Speaking at Develop Liverpool, 24th November

Just a small announcement to say I'll be speaking at Develop Conference Liverpool this month. My talk, Building on Greedy Bankers - Applying App Store Experience will be part of the Indie Dev Day, where I will explain how I built upon the foundations set by Greedy Bankers on iPhone to come up with Greedy Bankers vs The World.

Indie iOS developer Alistair Aitcheson recounts the ongoing tale of Greedy Bankers, his App Store debut, and its semi-sequel on iPad. Despite the original game’s sales slipping below expectations, Alistair chose to expand the franchise, with a bolder USP and fresh marketing strategy. The result, Greedy Bankers vs The World, was selected as a finalist in the Eurogamer Expo Indie Game Arcade.

Was the expanded game more desirable? Were the changes in marketing strategy effective? Did fresh exposure bring the game success? This is the post-mortem with a difference, about using lessons from one project to directly inform the next.

Tickets to the conference can be purchased here, and the Indie Dev Day track can be attended at a reduced rate.

Greedy Bankers at GameCity Nottingham

October 26th to 29th saw Nottingham invaded by games and gamers, for one of the most varied and quirky games events in the UK calendar. There were talks from industry veterans including Naughty Dog's Richard Lemarchand (also a kickass DJ, but more on that later), 100-player laser-pen projector games, stirring breakfast discussions hosted by the Guardian's Keith Stuart, and, of course, a smorgasbord of indie games to try out on the show floor.

And the Greedy Bankers were there to join in!

Greedy Bankers vs the City of Nottingham

I have to say, demoing the game at Eurogamer Expo has really given me a thirst for more public events. The game does really seem to suit it, and battling a friend over a shared iPad can be a memorable shared experience.

The audience was much different to what I was used to from previous demo sessions, as there were a lot of families there, which made a nice change. One kid (pictured) was particularly good at the game and kept on coming back. He wanted to challenge everyone, and usually won! He even gave me a run for my money - I beat him after two very close rounds and only $500 in it in the end. Normally I'd go easy on a new player, but my pride was at stake!