Featured Developer: Zincroe Games with their Apps that Will Make Your Kids Smile
By: Hillel Fuld
This week’s featured developer is zincRoeGames from Toronto. They are fundamentally different than most developers I have worked with, for one primary reason. They develop apps that target kids, and judging from my personal experience with having my children test out each one of their apps, they do a great job at it. Two of my kids’ favorites were Sound Shaker and Count Daddy, two great apps that incorporate many of the iPhone’s features to provide kids with a rich, fun, and at the same time educational experience. Here is the interview I conducted with Luke Lutman from zincRoe.
• Please tell us your name and a little bit about yourself.
“My name is Luke Lutman and I’m a developer for zinc Roe (http://twitter.com/zincroegames), a Toronto studio that specializes in new media for kids. I studied new media and photography at school and enjoy doing a mix of design and coding. I am the lead designer on several zinc Roe projects including the Zimmer Twins, a popular kids website. I’m also a dad and enjoy the odd zombie movie (or three).”
• How long have you been developing?
“I’ve been coding for about eight years now. I am largely self-taught and most of my work involves building ActionScript-based casual games. Last year I dove into iPhone development for the first time. My first app was a simple timecode conversion tool called timecoder. Then earlier this year I wrote the code for Arctic Shuffle 2.”
• On what mobile platforms do you develop?
“Just the iPhone at this time.”
• Please tell us about your latest app.
“I’ve just finished working on Field Flyer, part of a series of preschool apps we’ve developed called Tickle Tap Apps. Field Flyer is designed for kids 3-5 years old. Players control a little red bird named Robin as they fly through an illustrated forrest scene. The scene is full of cute little animations showing Robin swimming, sleeping and dancing. The artwork is great and the kids we’ve shown it to just love it. We’re submitting the app for review in the next day or two.”
• What inspired you to develop this app?
“I programmed an online piece called Crappy Cat that is kind of similar to Field Flyer in some ways. It’s not really a game, more just a space that you move around and explore. The idea of open exploration and discovery fit well with what we wanted to achieve with our preschool apps. It’s amazing how powerful the sense of surprise is for little kids.”
• Where do you see the mobile industry 5 years down the road?
“I think the mobile industry will become more integrated with the rest of the software world. For years, developing for mobile was a very different beast – different tools, different limitations and much different distribution models. But with the iPhone and Android that has already changed.”
• Please tell us your impressions on the various mobile platforms from a developer’s perspective. Please include iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, and Windows Mobile.
“I’m afraid I can only really speak to my experience developing for the iPhone. I can’t say that I’m a fan of XCode or the developer portal. I’ve come to understand many of their quirks, but only after many hours of struggle. Having said that, writing code for mobile devices has never been all that straight-forward and at least with XCode there is a fairly established community of developers. Having your latest app in the palm of your hand makes it all worth while.”
View ZincRoeGames’ Appboy Profile
