Retronyms 2012 - Full Speed Ahead!

We know the blog's been quiet for the past few days, but it's not for lack of things going on here at Retronyms HQ! After making the return trip from last week's Debacle 2012 in Santa Cruz, we've been plunged directly into preparations for the upcoming South by Southwest festival this coming weekend in Austin. Even though it's been a hectic week we're actually really glad that SXSW is coming up so soon because it means we'll get to share some of the "super-sekret" projects that we stayed up all night working on at the Debacle with you very soon!

To make sure you're up to date on the big announcements, just head over to our brand-new SXSW page and check back each day as we reveal more of the exciting stuff we'll be working on this year. Some of it will be stuff you might be expecting, and the rest... well, you'll just have to wait and see. One thing we can tell you right now is that we weren't waiting for Apple's presentation this morning before we started creating "Retina" versions of all the Tabletop devices, so if you haven't put in your pre-order for "the new iPad" yet, don't hold off on our account... =)

As always, if you want to stay on top of *all* the latest Retronyms news, make sure that you've subscribed to our email newsletter, followed us on Twitter and liked us on Facebook.

Debacle 2012 - Santa Cruz

Early each year since 2008, Retronyms & Dokogeo have organized a company outing that has come to be known as "The Debacle". While the name has its roots in a leaky-roofed cabin outside Bolinas, the events of subsequent years have proven it to be a pretty accurate name for what happens when a group of software developers & designers get outside the comfort zone of their homes and offices, and try to spend a week working productively in a new and unfamilar environment.



Despite (or perhaps because of) the challenges of dealing with spotty internet connections and having to forage through strange new supermarkets for food & supplies, some really amazing stuff has come out of past Debacles, including our award-winning geo-games, Dokobots and Seek 'n Spell, as well as the earliest incarnation of our current iPad music app, Tabletop!

This year, The Debacle is taking place in beautiful seaside Santa Cruz, home of the UCSC Banana Slugs, and all kinds of interesting shops & attractions. Having learned a thing or two from previous years, we decided to stop off on our way into town to pick up a few essentials, namely beer and coffee!

The brew-masters at Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing helped us put together an awesome sampler of IPA, Amber Ale and even a Coffee Porter from their wide selection of beers. After the first evening's meal however, supplies are already starting to dwindle, so we may have to pay them another visit before too long. Fueled by bacon-infused cheeseburgers and the caffeinated beer, we stayed up late working on Tabletop, Dokobots and several other projects which you'll hear more about in the coming months.

Once everyone finally crawled out of their beds and futons and sleeping bags this morning, we enjoyed some amazing coffee from Verve Coffee Roasters, another Santa Cruz favorite. We got to spend a little time looking at their brand new roastery yesterday afternoon when we stopped to pick up the beans and as you can see from this clip it's looking super-impressive!



So, with our basic needs met (and exceeded!) we're already hard at work on our first full day of Debacle excitement. And, as you may have guessed from this blog, as well as our posts on Facebook & Twitter, the internet situation here at Debacle House is actually pretty stable, so we'll be checking in periodically over the next seven days to share some of the exciting new stuff we'll be working on, as well as more of the cool people, places and things that we come across as we explore Santa Cruz and beyond. Anyplace in particular you think we should check out? Let us know in the comments!

Retronyms Debacle 2010

Here it is, the round up of the Retronyms Debacle 2010.

Sunday was the first official day of the debacle, and we got groceries, settled into the house, and got to work. Most of it was smooth sailing, but we did encounter one of the greatest challenges to any group of software developers - unreliable internet. Fortunately it was fixed easily enough with a new router and putting a password on the network.

On Monday, I made a most delightful discovery. In rental houses there's always random kitchen sundries left from the previous occupants; what I happened upon that day is artichoke tea. If you've never had it, it's a delicious hot artichoke juice-broth easily had in teabag form. So good. I'm really excited to get some for myself now that I'm home.

Tuesday was the third day of the endeavor, and a couple of our more cold-ridden members started passing the sickies around. Fun unrelated fact: that night we had homemade chilitos (remember those Taco Bell burritos made from chili?) Unbeknownst to us, the founder of Taco Bell had died the day before. I think the chilitos were an appropriate homage.

That night one of my best friends from college picked me up and we went to Long Beach, which was a pretty great since 1) I hadn't seen her in a few months, and 2) I'd been getting a little antsy being cooped up inside from the rain. It was still raining pretty heavily for the first part of the drive, but we stopped to get a bit of food and a beer, and the rain had stopped when we were done. Had some awesome cajun-ized fries at that place too; spicy potatoes are the greatest!

We went to another bar to sit and chat for a while, then she took me back to the house we were staying at. The drive home was pretty excellent, the air was clean and clear from the rain, smog pleasantly gone, you could even see the stars! I didn't even know that was possible in the greater LA area. Took the scenic route that covered a lot of ground past the beach, bay, parks, the naval weapons station, everywhere.

More work was accomplished Wednesday and Thursday, everything seemed to come together really well, and Friday was the debacle grand finale. We worked for most the day and went out that night. Everyone had wanted to do something really touristy and kitschy while we were there, but we couldn't go to Disneyland because it rained the whole time. So our last night was spent at Medieval Times.

For anyone unfamiliar with the place, it's a dinner and show combo that's supposed to provide you with the experience of being in 11th century Spain. I don't know that it completely delivers on that promise; while they do make you eat with your hands, the gratuitous use of colored lights makes it decidedly un-medieval, but I suppose people would complain about a dinner lit by torchlight.

The site said to arrive an hour or so early to ensure a good seat, but it probably wasn't necessary b/c all the seats had a good enough view. However, enough time beforehand to get a couple drinks in you is probably a good idea, it makes the experience much more enjoyable.

The gist of the show is a tale about a prince who's disappeared, a mysterious knight, and a tournament to save the prince, etc. The bard looked like Bruce Campbell, which was pretty awesome, and the ending fight scenes were as epic and well choreographed as any WWF match. And the swords sparked! I don't know that I'd call the money well-spent, but it was a great alternative to Disneyland and fun for what it was.

Saturday was nothing more than tidying the house before leaving, and then we went to the airport. Alas, the debacle couldn't end without one last wrinkle in the plans - our flight was delayed almost two hours. But we made it home safe and sound, and man is it good to be back in SF.

PS - Yes, I haven't provided any detail whatsoever on what exactly we're building. We just think it's way more fun to keep you trembling in anticipation for news of the product. But more will come closer to the release, which is very tentatively possible at the end of February, beginning of March. Remember that's a very imprecise deadline and very subject to change.

2010 NAMM Show

Yes, the 2010 NAMM Show has already come and gone, but as quickly as the time went by, the weekend was a blast. Click through the jump to get the scoop on all the funness.

Our first day at NAMM (which was Friday, not to be confused with the first day of the show itself, Thursday) started off with a bit of a debacle in itself. Flight was fine, but unfortunately the hotel didn't get our reservation from the company that takes their online reservations. Luckily enough they had one suite left, and it was pretty cramped but we managed.

The rest of the day went well, saw some of the exhibits, and rubbed elbows with all the other crazy people at NAMM. Dinner that night was in the Doubletree's restaurant Agio, and had the slowest service of anywhere I've been in a really long time. The food was good enough, but nowhere near spectacular enough to merit that ridiculous wait.

Friday's grand finale was Wham Bam Thank You NAMM, an event kicked off by lectures (which we didn't attend) and concluding with a sweet party. Even though it was a super long trek to downtown LA, the music was great and the party was fun. Unfortunately the day ended with just as much of a debacle as it started with: on the return ride the cabbie didn't know how to use his carbon paper credit card swiper, and it took (no exaggeration) 40 minutes to process the card. Makes it that much better to crawl into bed though.

Saturday also went really well, we did some DopplerPad demos at our friends Sonoma Wire Works' booth, more touring of all the booths, and met a lot of people who thought highly of our work, so hopefully we'll have new projects coming out of some of those interactions. Depending on who you are, a particular highlight of NAMM can be the slew of celebs everywhere. Saturday was my day for an 'oh, that person's famous' sighting of Gene Simmons.

That night we went to the most amazing Vietnamese restaurant for dinner and gorged ourselves on course after course of delicious foodstuffs. Our group parted ways after dinner, some to sleep and some to hot tub at the Marriott, and the next morning we checked out of the hotel. We opted not to go to the show on Sunday, and instead went to brunch* and took some time settling into the house we rented for the debacle. Stay tuned, more will be coming soon on the 2010 debacle!

* We went to this place called Chubby's All American Diner across the street from our hotel Saturday and Sunday for brunch. The place is basically Denny's w/ a different theme, maybe a different menu (don't really recommend it, the only reason we were there was for lack of other options), BUT fun fact about Chubs (the (surprise!) super rotund mascot of the restaurant): his skin color changes from light to dark at night. Our waitress didn't know quite why that was, but did mention that this wasn't the first time someone had asked about it.

On a separate note, I find it incredibly fascinating that an "all American" diner's mascot has a physique akin to that of Violet Beaureguarde, considering that a third of the US adult population is outside of a healthy weight range. I wasn't able to find any info on when the restaurant opened, so I'm really curious as to whether this has always been the case or if this is a recent development meant to cater to that particular percentage of the population, i.e. Chubs is their subtle way of saying 'Hey, it's ok to spend a bunch of money at our establishment on food you don't need to eat. Looking like Chubs here makes you "all American." '

Seek 'n Spell Approved by Apple!

The past few months of work have finally come to fruition, and you'll soon be able to get Seek 'n Spell in the App Store! The tentative release date is Monday, but that could potentially change. We'll keep you posted on the details.

We're pretty stoked about the release, as there aren't any other apps that utilize iPhone technologies in quite the same way. There are a ton of opportunities for developing additional outdoor GPS games, and it's really exciting to have created such an innovative product.

If you've been following the blog, you'll have seen the video of the first official play test for the new app, some screenshots of later testing, and posts for our weekly games. All this should give you the gist of things, but we haven't really provided an in-depth explanation of Seek 'n Spell. So if you haven't yet taken a look at the site or the latest video to see what it's all about, here's everything you need to know.

Seek 'n Spell combines outdoor spaces with virtual letters in a mad scrambling competition to collect letters and make the most words, thus proving yourself to be faster and have a larger vocabulary than all your friends. The basic steps for enjoying Seek 'n Spell are simple:

1. Grab a few of your iPhone-toting buddies and head out to the nearest outdoor space (like a park). Since the game uses GPS, try to stay away from tall trees or buildings that might interfere with the signal.
2. Fire up Seek 'n Spell, create or join a game, enter your initials, pick how long you want to play, and wait for the satellite map of your location to load.
   
3. When the game starts, a bunch of letter tiles will be dropped randomly around your playing field.
4. Race each other to collect the letters. You'll be able to see yourself and the other players on the map, so use this information to get the letters you need before your friends.
5. Spell out your best 3+ letter words. Longer words mean more points! Try to get the golden letters if you can - they double your word score.
   
6. When time runs out, the person with the most points gets to rub it in everyone's face.
   

This is how the fun begins, and we've already started thinking about what features we'll add for the v.2 release down the road. One thing we have in mind is bonus power-up tiles that could freeze people's movements for 15 seconds, shuffle letters around the board, or make your pick-up radius larger.

Some other ideas include a link to a site where you can schedule games for parks in your area and leaderboards to track high scores at specific locations. There could also be different game modes, where you compete to spell the first word, longest word, most words, etc.

If you have any thoughts on other features to make Seek 'n Spell more awesome, we'd love to hear them!

The Bolinas Debacle

About this time last year, we gathered up a group of designers and engineers that had been working on Retronyms projects and headed off to Bolinas, CA to put in a burst of work on a new product. The event was later renamed "The Bolinas Debacle" to reflect the events of the week.

Getting to Bolinas is a debacle in and of itself. As a post-hippie paradise, the residents of the town are known for removing all road signs that would normally show you how to get there. But thanks to our proficiency with Google maps we were still able to find our way.

The stage for this developmental achievement in the works was a quaint little house perched on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean. Once we arrived we found it to be a less than ideal workspace, as the cottage was cluttered with the most extraordinary assortment of crap you could imagine. One table and a shortage a beds didn't contribute much to productivity either.

Things deteriorated as we spent the entire first day discussing what to name the new project, and that night a storm that was probably more of a hurricane rolled in. We made the best of it and sat in the hot tub as branches tore off the trees around us.

Of course when we woke up the next morning, the power was out and the roof was leaking. Everywhere. Several of the biggest leaks were located directly above the only table we had to work on. Turns out that trying to find all the buckets, pots, trashcans, and any other container that could possibly hold water doesn't help much for productivity either.

The hurricane continued for several days, and the Debacle ended with nothing accomplished. The whole thing was deemed a grand failure and named "The Bolinas Debacle."

This year we set out to accomplish the same thing and even made T-shirts to commemorate the occasion. We gathered up a new crew and headed over to Las Vegas to try to build an iPhone app in five days, which of course was a wild success. Keep reading for more on this year's successful Debacle.

First Official Scrambble playtest

On january 8th, we were able to head out to a park in Las Vegas, and test out the new game we have in the works. Tentatively called Scrambble, it uses the iPhone's GPS to combine real spaces with virtual objects to create a competitive word game. The object is to collect letter tiles, and create words to get the most points. It's intended to be played with friends in a park or other outdoor space.

Scrambble is the output of the second annual "Retronyms Debacle". This is an event we hope to make a tradition out of where we gather the whole team together and try to bang out a product in a little over a week.