Uses This

Who are you, and what do you do?

My name is Philipp Stollenmayer, and I'm a mobile game designer. My most popular ones are Okay?, Zip Zap, and Pancake - The Game.

What hardware do you use?

I have a 13" MacBook Pro (Mid 2014), and a Magic Mouse. That's it basically, no external screens, no stands, no graphic tablet. Every 100 years, I use my Time Machine for a backup.

I test my games on an iPhone X, an iPhone 6, an iPhone 4S, an iPod 3G, an iPad Mini and an iPad Air 2. On the Android side, I have a Moto X, because it works with Google Daydream, and a Samsung Galaxy S2.

I try to make my games work on pretty old phones - that also makes debugging memory leaks easier.

And what software?

All of my games have been made with Corona SDK. I love it because it's super easy and super fast, and it cuts out all the unimportant and complicated stuff. Box2D physics are built-in, so I don't have to use any plugins. When it comes to programming I don't want anything but the original code, to have as little potential for traps as possible.

For code editing I use Sublime Text, and I always have only two code files: main.lua is the game itself, and data.lua is all data like the levels, texts, colors etc. A bit like HTML and CSS.

But for my next games I'm also learning Unity, to be able to make 3D games.

For image editing, I use Illustrator CS6 and Photoshop CS6, because I can't see why I should pay for those on a subscription basis. Normally I design my icons and stuff in Illustrator, to put together into a spritesheet in Photoshop.

I make the trailers with After Effects CS5.5 and Premiere CS5.5. I hope I can find a nice substitute for After Effects when it stops working because it's too old.

What would be your dream setup?

I'm a huge fan of space, so I have the smallest MacBook Pro, and only the minimum requirements. My hard drive is constantly full, but before I get a new MacBook Pro I have to become friends with USB-C. I like the satisfying magnetic pull of MagSafe too much, and don't want to own 100 adapters.

The Creative Suite is nice, but it is a shame that it can't be bought any more. I hate running costs, so I would rather use CS6 forever, but I fear that it will some day refuse to work anymore. Should try Affinity instead.