Straw is a humorous game about packing objects on top of a camel.  Players take turns placing objects they have collected in the bazaar onto the camel's back until someone 'breaks the camel's back'.  Hence, the name of the game.  Set in the world of Arabian Nights, the game is full of funny objects like monkeys, bags of bricks, flying carpets and genies that either add, subtract or copy weight on the camel.  Eventually, someone will have to play more weight than the camel can bear and its back will break.  Your goal is to make sure that that someone is not you, unless you can do so with the one and only Straw.

Straw is already a published card game.  This iPhone App will attempt to capture the fun and excitement of the card game in a new medium.  The App will incorporate existing art assets from the card game as well as the basic game play mechanic.  However, it will add animations, a fun user interface, sound effects and a thematic soundtrack for a full sensory experience. 

I need a working iPhone App written in Objective C which runs the game, including:

The immediate goal is to produce a working single player game for the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad.  However, this ecosystem is not static and the game will likely require updates.  Some of which are planned.  Others which may unforeseeably arise.  Planned updates include: 

I hope to approach the program architecture of the single player version with enough flexibility so that these updates will be easy to implement, but strictly speaking they are not a part of this project.  So, we will handle the additional programming of updates separately in the future.

As the project's designer and producer, I am your humble servant.  It is my job to get you all the elements that you need for the game including the art, layout design, sounds, music and AI specs.  There is already a plethora of design documentation available to this effect, but I will be updating it constantly as you need.  I will also be coordinating things between you and the other team members.  Right now, I have people on board to help with the sound effects and the layout.  As I pull together the character design for the camel, I will also be in the process of finding a suitable animator.  And, you and I will work on the AI together.  Your job will be to 'make it happen' on the screen.  

We can start as soon as you want and go at whatever pace will be convenient for you.  However, I would love to be able to shoot for publishing the game by the end of August.  I will be working simultaneously with Apple to ensure that we don't run into any publication snags… but, of course, they maintain 'approval' rights over all content.  So, we will be at their mercy for the final publication date.  As a result, I'd like to push to get things does as fast as we can.  Given the amount of design and documentation already produced, 'as fast as we can' will largely depend upon your schedule.  

Tell me what you want for the job and we'll figure out a payment schedule.  You'll also receive full programmer credit for your work in the game.

As a work made for hire, Evertide Games will own the copyright to the uncompiled program.  However, you will be granted full rights to exploit any element of your programming for use in a non-competing product.