Monday 26 January 2015

New IOS App Release: TapTileTastic!!!

GB App Store 

 Twitter Feed

Hopefully, the first of many. in my personal time i have been learning to code directly with (Objective-C). The main purpose of this was to create my own range of iPhone/iPad IOS apps.

I have been a C#, Java, VB Developer for some years, creating mainly business orientated Web\Gui solutions. i thoroughly enjoy the process of creating something. my employment roles have always included development at some level but never as a sole purpose in a team of developers.

i have learnt everything i know from books, the Internet and a few good friends. I have felt that maybe i am a bit late to the IOS game, but i have been convinced that i am not, the platform has never been more popular and more varied, with masses of doors yet to open.

i am a 1 man band working from a home office, so all the coding ideas, sounds & graphics come from me. if i can build upon this then maybe i could hire in talent when i need it. for the specifics.

This game builds on Sprites Mainly, with no OpenGL 2D graphics being used. My aim is to use and learn new techniques with each release, building on my personal repertoire.

i have several ideas for games to develop and release, most being quick play entrainment, nothing too taxing.

This first release was really an introduction into 2D graphic and to see what i personally could achieve. The initial release is very playable and fun and actually quite addictive.

future updates planned for this release are


  • more tile packs
  • bonus tokens
  • power ups
  • IPAD Support
  • Game centre

The basic premise is very simple, click duplicate tiles to build up power meter from Empty to Full before the board is empty.

the quicker a duplicate set is found the more power is added to the meter. As each level passes the timer gets quicker and quicker making filling the power harder.

the aim then is see how many levels can be successfully completed before game over.

have fun, everyone, and if you want leave feedback here :)


MonkieZone Ltd


Start Screen






How to Play




Sample Level



Sample Level









Monday 5 January 2015

IOS Developments Coming Soon!!

Watch this space folks, i have several IOS game developments on the way, starting soon with a new release which will be published on the "App Store".

Thursday 1 May 2014

Worst Ride So Far..

Hey Peeps.

Possibly my worst ride in this morning to work. i got clipped by a BMW driver on the A13 London Bound, around the Dagenham Bowl area at about 0610-0615.

fortunately i missed out of bodily harm and managed to keep control of the bike. i was actually in the inside lane NOT filtering, and she decided to pull into me from the middle lane without looking.

she managed to damage my gear selector and bent it almost back on itself. With the bike stuck in 1st i manage to get it over to the side of the road further up in a lay by. She did NOT pull up...

i didn't get her registration as i was a bit busy...

although a young lad on his way to work saw the whole thing and pulled up beside me and offered his assistance. Between the pair of us we managed to sort of bend the gear selector enough that i could just get a foot under it to get to work.

my biggest thanks a total respect goes to the young lad that stopped to help me, a fellow biker no less....

THANK-YOU

Monday 28 April 2014

Android Beginnings

My programming repertoire has expanded in multiple directions recently. i have just completed a course around Games Development which saw my introduction into Java development, specifically for the Android platform using the Eclipse range of tools.

the introduction was fantastic and clearly illustrates how my programming history can easily be ported into this language for developing apps from the Android market.

Watch this space.

Dev Production iPhone App

Hey peeps.

i mentioned previously i was working on some iphone development projects, 1 of which is a game which i will detail soon, but the other which i have completed recently has been an internal project that can be used internally where i currently work. The task was set myself and has been developed offline at home. i wanted to create this project as 2 streams

  • Web Service creation
    • to manage the data workload
  • iPhone Front End GUI
The project was tackle separately, starting with the Web Service First. The reason was simply the fact that to work on the iPhone project i needed data. The web service is RESTful service using JSON written in C#. This service interacts with all the necessary endpoints i require for the iPhone front end.

Once i knew this was in place and collecting data as necessary i then started with the iPhone side. This was more fun as it involved a physical look and aesthetics.

This was the bigger challenge, because although i know C# as my primary language using xCode on the MAC pushed me to expand to Objective-C.

now, i know i could have used some well known compilers, but a friend of mine said simply "why not just learn it...? surely it is better then to know 2 languages?" so that is what i have been doing.

The project as a whole has taken some time, but i have a working model which is released as a development tool. i have posted some screenshots below. i will be posting more bits & pieces later especially on the game front, nothing too complex as i am doing it all myself at home.

This is a shot of a simple table that contains reference data to work tickets. This allows the user to add work time a selected ticket.

A follow-on from the previous pane, this is the pop up that allows the actual time to be entered.

By selecting an individual work ticket from the list above you are given more information to use

Although i have removed most references, this is the first selection you are given, and that is to choice a client to investigate.

Another shot, shows how you can select individual host data. This is helpful for engineers on the move. The has scope to be expanded with much more information.

This is a simple loading page

The initial log on page, which will allow access to the product

This is my favourite page as it shows the TOC style readings of alerts in the system.

This is the breakdown of those alerts in detail, and from this screen the alerts can be closed accordingly.

Tuesday 18 March 2014

2014, for starters.

Well, where do i start...

i have not posted anything since August last year soooo.. i was nudged by a friend to make some updates. i have been very very busy indeed in terms of workload "at Work", "at Home" and on the bike. i will try to tackle these 3 separately for now.

"At Work"
i have been busy working on a couple of development projects which have expanded my learning and exposure massively. the first is an internal "Intranet" project. The project is to collect data from all of our vendor applications and bring them together into 1 place so we can drill down on various aspects of information when\where we need it. It has aptly been named "Syntranet".

the second piece has been to create a middle-ware platform so some of our clients applications can communicate easily with their associated email exchange platforms via "EWS".

Both are really fun and have given me some great satisfaction.

"At Home"
other than the general DIY, which constantly rears its ugly head, i have undertaken a couple of on-line course. The first was an introduction to Forensic Science. it was a bit left field, but i really enjoy this kind of thing and found the course fascinating. it lasted 6 weeks and really whetted my appetite to learn more in this field.

the second is a JAVA programming course centered around creating a basic Brick blaster routine. i am skilled in C#, VB.NET, Powershell and have never tried JAVA although it is quite close to C# and C, so this course is really great. It is all done on the Android Google platform, so the game can port to Android devices.

Alongside this i have been learning Objective-C for the iphone using the MAC tool X-Code. i have been developing an iphone version of the "Syntranet" so it can be accessed on the move by our engineers. This project is purely in my own time and is teaching me a lot of new stuff, so i can add this to my development belt. i am still working on this and will post updates soon.

"The Bike"
i still have the Triumph and since my last blog have been a few places. France, Essex Air Ambulance Run and all over Essex. i have enjoyed every last mile. i have done 10000 miles since i got the bike in August, and is a treat each and every day. i am not too far away from the big 12000 mile service... (not looking forward to paying for that). i plan to do a couple of trips as well this year, but will see how things pan out.

anyway, i think I'll let you chew on that and will update the blog soonest.

Monday 12 August 2013

End of an Era :(

This weekend had a mix of emotions, because i changed my motorcycle. It was almost a difficult decision because my Gladius had been faultless! It was a great bike and never let me down. It just wasn't ultimately the bike i wanted to own for a long period.

the bike was fast, agile and smooth along with being very forgiving. It was a great teacher. the things it weren't were, comfortable.. i mean the ride was quite hard, and the seat was not very nice after 30 mins.

i had always wanted a bike to take me touring with my son, and even he admitted that the Gladius was not set up for it. His bums ended up number than mine.

a couple of weekends ago i had took a ride down to a Triumph dealer in Ashford(Kent) with the intention of test riding a bike to get a feel for what i was after.

i test drove a "Triumph Tiger 800" and straight away it was a fit.. Both Hazza and myself were blown away by the ride and the bike.

so, with the help of my wife, i managed to get 1... yes i know amazing right.

Triumph Tiger 800 (Big Poppa)

What an amazing piece of machinery, comfortable and can soak up the miles with ease. A total transfer of feeling and experience compared to the Gladius.

The first commuting day today, didn't go as planned though... i had set the alarm to go off earlier to give me a bit more breathing space to come to terms with the bike through London, but it didn't go off... i woke to look at the clock to see the time as an hour later than expected.

i shot out of bed, like a shock had been through my body, and was in/out the shower like it didn't exist... it is a wonder the soap did actually touch my body :)

the dog missed out on his walk and i was on the bike and racing toward work. the whole journey i was stressed and on the back foot. i even managed to stall the bike 3 times...

it can only get better :)