14 DAY TRIAL // A fresh development company going by the name SideHobby, LLC has issued a report confirming it was able to build both its new iPhone game and the company using only the "free" tools and development platforms provided by Google. SideHobby is responsible for a game called gpsAssassins. The title is free to download through this week only.
"Fostering innovation was the primary purpose of Startup Weekend," Nicholas Holland, CEO of both SideHobby and Nashville technology leader Centre, said. "We took it to the next level, rethinking the resources necessary to bring a new product to market within the current razor-thin margins of mobile gaming. Google's suite of free tools was the answer. Our business model would not have worked without Google."
"Utilizing Google we were able to build an infrastructure that will scale to hundreds of thousands of players as demand increases," SideHobby's Jackson Miller, also creator of Statzen, a content-analytics tool for bloggers, added. "The entire game-engine resides on Google App Engine’s servers, which allows us to constantly update the game, and provide our popular new scenarios (released every Tuesday) such as Spotlight (hiding doesn't work), Aggression (all attacks do 200% damage), Revenge (all counterattacks do 200% damage), and Lucky Charms (double blood money rewards)."
According to SideHobby, so many players have paid to be among the first to play the game, that it decided to release a free version this week. Thousands of new players are being added every day, the company says. "gpsAssassins – Kill Your Neighbor" is partially based on the real-life game played with squirt guns. It is a multi-player, location-based game whose object is to attack the people around before they attack first.
Download gpsAssassins for iPhone (compatible with iPhone, iPod touch; requires OS 2.1 or later)