The idea to create a video game from scratch is not a novel one, by any means. I've begun that quest several times in the past myself, but they were ill-defined personal projects only. Certainly nothing with the potential for distribution. Now, with the advent of things like the Xbox Live Arcade and the iPhone App Store there's a way to get independent games straight from development and into the hands of players. And with the success of games like Braid, there might even be money exchanged for doing so.

One night in January, John and I decided that we simply had to make a game together. Thousands of miles and two timezones weren't going to stop us. We decided to create something for the newest of those aforementioned platforms: Android, with the ultimate goal to publish the game in the Android Market. This blog is where we'll be describing our experiences developing the game. There'll be laughter, and crying, and code - lots of code. Hopefully we'll be able to point out some pitfalls about programming and design in general, and the Android platform in particular so that others don't get stuck in the same places.

This is the blog. Red Sands is the game. And the race has just begun.