Debacle Software
In the summer of 2008, three great friends had an idea in a car: to get in on the iPhone goldrush by carving out a niche in the photography category. A few months later, Pano was submitted to the App Store and through polish, innovation, and some good timing and luck, it became a hit. Debacle Software was born.
Debacle Software Branding
Once we got the ball rolling with development – and once I had some time to breathe after we submitted Pano – I got to work on drawing up the brand that would tie all our work together. This logo represents the relative chaos of starting out as indie developers; what emerges – we hope – will be superior for it.
Pano
The one that started it all. From being a twinkle in our eye to selling well over 200,000 copies with feature articles in Gizmodo, MacWorld, TUAW, and various print publications, Pano took us all by surprise. With a massive UI overhaul in its 4th version, I tried to make Pano look every bit like the first-class app that it had become.
Self Image
Drawing upon his background in Human-Computer Interaction, fellow Debacler Julian found that we could make things a tiny bit easier for self-photo shooters. Using the open-source computer vision library OpenCV, we created Self Image, an app that would take a photo as soon as it saw a face in the frame.
Little Metal Ball Website
Shortly before Self Image's development, Adam and I began brainstorming on a project that would later become Little Metal Ball. I later stepped out of the process and Adam found Michael Brown, a well-established game design pro, to help bring the game to completion. Adam asked me to take Michael's art assets and build the app's website.
Prototype: Cradle Main Menu
The game that would one day become Little Metal Ball started out as Cradle, a game based on the adventures of a steel bearing that had broken free from its previous life as part of a Newton's Cradle desk toy. Shown here is part of the main menu for the game; the viewport would initially be centred around the logo, from where the user would roll the ball down the various paths to select a level.
eric.akaoka@gmail.com
Tel · 1.647.968.1110