Staff Writer
MyBroadband’s Staff Writer is directly plugged into the South African Internet backbone, and spits out press releases and other news as he receives it. …
A local developer has won R50,000 for an addictive sheep game for the Windows Phone platform
Local developer Justin Southey’s “The Most Addicting Sheep Game” grabbed the honors in Microsoft’s Windows Phone Application Development competition, netting him R50,000 in the process.
“The Most Addicting Sheep Game”, which features sounds from real sheep based on a Karoo farm, has received 450 downloads so far by local and international Windows Phone users.
Other apps to feature strongly in the competition included a News24 app, which was a firm favourite for the business user. Judges enjoyed the “fresh” interface, specifically designed for Windows Phone devices, and the fact that it allows users to easily access the latest news, sport, finance and lifestyle content from the section’s screen and shows up-to-the-minute articles from 24.com’s various brands.
Another favorite was Torchbear, a social media information sharing tool that is represented by a “passing of the torch”. Users can tell where the torch has travelled and how many people have passed it as well as to where.
Also featuring strongly was Mosaic, which allows users to build mosaics using the pictures on their phone.
Southey initially designed “The Most Addicting Sheep Game” for Xbox Indie using tutorials online and sold almost 10 000 copies of the game within its first year of release. When he heard about the Windows Phone App competition, he decided to reconfigure it for Windows Phone.
“It took quite a lot of redesigning to make the game look and feel at home on a touch screen, but the response has been so worth it and the developer tools that are easily available online are fantastically user friendly, which made the journey a simple one,” said Southey.
“The Most Addicting Sheep Game” was a favorite among the judges for a variety of reasons,” says Microsoft’s Suliman Noor-Mahomed. “Not only is it incredibly addictive but it is also a quality app, with the design, structure, multi-gestures, movement and sound all being seamlessly integrated.”
Clifford de Wit, developer and platform lead at Microsoft SA, says the biggest thing to come from this exercise is the proof that the South African developer market is actually far larger than people realize and says this competition marks the start of a focused drive to highlight the talent inherent to this country.
“The talent that lies within our borders is astronomical and we really can’t wait to see how local developers take advantage of a new platform,” said de Wit.
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