Eddie Lee

I've finally pressed 'Submit for Review' on my first iOS app and the first app in my Year of Apps challenge. The app is a shape / colour matching game for iOS named Reaction Match.

The theme of this first month was 'simple', to make sure I didn't fall at the first hurdle I have kept the concept simple and the scope as small as possible.

The game presents the player with 5 coloured squares, with the aim of moving the centre square to the outer square of the same colour before the timer runs out. Each successful match can earn the player up to 10 points depending on how quick they are. The amount of time for each match is reduced every turn, making higher scores ever harder to get. Once time runs out or an incorrect match is made the game is over.

Although the concept of the game is a simple one, I still wanted the app to be a challenge to create. I already knew of one challenge I would face - finding the time. I spend the majority of my day at work, and once home - I have an excitable two year old to look after and a partner spend time with. The biggest success in this first month of the challenge has been finding 2 or 3 hours every night to work on these projects - without sacrificing my other responsibilities.

The other challenge faced with this project was knowledge. While I’ve made iOS apps, experimented with Objective-C and used Xcode in the past; this is my first experience with Swift and SpriteKit, the framework used to build the game.

The game is currently in review for the iOS app store, and I will post a link here once (if) its accepted.

All of the apps I make in this series will be open source on GitHub. The source for Reaction Match can be found here github.com/eddielee6/ReactionMatch.

Writing the opening post for this "a year of apps" series I had what I would have previously treated as an unrecoverable setback. I lost the post.

After spending 20 minutes crafting the perfect post in the Tumblr iOS app, I decided to put it down, think it over, and make a cup of tea before posting. In the interim I used a few other apps, and when I returned the app had reset and the post was gone.

Forcing myself to writing the post again (all be it a lot shorter) and not giving up with the challenge can only be a good sign of things to come.

I’ve set myself a challenge for 2016; I will complete 12 projects.

In previous years I’ve started countless apps, games and websites, none of which ever see the light of day. This year I aim to ship a project like this every month. The apps for January and February are well underway - so we’re off to a good start.

Lets see where this goes...