Ever wonder what happens behind the cubicle walls of a software developer? I mean, besides Warcraft?
QNX Software Systems, in an effort to build their developer community, Foundry27, is stripping away the mystery and gives you the chance to be both master and tormentor of their virtual online software developer – Pocket Geek.
The Pocket Geek, developed for QNX by the fine folks at Fuel Industries, is a Flash-based game in which you play manager to a pocket-sized coder who’s got five days to finish the big project. To ensure that your geek successfully completes his assignment, you’ll need to keep him energized and productive by choosing the best combinations of entertainment, food, drinks, and toys. Be sure to keep an eye on your Pocket Geek’s status – if you redline too often, you’ll flame your Geek out before he completes his mission.
And as if gaining valuable geek management experience isn’t enough, there are prizes to be had! The player with the best Pocket Geek score at the end of the month is eligible to win a $1000 prize package of the toys featured in the game, including a PS3 , iPod Touch, harman/kardon SoundSticks, a $50 gift certificate from ThinkGeek.com, and QNX swag.
Play Pocket Geek now through July for your monthly chance to win.
It’s a fun game (I played it earlier in the week), but frankly, the usability is abhorrent for 2008 (and a game about web dev). Oh, and the ‘send to a friend’ obviously never went through QA… not only are the “from” and “to” fields backwards, but although the app allows you to change the message text, it reverts back when you make any changes to the ‘send’ fields.
A for concept
D for execution