TLDR:
Hubby and I developed an iOS (iPhone) game in 4 weeks to be entered into a game developer challenge... and we've never made game before. If you want to try it out, you can search the App Store for: Boxes by Parker and Leigh.
LONGER-ISH STORY:
Somehow we started playing those competition games on our phones... you know, the ones in which you get paired with some else and compete to see who is more "skilled." You can play 100% for free, but some choose to bet money. Either way, it's a fun way to pass the time when you are sitting waiting for an appointment or just winding down for the evening.
These games are made by different people, but connected by a company called Skillz. Skillz allows the players to move between these games under one account and gives them awards for playing. The benefit for the developers of these games is having a larger company, with more resources, managing all those user accounts.
So after a few months of playing a handful of these games associated with the Skillz platform, hubby and I thought, "hey, we should try to make one of these." And so we did... but much faster than we originally anticipated. At the end of August we started looking into it, and discovered they were having a competition for new games successfully submitted and approved to the App Store by September 30th. So that gave us just over 4 weeks to develop a game and hopefully get it submitted with enough time for App Store approval. While we are web/app developers, we had never done a game.
Just under 4 weeks later, on September 25th, we submitted our App for approval and crossed our fingers that it would be live before the due date that loomed only 5 days away. I am very happy to announce that Apple only kept us waiting in anticipation for 52 hours.... when we got notification that our app was live in the App Store. We had just barely made the deadline. So the whole month of October is all about the team at Skillz reviewing those new game submissions that met the deadline and judging them based on various criteria. A few of those criteria are: "player retention, replayability, and daily active users." We are up against some of the biggest (most popular) gaming developers on their platform.
I would really love for anyone willing to go take a look at it and tell us what you think. It's a really simple puzzle-type game that is time based. We also included an accessible color theme for all those out there that may find distinguishing between certain colors more challenging. It's free to download and play.
(we are also now working on making it Android compatible as well)
More info: apps.apple.com
