With the rise of technology, more and more apps for mobile phones and tablets are being developed around the world. Over 7,000 mobile apps are released to the world daily, each aiming for success within the market of 46 billion apps.
In the midst of the thousands of developers in the app developing world is senior Chris Xiong. Within the past six months, Xiong has made three Google Play and Android apps: Odd One Out, Metachrome and Ricochet. All of Xiong’s apps are brainy puzzle games. Xiong describes his personal favorite, Metachrome.
“I think it is a little more brain-intensive than the others,” he said. “I like the animation of having all the little triangles moving down the screen.”
Xiong says making apps is a logical process. He first thinks of a general idea, looking and getting inspired from other games and apps online. For instance, Metachrome was based of another Android game called Flick Color.
After he hones down on an idea, Xiong starts to piece things together.
“I then brainstorm a few concepts and write down what I want the app to do on paper,” he said. “After I have a general outline, I get coding with my initial template where I have all the processes running and then add more methods and functions to make sure it does what I want it to do.”
Xiong’s family supports him and helps him create his apps. His sister, sophomore Cynthia Xiong, designs the graphics used in his apps.
“I enjoy being able to help him on things like these,” she said. “The fact that I contributed to these projects makes them more important to me.”
Cynthia Xiong is proud of her brother’s accomplishments and her part in his success.
“[His apps] hold a kind of personal significance,” she said. “I can be proud of them, too, and show off how smart and talented my brother is.”
Making the apps isn’t always a smooth process. Programming isn’t simple, and developers need to be persistent to have a final product, but Chris Xiong has had perseverance to finish his designs each time.
“There are a lot of bugs and occasionally an app will crash and you have no idea what caused it, so you sometimes have to spend hours trying to find which part of your code caused that,” he said. “When you find it, it’s pretty nice.”
There are also challenges with publishing personal creations online, since internet users can sometimes post harsh feedback. However, Xiong appreciates the constructive criticism for the most part and recognizes the benefits of having public apps, like the ability to share his work with friends.
Currently, Xiong is on his fourth app, HexFlesh.
“It’s another scroller type game and you [have to] HexFlesh your way down the screen by pressing and tapping and holding on the screen to redirect you to different positions,” Xiong said. “There are moving platforms and certain obstacles you want to get past.”
Last year, Chris Xiong took AP Computer Science, and this year he’s continuing in the class as a teacher aide.
“Chris is a great person, student and app developer,” said AP Computer Science teacher Lisa Kossiver. “ He is an exceptional, humble person with a strong future. I am excited to watch his success!”
