I've been working hard on my WP7 ports of geoDefense and geoDefense Swarm. The geoDefense one, which will be first, is nearly complete. I'm just putting on finishing touches before it is sent off to Microsoft to start its journey through certification.

Honestly, I enjoy programming more in C# than Objective-C. I'm pretty confident there will be no further programming languages invented that require .h (header) files. The idea was always dumb, poor conceived and the results never match the intention. And entirely unnecessary.

Higher-level languages make programming much more pleasant. The Windows Phone 7 version of geoDefense was really a rewrite, more than a port. The screen size is different so even a good deal of art had to be redone. The rewrite was a good thing, though. I got to tighten a lot of stuff up in the process.

In 2011 there will be more iPhone game happiness. I've begun work on a new Tower Defense game. Something a bit different, but still with my signature brand of design characteristics. I'll be posting more information about this soon.

Your New Years Resolution

The App Store is still a great place to earn some fame and fortune! Maybe even more so now. If you have an inclining that you should be making games too, I highly recommend it. You need some skill, no doubt. But you can learn these things.

For 2011, it's time for you to make your own game! What are the odds you'll make riches? One thing I can say for sure is that it's much better than winning that 300K powerball. And you can make more money than that too. For real.

Programming a game gets easier all the time too. Using a framework cuts down on much of the crazy hard stuff like I had to deal with on the original geoDefense. One of the best frameworks on the iPhone (not used in geoDefense, but used in geoSpark) is Cocos2d-iPhone. If you are getting started making iPhone games, I highly recommend you check this out. It's production-quality, free and solid.

Speaking of Cocos2d, I've begun reviewing a new book Pablo Ruiz titled Cocos2d for iPhone 0.99 published by Packt Publishing. You can snag this as an eBook to get started right away. I've just started reading it, but it looks like a good beginner's guide which is exactly what you want to get started. I'll be following up with a full review.