ADC2 results

[Nate]

OMG I'm freaking out... hurry up and release the damned results Google! I mean, I love you Google! Please release the results!   

[Ranger]

The U.S. is only coming into Monday now.  So probably 8 hours or so to wait.  ...tick tick tick

[kevglass]

Good luck guys!

Kev

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[h3ckboy]

this that contest you guys were talking about a few weeks ago?

[Nate]

Sweet jesus the suspense is murderous!

[Nate]

Results are out.
http://code.google.com/android/adc/gallery_winners.html
Some really lame apps won, IMO. My app didn't win, so maybe I'm biased.

Overall, WTD is cool, but the other two top winners don't seem interesting at all. SweetDreams, the app that automatically turns off your phone ringer and wifi at configrable times of the day, THAT is what won $250,000? The other one is WaveSecure, which allows you to track your phone, backup your phone, and lock/wipe out your data remotely. I reviewed a number of apps that did the same thing. I just don't see the feature appealing to the masses.

In my category, Entertainment, A World of Photo won 1st. This is a neat app, it is easy to see the mass appeal. You send and request photos around the world. When I tried it, someone sent me a picture from a restaurant in Mongolia. Neat! SongDNA was 2nd, allows you to look up song information. Booooring. Last ADC TuneWiki won, this sounds like a paired down TuneWiki. Solo took 3rd place. It lets you play the guitar on your phone. I tried it but since I'm not into guitars, I was quickly disinterested. Even better, a similar guitar app also won in the Misc category.

While I am pretty bitter about not winning anything, I am also confused why some of these apps were picked as winners.

[noblemaster]

I didn't win either 

I heard my app was crashing with the new Android 1.6 operating system, which was quite a bummer, as there was no way to fix it...

[ernestw]

Best not to be too bitter about things. 

I do find it odd that one of the winning Arcade/Action games uses a picture of an iPhone though.  WaveSecure sticks out in my mind only because it's one of the few apps that I really didn't want to judge.  The most interesting feature - wiping out data remotely was something I didn't want to try on my phone.

Apparently they didn't use my updated game description as they claimed they would.  Looking at that clunky text makes my brain hurt.  I wonder if the order of the finalists is the actual order we placed in . . .

Oh well - on to other things!  Hope to see everybody in next year's ADC!

[arielm]

Wow! Tasker, the 3rd entry in Productivity/Tools has borrowed a 100% pixel perfect copy of the official iPhone "Settings" icon.

Are the people at Google so blind they didn't spot the obvious violation (as far as I know, Apple is not proposing their default art material with a CC license...)

I'm taking a screenshot of the page before the icon mysteriously disappears :-)

[Ranger]

Some really lame apps won, IMO. My app didn't win, so maybe I'm biased.

You are not alone in thinking this.  I first thought there must be some sort of mistake!

Overall, WTD is cool

WTD (What The Doodle) is cool.  However, IMO, it had nothing on "Online Sketch".  Those apps were pretty much identical in the game play, except Online Sketch had chat rooms, Profile photos, more drawing tools, and IMO, the UI was much more polished.  But somehow, that didn't get anything, and WTD gets second.  WTD...WTF!?!

SweetDreams, the app that automatically turns off your phone ringer and wifi at configrable times of the day, THAT is what won $250,000?

I didn't even review it.  It just sounded so boring, and to me, useless (I don't go to bed at the same time every day).

In my category, Entertainment, A World of Photo won 1st. This is a neat app, it is easy to see the mass appeal. You send and request photos around the world. When I tried it, someone sent me a picture from a restaurant in Mongolia. Neat!

Totally agree.  That was a very cool app!

In my category, Arcade/Action, Speed Forge 3D won.  No problems there.  Amazing graphics.  Didn't like the game play that much, but the graphics more then made up for it.

2nd place went to Graviturn (tilt the phone to move one circle off the screen and keep another one on it).  Umm, it was kinda fun.  But really?  Better then an online 24 person multi-player team based game like ProjectINF?

3rd, and $25,000 went to Moto X Mayhem.  OK, now this is a joke.  The app starts up with instructions that have photos of an iPhone.  You can configure sound...that doesn't work.  The screen flip around the wrong way.  The instructions tell you to tilt the phone forward to lean forward, and back to lean back, but then when you tilt it forward, you lean back, and vice versa.  The physics are good, and graphics are smooth, however, due to the control bugs, I found it unplayable.

My heart goes out to ProjectINF, Online Sketch, and a few others, that have missed out, IMO, on a prize that they deserved.

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[Nate]

Best not to be too bitter about things

Bitter is my middle name. Actually it isn't. But my last name is Sweet. It may be like one of those gangster things, you know how they call the huge guy Tiny?

I played Moto X Mayhem. I didn't notice the instructions since I just jumped in to playing. It was an ok game. Technologically gameplay was cool, but I found I had to play the same part over and over again so I would know what was coming up to avoid the crash.

I never saw Online Sketch.

After some time to stew, I'm still pissed. Stupid Google! I was gung ho about Android stuff, their judging definitely turns me off a bit. If ADC is about bringing developers together to make cool apps, they should spread the prizes out more. Like give *some* cash to the entire top 200. Even just $200 to $500. As it is, I made $0 on ADC2 and I've made maybe $175 on the paid version of SingSong so far (two months of being in the market). It is going to take a long time to break even on my stupid $400 Dev Phone. Even better, I can't buy or even see paid apps (even my own) on the Dev Phone. Apparently I didn't really need the Dev Phone, but I fell for Google pushing it.

I'll never be able to get over SweetDreams winning a quarter million dollars. Honestly I didn't try it, but from reading what it does it alone makes the ADC2 a joke. It sounds like I could probably implement the SweetDreams features in a day and spend a few more days polishing it up.

[steveyO]

Hmmm Very odd.. Don't most people just turn their mobile phone volume down/off when they go to bed? 
Obviously not!  Kinds of puts you off competing next year..  Sorry guys to those that competed..

[teletubo]

I didn't really saw the apps, cause at the time of judging I had no device...
But from the description of the app, it does look like a real motivation killer such a useless and definitely not innovative app to get a quarter million .

I think my best option, as a Brazilian, is to hold my games unlaunched until the market is available for me to try to earn some money with android . Probably the last thing google wanted, but well, it really gives me no choice if I want to be rewarded (even if just a little) for my work .

[Nate]

Anyone else get an email from T-Mobile? It looks like they spammed the 2nd round participants.

[ernestw]

You're the lucky one - I haven't received anything from T-Mobile.

[Ranger]

Nothing from T-Mobile.  Awhile ago I received an e-mail from Verison wanting to put my games logo in their ad, which they did, but it was tiny.

And today I got an e-mail from Samsung in Canada asking for permission to use shots of the game in their Ad.

Was T-Mobile wanting the same thing?

[Nate]

That is pretty cool Ranger!

They thanked me for my hard work on the contest, blah, blah. They supposedly want to partner to promote my app. The message feels completely canned though and at the end they linked to and asked me to fill out:
http://developer.t-mobile.com/androidappform/androidappform.jsp
So getting the email is probably about the same as filling out that form.

[ernestw]

If you fill out that form and Sing Song passes muster with T-Mobile, then you will be listed in the T-Mobile AppsPack (T-Mobile customers can download a few special T-Mobile-only apps - AppsPack is one which highlights applications that have been submitted via that link).  I'd go for it if I were you - hopefully the fact that you were contacted by T-Mobile and your ADC2 finalist standing will grease the wheels for listing approval.

[Nate]

Neat, thanks ernestw! I just submitted the form.

[Ranger]

I just used your link and submitted my game as well.