I woke up to the most amazing news...

Apple: geoDefense Best Game of 2009

Apple has named geoDefense a Best Game of 2009 in their Rewind 2009 Awards!  I was so estatic I couldn't figure out who to tell first... though most people knew even before I woke up...

But before i could do anything, before I could even really take in that news, I got hit with this:

TIME: geoDefense Swarm Best Video Game of 2009

TIME Magazine's Best of Everything 2009 names geoDefense Swarm a best video game of 2009.  And I'm not talking best iPhone game here, I'm talking Best Video Game with the likes of Modern Warfare 2 on the list!

I can't tell you all how incrediable this feels.  Every since I was a knee high to a keyboard, and back then having a computer was a rarity to be sure, I've been making games.  Heck that's been my pasion personally and professional since as far back as I can remember.  

I trace it to my brother Richard actually.  You see I was a late child, being born some 20 odd years after my siblings.  So I sorta grew up an only child, but I still had a wonderful brother and sister.  And my brother was a gamer... we're talking strategic board games, Avalon Hill yo!  If you don't know what those are, then hit the google.  Point is, they were intense and complex and my brother would like to play them with me.  He was a little kid and he an adult and he'd mop the floor with me.  When we played Star Fleet Battles he called my ship the USS Swiss Cheese.  Get the picture?

He never took it easy on me.  Or if he did, I still couldn't come close to beating him.  It tooks years of this before I was able to best him in a game.  And I'll never forget that day!  But something else happened too; I decided the best way to beat him at a game was to make my own games.  Especially since Avalon Hill games had manuals that were like novels and just knowing the rules, much less mastering the tactics, was just out of reach.  I made some board games of my own; paper and pencil style.  You could even buy blank counters like they used in those games and I'd make my own units with colored pencil.

And then the fateful day came when I walked into a Radio Shack and say a TRS-80 Model I.  Like duck to water.  Like bee to honey. That was that.

I'd be horribly remiss to not express my never-ending gratitude to Apple, the leadership of Steve Jobs and Phil Schiller in making the App Store what it is today.  Forget the grousing, what they are doing is very hard and there's going to be snafus along the way.  Focus instead on the greatness of what they've accomplished.  They've built an amazing channel where indie developers can compete head-on with the likes of EA-sized giants and come out on top.  It's a new Golden Age for game development.  And even after a year, no one else can seem to figure out how to do an App Store even close to right (hint: all they have to do is copy Apple, they've been showing the way!).

A special shout-out and thank you to my team at TriplePoint PR who continue to make sure everyone knows what I'm up too.  Without them, this would not be possible.  If you make great iPhone games, talk to these guys.  Now.

And of course thanks to all my fans!  Wait to you see what I do in 2010!

(And thank you Richard.... the USS Swiss Cheese is back!)