t have any game rules like ship energy, level selection, a menu, etc.. I’m happy with the work done.

Check the photo gallery Kornelije Sajler took while working on his project:
http://flickr.com/photos/23706006@N03/sets/72157633879185633/

Next time I’ll try something bit harder. I’ll try to create a remake of Speedy Lander, using Corona engine writing code in Lua. Wish me luck!

Yes, I’m calling this post a package full of updates. Last few weeks I’ve taken more time to work on our own (GEM Studio) projects so here are few of those updates if you’re interested ;)

Sveznar.com
(Croatian only service for dream definitions, meaning of karma, lucid dreaming, lucky numbers etc.)
– additional SEO was done
– new content on Karma
– mobile version for dream definitions (iPhone, Android and others supported), just jump to the site with your mobile phone and you’ll be redirected to http://m.sveznar.com. Shown as cool iPhone w/ Android image below the menu on desktop version of the website.

CroDNS.com
(Croatian only service for checking domain availability in a smart way)
– footer iPhone image to tell the new visitors there’s a mobile version (m.crodns.com)
– ping has been fixed
– some security improvements

SuperCentar.com
This is our new service for banner advertising on our own network of websites with over one million pageviews a month and growing. The service was just released few days ago and it’s currently operating for Croatian market only.

This is it for now but many more updates will come soon. We plan to finish all started projects dedicated to Croatian market but right after that we’re starting with realization on international projects, not only on the web but the iPhone and Android apps too. Can’t wait! :)

It’s here, in my hands, after so much waiting and waiting, even on D day I was waiting for half an hour in the line and 4 hours inside – waiting for paperwork to be done with some computer glitches on the way. That was 6 days ago and I still need to charge the battery almost twice a day. Already on the second day I got it jailbroken and filled with numerous apps, I’m starting to scale this apps to leave only the ones I will actually use. I’m still in need for few apps like GPS Google Maps where I can track a signal of my selected friends and myself at the same time – count distances and similar.

In overall, I’m very satisfied with the iPhone3G!
I will write about most useful apps now and then.