Abstract
Andrew Zamler-Carhart is the author of iConquer, a popular strategy game for Mac OS X written with Cocoa. His presentation will cover various technical challenges he faced in developing iConquer, and the unique solutions that Cocoa afforded. Geared toward a general audience, the talk will also include some sample code for Cocoa developers.

Other parts of the presentation include: how to use the Quartz graphics system to handle non-rectangular views, tinted images, drop shadows and composited custom icons; the basics of using network technologies, such as Distributed Objects, Rendezvous and iChat; and implementing a simple Internet version-checking system.

Andrew will also discuss the way in which iConquer dynamically discovers, downloads and loads plugins from the Internet, and will provide a peek at the plug-in developer API. He will also touch on iConquer's secure registration scheme and how he automated the back-end registration process.

Presenter Bio
Andrew graduated from Stanford University in 2000 with a degree in Symbolic Systems. He learned WebObjects while working for SRI International, then moved to Apple, where he was a lead developer for Apple Sales Web, a WebObjects application. In May 2002, he started developing iConquer; version 1.0 was released in November.

• iConquer: Solutions in Cocoa
• About the Speaker
• Demo
• Interface
  • Tinted Images
  • Drop Shadows
  • Overlapping Views
  • Creating Custom Icons
  • Contextual Help
• Networking
  • Distributed Objects
  • Rendezvous
  • iChat
  • Version Checking
• Plug-ins
  • Discovering
  • Downloading
  • Installing
  • Creating
• Registration
  • License Keys
  • Using Services
• Q&A
• Contact Info