Sam on Maui

Game Dev Tycoon is available for a variety of platforms, and is just a great little game. No DRM, even! I’ll be posting impressions later on, but for now? A little something to help you along! When you make a new combination of game type and genre, you get a  New Combo x.2 bonus for it. But, if it’s a Great Combo? Add in another .2. You’ll go from x1 to x1.2 to x1.4! To help you out, I sat down and went through the first six genres and available combinations I’ve found so far. Use the garage studio to experiment; each genre and game style has things they like during development. As such, go through the various combinations, figure them out, regardless of whether they're a one-time bonus or not. It'll help in the long run. Fantasy + Action = Great Combo Fantasy + Adventure = Great Combo Fantasy + RPG = Great Combo Fantasy + Simulation = no bonus Fantasy + Strategy = Great Combo Fantasy + Casual = no bonus Racing + Action = no bonus Racing + Adventure = no bonus Racing +...

There's a lot of great reasons to use Cloud storage like SkyDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. I love that I can work on files between my smartphone, laptop, and desktop. But, sometimes I wonder, "How do I back this up?" Thanks to a quick internet search, I've got a simple way to mirror some of those files!

IUGO Mobile Entertainment recently released their iPhone title, Implode! , on Windows Phone 7. I downloaded the demo, buying the game the same day. Obviously, my impression of the game is positive! But, obviously, I'd imagine you'd want more details than that.

Compiled Experience has come up with a handy new app for Windows Phone 7 called Left to Spend . I’ve been using it for the past week and find that its something well worth trying out. Starting the app takes you right to totals page. While the app looks very well Metro, there’s no other pages to swipe to, and that really speaks of how to the point it is. At the top will be your current, remaining total of spending money and how often its replenished. Below that it’ll show the period of time it spans, date-wise, and the purchases entered are listed below. Clicking on the gear icon on the bottom will bring up the settings screen. Here you can set how much you’re giving yourself and how often. For instance, you do like I do and set it for every paycheck to receive $x in spending money (my entertainment budget). Because you can set the amount and choose between daily, weekly, fortnightly (every two weeks) or monthly, you can really use it in the most practical means for you. The last op...

One of most useful tools for a busy day (and life) is a to-do list. And, arguably, the to-do list is one of the ubiquitous apps for PDAs and now smart phones. While I never much used my old Palm Centro’s Tasks app, I’ve used to-do lists almost daily at work. There’s something very satisfying about ending the day and seeing that list (long or short) with everything crossed off! Of course, if nothing or very little is finished, well, that can be a bit disheartening, but alas, not every day ends well. One of the first apps I got for my WP7 phone was a to-do list, in this case Compiled Experience’s To Do Today , and I’ve used the paid version for about a week now. How’s it working out? Pretty well, actually.