How did you check for time passage? You know, how to know when 30 minutes have passed?

I'm still playing Zombie Farm even though I've left most of the other Farmvilles and Social Cities behind.
It's a really great title - looking forward to more updates, or whatever else you're working on!

GamaSutra made their weekly article about top grossing apps and you're a winner ! Top 10 Grossing with a... Free App !

congrats man :)

Congrats on getting your game out there, I spotted it on here -

http://kotaku.com/5499087/iphone-chart-toppers-waiting-for-a-new-challenger

Looks like it has been doing really well, people love there farming.

Dave.

ok, get it ... it's free because it uses in-app purchase

very well done and runs so much smoother than iFarm! Great job for a one-man effort!

Nice work. Can't believe you made it all by yourself in 4 months.
I'll be highly interested in some sort of post mortem, sales, and marketing details, IF and when you're willing to share.

Did you do any server side code? I heard Apple requires you to remember the # of consumable purchases a user makes if he/she deletes the app. If you don't have this in your own database, Apple usually flags you but maybe it got through.

That looks great! Got it! Will try it later.

Why is it free? Looks to me as if you could easily charge $.99 for it without anyone complaining?

Yes congrats, he is probably raking it 5K a day at this point! awesome

Congrats on the success of your game :)

Nicely done! Zombie games seem to be a sure-fire thing if executed well and this definitely looks like it is!

@mcdonnellv great game! lots of fun!

I am curious, how did you add sound to your game? And, what sound formats did you use? I have been finding that sound, if poorly implemented, can introduce a lot of lag. Any tips?

Also, I am thinking of creating an in app purchase game. I know you just released the game, but if you can give an update some time on how the in app purchases been working out, sales wise, that would be great.

I Definitely struggled to figure out sorting for this tile game. Since I didn't use 1 texture sheet i had to solve the problem of using multiple sheets for tiles.
Another was doing actors using multiple sprites as attachments, since each actor has 1 sprite manager i have to make sure everything i need fit in 1 texture sheet.
Touch handling was a big learning curve for me specially figuring out how to zoom in and out with pinches.
dynamically resizing the tile maps was another big one.
I'm sure there's a ton more, but those are the thorns i can remember...

@mcdonnellv, thanks for sharing. Off the top of your head, what were some key items that gave you the most grief?

I''m hoping to give back to the community. If anyone has any questions on how i did specific stuff you see in the game, please do ask! I struggled to figure out a lot of stuff initially and I might have some answers that can help your game.

Wow, great looking game. Just downloaded and tried for a bit and very kewl...I like your twisted sense of game design ;-)

I JUST got over Farmville you jerk why would you do this to me!!!

Oh well, off to the appstore! :)

From the bottom of my heart, many thanks to Riq and this wonderful community. I would never have believed I could produce something this good without wonderful folks like you people here.

This game is similar to Farmville and FREE to download, so please give it a whirl.

Website:
http://www.theplayforge.com/home/zombie-farm

YouTube video trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ctetiBFxeE

Description:
Featuring two different systems of play that go hand-in-hand, Zombie Farm presents you with a challenge to literally grow an army by planting them in the ground and waiting until they're ripe for the harvest. Once you have enough units, you must strive to raid the enemy farm with your legion of zombies. Choose from fifteen different zombies to plant or even combine your crops with zombies to add bizarre zombie-plant mutants to your army. In stark contrast, you can just as easily play the game by planting your favorite fruits and veggies and fill your farm with peace loving garden-type zombies. Watch as these benevolent undead darlings help fertilize your crops so you get the most from your harvest.

Features of the game include:
- Plow, plant, and harvest farm fresh veggies and fruits
- Plant corpses and harvest zombies to raise your army
- Customize you farmer, and watch him toil about your farm
- Enjoy watching your zombies wander around your farm
- Behold bizarre zombie mutations as you plant corpse and crops
- 15 different zombies of different shapes and sizes
- Pester Old' McDonnell next door by invading his barn
- Upgrade your farm's size
- Connect to Facebook to publish your farming exploits
- Invite your Facebook friends and share the zombie farming experience
- Hours and hours of gameplay
- No Internet connection required
- So funky and fetidly fantastic, you'll keep farming for more foul festering friends
- Its FREE!