iOS project ideas please

[blue-lion]

hello i am fairly new to xcode ,but not a complete programming novice. I've spent the last 6 months reading up on iphone development , carefully following examples in books,etc and now with my newly acquired knowledge i'm looking to start a small beginners project.

However, i am not a programmer by profession (aerospace engineer) so i cant draw upon something from work , and I've not got a brilliant imagination either in order to dream something up!.

I'm kind of drawn to something using table views and SQLite that isn't too difficult such that I'm not constantly stuck at every turn ,and not so easy that it would practically mean copying an example from a book and changing the data, if you know what i mean??? somewhere in between would be nice.

Anyone got any ideas, or even know of a book/website with exercises that i could attempt.

cheers


p.s. the table based app is only a preference ,I'm fairly open to anything really to get me off the starting blocks??.

 

[chown33]

I often recommend simple games, such as basic card games, dice games, guessing games, etc. The reason is that the logic for most such games is pretty simple. You can usually make a basic UI without a lot of trouble, though card games tend to have a lot of images.

There are a bunch of well-known old-school computer games, such as Hunt the Wumpus, Hamurabi, etc. that are pretty easy to code and to make UIs for. I don't have a comprehensive list, but Wikipedia articles are a good start (and have links):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunt_the_Wumpus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamurabi

The "BASIC Computer Games" book had a whole series of games written in BASIC. It's worth looking at its table of contents for ideas. The website at the link has scans of the original pages, too.


The SQLite angle might be more difficult to integrate.

You could use pre-defined tables to give the initial topology and room contents of an Adventure-style game. The "saved game" state would simply be the modified state of the tables. A "new game" would copy the original files and open them.


Games often have a "constrained world" quality that lets you decide how much detail to put in or leave out. Even simple games can be pleasing. Real-world things like a personal finance app or a mileage tracker, however, have a minimum level of functionality, below which they're not even worth using.

 

[MrFusion]

(aerospace engineer) so i cant draw upon something from work

Sure you can. Isn't there a piece of software that just sucks or that is missing something? Make your own version and at the same time improve your workflow. In time, you might even maintain your software on a professional basis if it's valuable for the company.