Martin Grider

Puzzle Prison for Apple Vision Pro (2024) - This is a relatively simple match-3 puzzle game I originally designed and developed for Google Cardboard, and then subsequently re-wrote in Swift and Apple's RealityKit.

Blither for iOS (2023) - A digital version of this 2-player game I designed in 2021. Blither is a simple capture and territory game for two players, and I think one of my better game designs.

Thrive for iOS and Android (2021) - This is a digital version of the board game I had published by Adam's Apple Games. I worked on it slowly for a couple of years and tried hard to launch it simultaneously for iOS and Android.

Joggernauts, for Space Mace Games (2018) - Worked on this cooperative autorunner / puzzle platformer. Released 2018-10-11 on Steam and Nintendo Switch! Here's the launch trailer.

HTC Vive Superbowl projects with Visual (2017-2018) - Two short (2-minute) experiences shown to the public as part of the festivities when the superbowl was in MN in Feb. 2018. These were client projects, one for Be the Match, the other for Midwest Dairy. I presented these projects at MinneDemo 29 on July 12, 2018.

Donuts in Space (2017) - A simple 3D action game made for the Donutron. You play as a donut rolling around on a giant donut floating in space, collecting mini-donuts. Includes two-player split-screen head-to-head multiplayer. Awesome soundtrack by Troy Strand.

Various NIH Grant-funded games for Moai Technologies (2016-2018) - These include Memory Matters, a touchscreen game to help with memory loss, as well as an Apple TV game played on an exercise bicycle with cadence sensor integration.

Hiway VR Hockey (2016 & 2017) - A hockey goalie game for the HTC Vive. This was shown in the lobby of actual hockey games at the booth of MN Wild sponsor Hiway Credit Union. The owner and goalie of the MN Wild played it on a FOX Sports TV spot.

Soil Nutrient Game (2016) - A large (48") touchscreen game about soil nutrients for the Nebraska State Fair.

Slide Quest (2014) - Universal iOS game inspired by Threes! It re-imagines the swipe mechanics that game popularized combined with an RPG character and theme. The artwork for is from the Oryx 16-bit fantasy sprite pack.

Catchup (2014) - Universal iOS version of this 2-player abstract strategy game designed by Nick Bentley. I worked with Tysen Streib again on the AI, and music/SFX were created by Tori Kamal. This started out as an excuse to write the asynchronous multiplayer code (it uses Game Center), but ended up a fairly full-featured board game conversion.

RE@L Match Numbers & Counting (2013) - iPad game for toddler age kids. I helped design this game, and was the sole iOS developer. The game was developed by Side House Productions, and published with RE@L. Two other apps, RE@L Match Words & Counting and RE@L Match Numbers & Words were developed/published simultaneously.

Root Down (2013) - An abstract strategy Board Game for two players playable on the iPad. This is my original game design and I did all the development.

For The Win (2012) - An iPhone board game conversion I worked on for Tasty Minstrel Games. I did all the iOS development.

Oppo-Citrus (2012) - My take on the opposite of Tetris. This was my original concept and I did all the coding, with graphics and additional game design by August Brown, and music/SFX by Tori Kamal. (All the SFX were made with real fruit!) Sadly, the game needs some major work to bring it back to life for all the new screen resolutions and iOS versions, so it was removed from the app store sometime in 2016.

Tic Tac Math (2010) - I developed the original version of this app, as well as the second (Universal) release for IPMG while working at Clockwork. Update: In 2015 I updated all the TicTacMath games in the app store, as well as created a new "Trilogy" app that includes Basic Math, Fractions, and Algebra question types, as well as added statistics.

ActionChess (2009) - This was my first iOS app, as well as the inspiration for this domain name. It was my original idea, and one that I still think hasn't reached its full potential. (Yet!)

Go-Tetris! (2007) - This was my first video game, written in ActionScript 2.0. It was also my first (and last) flash app of any kind. It's my original idea, and I did all the graphics as well as development. I've since worked on versions for both native iOS and Unity. The idea will hopefully see a wider release... someday.

Blither (2021) - A two-player abstract strategy game I originally designed for a competition. I also made a Blither mod for tabletop simulator, and later an iOS app.

Thrive/Eigenstate (2018/2020) - An abstract strategy game where the movement of your pieces is augmented at the end of every turn. This game was picked up for publication by Adam's Apple Games, and had a successful Kickstarter launch in early 2019.

Entanglement (2015) - A two-player abstract strategy game with very simple mechanics playable in 5 to 10 minutes.

Xit (2014) - A two-player abstract based on the Tixel family of board games originally devised by Martijn Althuizen.

Mystique Pillars (2014) - A simple card game for 2-6 players using the Mystique Deck, a card game system with 60 cards. This game was one of 13 games published in the "12+1 games for the Mystique Deck" book.

Root Down (2013) - An abstract strategy game designed to use pieces that "activate" other pieces. I created a quick-and-dirty app to facilitate playing this (see above).

4X Dice (2013) - A self-published / web-published dice game.

Eat Thyself (2012) - A simple abstract strategy game created for the 2012 Global Game Jam. (BGG)

Spice (2011) - An abstract game using the Shibumi game system. Spice is based on another game called Ketchup. Spice was selected as one of the best 30 games for the Shibumi system, and included in a book on the subject.

SIX D SIX (2011) - This is actually a game "system". I challenged myself to design a bunch of games (ended up with six) that use dice but do not feel random in their outcomes. (BGG)

Martin's BGG designer profile

Porting Board Games to Digital Platforms (2023) - I gave this talk at Crafter Con 2023, a convention put on by The Game Crafter the day before the Madison Protospiel. The talk is an expanded version of my blog post on basically the same topic, touching on the high-level topics you'll need to consider for any board game conversion project. It's not meant for a technical audience.

Mastodon talk and Group Discussion at MinneBar (2023) - I gave a short talk (~15-minutes), and then led a community discussion about Masoton, ActivityPub, and the future of distributed social media at MinneBar in 2023.

Foss XR Impressions (2022) - I gave a short recap of my impressions from the Free and Open Source Software eXtended Reality conference I attended 5-6 October, 2022 at the October VR & HCI meeting.

A play date for Playdate owners (2022) - I gave this short talk about how to get started developing games for the Playdate at MinneBar 2022.

Thrive talk for IGDATC (2020) - I presented this Thrive talk at the September 2020 IGDATC meeting. It's a bit of a historical overview on the design and development of Thrive as a board game, as well as a preview for the Thrive app.

Super Hex Racer Postmortem (2020) - I presented this at the February VR & HCI meeting following the 2020 Global Game Jam.

IGDA Twin Cities MC & Intro Slides (~2018-2021) - As the primary organizer for our chapter of the International Game Developers Association's main meeting from sometime in 2018 until June of 2021, I would edit and present the intro slides on the second Wednesday of each month, as well as run the meeting before the guest presentations.

360° Video Projects (2018) - I presented this (~45 min.) talk as part of Yellow: A Creative Technology Summit. It was basically a roundup of various 360-video projects I've worked on, with a sprinkling of what-is-360-video and how-did-I-do-this thrown in for good measure.

HTC Vive Superbowl projects with Visual (2018) - I put together a short talk about these two VR experiences, and presented it twice. The first time at MinneBar 13 as part of a Game Dev Microtalks session (which I also helped organize), where I spoke over a screen recording of the two projects. The second time was at MinneDemo 29 in front ~700 folks at the Ordway theater. That time, we actually had someone in the headset doing both of the experiences "live" on stage.

VR Development with Unity, Training (2018) - I helped organize and presented at a two-day seminar on using Unity to create Virtual Reality projects at the Digital Technology Center at the University of Minnesota. The first day was a series of hour-long talks, where I presented a general talk on Unity capabilities for VR, as well as a selection of VR projects I've worked on in the last couple of years. (There were also presentations by Ioannis Nompelis, Patrick Swinnea, and Zach Wendt.) The second day was a hands-on workshop where the attendees created two projects "from scratch", a 360-video player targeting google cardboard, and then a room-scale VR experience for the HTC Vive. I wrote and presented those second-day course materials.

Vive Hockey "Tech Stuff" (2017) - I gave a brief overview of the tech behind the Vive Hockey game I made with Visual at the October 2017 VR & HCI meeting.

Chaos on the Green Line (2017) - I presented some of the technical aspects of this GPS-aware 360 video player at the July 2017 VR & HCI meeting.

Using Unity for iOS Development (2017) - I presented this talk at the MN Cocoaheads user group at their February meeting. I then gave a shorter (45-minute) version of this talk at Minnebar 12 (March 2017) titled Using Unity for iOS/mobile/VR Development. Finally, I presented another tweaked-for-VR version of this talk at GlitchCon 2017.

How To Choose Your Own Adventure in Software Development (2017) - I presented this very personal work history / narrative for the University of St. Thomas Computer Science Club. This was basically a "how I got to be where I am today" kind of talk.

PSVR Launch Impressions (2016) - I talked for 15 or 20 minutes about the PSVR launch and my impressions of the hardware at IGDA's VR & HCI meeting after the PSVR launched.

A (Brief) Guide to Playing Games at GDC (2016) - I presented this ~15 minute talk at an IGDA Twin Cities meeting shortly after GDC 2016.

iOS Game Development in UIKit - I presented this at Minnesota Developer Conference September 30, 2015.

Realm of the Mobile Database (2015) - I presented this talk about Realm at Mobile March.

An Introduction to Generic Game Model (2014) - This talk for the local Cocoaheads went into depth about the functionality and history of my open source library of iOS game classes, GenericGameModel.

Usability Lessons from Mobile Board Game Conversion (2014) - This was a 25 minute talk I gave at GDC 2014. You can watch it on the GDC Vault.

Case Studies in Mobile Board Game Conversion (2013) - A presentation I gave a couple of times, first a run-through at MNMobileGames, and then "for real" at Mobile March 2013.

Customizing iOS UI: Fonts Controls and Color (2013) - 60 minute presentation I gave at a local iOS developer meetup.

Action Puzzle Games (2012) - a brief (20 min) historical look and design deconstruction, as well as broad overview of iOS games

Mobile Game Design (2012) - a brief (20 min) dive into game design and how it applies to mobile

Global Game Jam Recap (2012) - postmortem of my GGJ board game, as well as an overview of other "successful" GGJ board games

iPhone Games Programming (2011) - an overview of frameworks and techniques for iOS mobile game development

Action Chess Postmortem (2009) - presented twice, once for the local IGDA, once for MinneDemo

Go-Tetris Postmortem (2008) - presented for the local (Twin Cities) IGDA chapter

Flickr Photo Gallery (2006) - presented on using PHPFlickr to make a photo gallery at the very first MinneBar