Creating Games like Minecraft on iPad
The first mobile game that Robinson X (better known as RXCodes) ever created looked a little like Minecraft.
Back then, he was simply curious about how games work. As a 10-year-old exploring game development for the first time, he found grid-based levels easy to make and easy to understand. In the years since, the senior high school student and freelance programmer has discovered a lot more.
Take colors. “I didn't know that colors can be represented by only red, blue, and green! It was surprising to me because I had no clue how colors worked on electronic screens,” he said. “I learned how every single value in a color represented in [hexadecimal] works and even programmed a color picker from scratch.”
Over time, those discoveries got more complex. He picked up advanced math concepts and programming principles. Then he tried JavaScript and surprised himself with how quickly he learned it. In less than a month, he had his first socket.io server up and running.
Following that path, he enrolled in computer science classes in high school. His problem-solving skills and programming knowledge impressed his teachers, and he earned a spot in an advanced class.
And he's focused on his future. “I know what career field to partake in and the job I want to strive for: game programmer!”
All because of one query he typed as a kid playing around on an iPad. “I searched in the App Store, and hyperPad was the top result,” he said.
Just Drag, Drop, and Play Games You Make
In case you're wondering, hyperPad is a visual development app for iPad. It makes creating games and rich media apps, like interactive books and prototypes, as easy as drag, drop, and play.
“Typically, you’d need some computer science or engineering background with years of experience programming and writing actual code to create things like this,” said Murtaza Saadat, co-founder and CEO of hyperPad. Even a quick game can take hours of coding just to set up a scene, before you add any characters or music.
That's a big barrier for many creators who don't have coding experience, he explained. Saadat says hyperPad's main focus is to open up mobile development to people who are more creative than technical, so they can make interactive apps and bring their ideas to life.
At first, quick and easy game development was the whole point. For example, a creator could build an Angry Birds clone from scratch in roughly 30 minutes, with an interface that Saadat compares to finger painting. Instead of typing line after line of code, you tap and drag, moving each element with your hands. “It feels like you’re building something, which is a unique experience,” he said. That hands-on approach is why the iPad made sense as a development tool.
hyperPad soon gained momentum and caught the attention of startup accelerators like New York's DreamIt Ventures and Y Combinator. Saadat and his team graduated from both.
More importantly, it caught the attention of a wide range of developers, artists, musicians, and creators.
A Visual Interface for Graphic Designers to Create Games
Saadat remembers one creator in particular: a gifted artist who discovered a passion for making graphics through hyperPad. “Now he’s in university for art. He still uses our platform now and then in between classes and assignments. We actually sent him an iPad and the Apple Pencil at one point to support him.”
Others, like Robinson X, found a new direction in life through hyperPad. Take Hakan. He's a teacher by trade, but he now thinks of himself mainly as a game developer, after discovering he had a passion (and a knack) for it. Two months after searching the App Store for game development software, he launched his first game, Adventure Mine, made with hyperPad.
“In the first days, I was trying to move objects around the screen. Then, in a couple of weeks, I decided to make a full game as I was really wondering how games were performing on the App Store,” he said.
What started as curiosity years ago became almost an addiction, he recalled. “I found it quite easy to make games and release them to the App Store,” he said. He also found developing on an iPad natural: a full-screen view without complicated bars and windows, and the ability to test the game on a real device, the way it's meant to be played.
Now, “After so many game releases, I feel like I am a game developer,” he added. “Game development is becoming a serious part of my life … most of my earnings come from games I made with hyperPad.”
His current project, which is nearly ready to publish, is a flight-based platformer. He's also preparing an update to one of his released games that adds racing events to make it more fun for players.
For Saadat, watching creators take their first steps, discover what they love, and grow their skills has been unexpected and very rewarding.
“Early on, they usually start with the very basics of adding a graphic or adding a picture that's not even cropped,” he said. “They go from that to drawing something themselves and animating something themselves. And then they need sound effects and music. As you watch this progression, as they move on from the basic behaviors to the more advanced stuff, it just sort of snowballs.”
Some creators aren't strong graphic artists, he added, but they can make music. They just don't find that out until their game needs a soundtrack.
Robinson X, meanwhile, is working on two things: a multiplayer player-vs-player game with randomly generated maps and loot, and persuading others to try hyperPad themselves.
“During my sophomore year in high school, I was assigned a project in English class to create a presentation to persuade an audience. I immediately knew what topic to talk about: hyperPad,” he said.
“I persuaded my whole class to try it out, and I actually got some of them to use it. My teacher was pleased. My final grade? A+!”
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