Robots and Pencils Inc.

We make things for the iPhone, iPad and Cloud. http://robotsandpencils.com
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May 2009

 

CrushFactor actually working in the wild :)

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CrushFactor made it less awkward :)  Glad it helped you out!

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Gaming + ADD = Addiction

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I always thought I'd work with my life partner some day. When I was a child I dreamed I'd marry a doctor and live in a foreign country in a remote village with our 5 children and be the local medical aid.

Then when I chose to be an architectural/interior designer I thought I'd marry someone in that field. (I know, I know, I'm female. The stereotype is true. ;)
But I ended up with a computer engineer. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. But, here's this: he totally didn't/doesn't fit the computer nerd/robot mold that Hollywood had created in my head. He's more creative than I am in many ways (as I'm discovering most computer programmers are). I just can draw better than him. :)

So here's the problem. I've never liked video/computer games, in fact, I've avoided them like the plague. I'm of the team that thinks they rot your brain and causes secretary spread amongst other societal calamities.


Herein lies the irony. Michael and I are even a better match than I initially thought, because I've discovered that I'm a total hypocrite. All those years of condemning video games and guess what? I've become a closet video game addict. I go to bed at night exhausted and instead of closing my eyes to sleep, I sneak another Drop 7 game in. If I hear my husband coming up the stairs after slipping another fews hours of late night work, I quickly and silently shut off my iPhone and pretend I'm sleeping and if he tries to talk to me, I act all annoyed that he's disturbing my slumber.

Dear Michael, Most of the time I really am sleeping! ;) ;)

So now my son has someone to blame his gaming addiction on. His mom, who used to nag him constantly to get outside and smell the fresh air and get some sunshine, exercise, meet some girls for heaven sakes!

Sorry buddy. Your parents have now become the dealers. But you still only have an hour of gaming each day on the weekends. ;)

Camille Gross-Sikorsky

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Tightening up our headphones

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When I was two I drove my mother crazy drawing all over the walls with whatever I could find. My mother was hoping to get revenge when I had my first child. She'd often call me to remind me of what a terror I was (always with a hint of pride in her voice), that she couldn't leave a single pen or pencil unaccounted for and that I should watch Tristjan like a hawk. He never did get into my drawing tools. But then I had twins girls. And Mom got her revenge.

I always thought I'd be an artist when I grew up, as did all my school mates. But I choose Interior Design, ultimately directed to this field because of my High School aptitude tests where I scored abnormally high in spatial perception. I kept my art private.

After 8 years in the Interior Design industry I am saying goodbye to return to my first love and join my husband in the internet/gaming industry.

It all began abruptly February 1st of this year. The board of directors of Cambrian House agreed to let my husband bring the Gwabs (a PC desktop fighting/puzzle game) team to our home to push the game to completion and send it off to distributors. That weekend, our live-in nanny got settled in, we finished our basement renovation and we moved a team of 5 to our basement.

A little more than 3 months later and Gwabs is finished - we're looking for distributors, Michael has put on another Startup School, we built and designed our website and sent our first app to the iTunes App store.

There were tears and laughter and lots of late nights and hot chocolate. But we got through it unscathed and have a renewed faith in the magic we can make when we put our fingers to the keys, tighten up our headphones and work.

Camille Gross-Sikorsky


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