We know some people detest year end letters, but around these pixellated parts, it’s a tradition, and who are we to argue with that? 2009 saw a ton of content come down the assembly line including two new iPhone games, the return of Iconfactory related merchandise, and of course lots of desktop goodies. Here are some of the highlights.
There’s no doubt that the iPhone took the Iconfactory by storm in 2009. In May we launched version 2.0 of mobile Twitterrific and introduced a whole host of new features including multiple account support, trends, video uploading and tweet translation. Then in August, we announced our collaboration with DS Media Labs to produce our second game for the platform, Ramp Champ. This ode to the classic boardwalk games of skee-ball and pinball met with critical success out of the gate and opened the way for our first forays into in-app purchases. In October we followed Ramp Champ up with Pickin’ Time, a fun elimination-style game for kids and adults that can be played alone or in large, super-fun groups.
Both Ramp Champ and Pickin’ Time were developed, in part, by Sean Heber. Formerly of Tapulous and DS Media Labs, Sean officially came on board as our second full-time programmer in October of 2009. Sean’s talents are being put to good use with the creation of upcoming software titles including Twitterrific 4 for the Mac due out next year. We’re also pleased to report that our new project manager, Cheryl Culling also joined the Iconfactory team in 2009.
Of course no year at the factory would be complete without icons and 2009 was chocked full of ‘em. This past year, the Iconfactory artists assembled 29 sets totaling over 670 icons as well as 19 downloadable desktop pictures. In 2008 we were privileged enough to bring you Indiana Jones, but even that paled in comparison to our dream icon project. In April, the Iconfactory released the official icon and desktop collections for J.J. Abrams’ big screen adventure – Star Trek, and we’ve been smiling ever since. Other notable freeware releases this year include Ive Drives, Somatic Rebirth Extras, Twitterland, The Emperor’s New Groove, Frakking Toasters and Flurry.
All in all, 2009 was a great year to be pushing pixels. We released a huge amount of free content, published several new software titles and brought on new team members. We also were proud to have worked on some very exciting client projects and geared up for the release of Ollie (now coming in early January) the Twitterrific mascot.
We thank you once again for surfing over and spending some of your valuable time with us. Thanks also to all those who have supported our enterprise by purchasing our software or spreading the good word about our efforts far and wide. We couldn’t do what we do without you. We hope you’ll join us again in 2010 for even more exciting desktop and mobile developments in the weeks and months to come. Happy holidays everyone, see you next year!
