Neutron Capture
Neutron Capture is now available for download from the App Store.
Neutron Capture is a free fast-paced strategy game played on a 5×5 grid. Players take turns moving the neutral piece – the Neutron – and one of their own pieces.
The Neutron is captured by moving it to the player’s home row, or completely surrounding the Neutron so that it cannot be moved.
Neutron Capture supports single-player and two-player games. It is compatible with iPod Touch or iPhone running iOS 4.0+, and with iPad running iOS 3.2+.
Neutron Capture is an implementation of “Neutron,” invented by Robert A. Kraus. It includes art sourced from freeicons.eu, icons by Joseph Wain and music from incompetech.com. Many thanks to the folks who helped me test the game: Stuyvesant Parker, Robert and Jake Rock, Katherine Sartori, and Robert and Devin Waterman.
A few people have recognized Neutron Capture since it released. I’ve listed them here:
- Apple has listed Neutron Capture as “New & Noteworthy” in 17 stores around the world.
- freeapptracker.com promoted Neutron Capture as the free app of the day on 1/20/2011.
- João Neto was kind enough to include a link to this page from his site.
- iphoneica.com put together a review.
- boardgamegeek.com took notice of the game’s release.
- James Bruce was kind enough to mention Neutron Capture in a blog on MakeUseOf.com.
That’s a really nice looking game.
I have just bought a refurbished macbook pro and am about to start my own app making journey. I have made some simple games in Java and C++, but I have no experience programming with Objective C/Cocoa/iOS/anything Mac. What resources and books do you recommend? So far I have bought Aaron Hillegass’ book from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321706242) but haven’t gotten it yet. Will that be enough to get me to the point where I can, say, make a primitive Pong/TicTacToe clone? Or will I need to already be familiar with Objective C?
Any tips are appreciated. Thank you.
Sam, thanks for the kind words. I hope you download and enjoy Neutron Capture when it’s released.
My own process started with the Apple documentation. I read the Apple Objective-C book (http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/cocoa/Conceptual/ObjectiveC/Introduction/introObjectiveC.html), which is freely available for download. If you’re familiar with C++ and object-oriented development then that book should help get you oriented with ObjC.
There are lots of great web resources out there, but the one I found the most useful during the beginning stages of my work with iOS development is iCodeBlog (http://icodeblog.com/). There is a tutorial that will help you to create a basic “Pong” game in a fairly short period of time.
Good luck and have fun!