360iDev Impressions - Overview

November 11, 2010    

I got back last night from the latest 360iDev conference (my first time to attend). I had a great time and learned a lot, but most importantly, it provided a lot of motivation I really needed to keep working on my apps.

I went through my notes to reinforce my memory while it’s reasonably fresh, so I figured I might as well post my notes. Pre-conference class notes start here, and continue to Monday, Tuesday and Yesterday. My notes on the GameJam start here.

I can’t say enough good things about this conference. I learned enough to keep me busy for weeks. I met some really cool people and like I said before, most importantly, it provided me with a lot of energy and confidence and motivation that I need to keep up working on my apps when I get home exhausted form my day job.

If you can go, I highly recommend it, and if you can’t (or are on the fence), check out the videos and see what you’re missing. The ones from previous conferences are up now. The ones form this event should start showing up within a few weeks.

Highlights for me were Kendall Gelner’s Advanced Debugging class, Tom Frauenhofer’s Cocos2D class (which made it possible for me to do the GameJam without it being a complete waste of time), meeting and taking classes form the HeyTell team, Noel Llopis in-app economics talk, Jiva DeVoe’s talk on Classes and group sessions from Saurik and the Legendary Mike Lee.

The only suggestions I have would be 1) be prepared for the WiFi to be spotty, at best (hotels never get it right) and 2) if the class descriptions could be more explicit about what level of experience the attendees should have, it might cut down some on the classes that had people with years of experience and people who had never touched the topic, and the poor instructors who were trying to keep both groups happy.

But that small nit aside, I have acquired valuable new tools, techniques and understandings, and I enjoyed myself tremendously.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I still have some sleep to catch up on.