You know when you have a game in mind that you really want to play but it’s not in the app store? Well, when you’re a computer science student, that’s not an issue — you just build it yourself.
A team of students from The University of Nottingham did just that and have now broken into the app store’s top 100 puzzle chart with their free app Bricks.
The game involves breaking different coloured bricks by redirecting a ball across the screen and racking up points in the process. It’s a revamped classic that is already proving popular with over 5,000 downloads since its launch on Tuesday 1 April.
The team is celebrating its success with the launch of an Android version.
Emmanuel Abiola, second year electronic engineering student at the University, is part of the team behind Bricks. He said: “There was a discussion about why Apple did not have a good brick breaker game within the app store. By noticing this gap in the market, this led to the development of Bricks.”
The team wanted to devise a game that was easy to get to grips with but also challenging.
“We owned BlackBerry smartphones and enjoyed playing the classic 'Brick Breaker' game, and wanted to create a modified spin-off for the app store. Initially we developed a digital sketch and just really liked the look of it and then came up with a simple form of the game, and received a lot of positive feedback.
“We decided to meet up, and we had a lot of sleepless nights, and develop our ideas and features of the game in order to create a viable commercial product.”
But — even though they liked it — they didn’t know how many other people would too.
Emmanuel said: “We are very amazed by the app’s success as it was only made for fun and just wanted to learn and gain exposure to the app industry. We are very grateful for the support of our University, peers, Impact magazine, The African & Caribbean Society, and all those who have downloaded and helped share the game.”
The app was devised by computer science student Stephen Sowole, alongside Emmanuel, Dipo Areoye, Ipalibo Whyte and Tosin Afolabi. They are all students at The University of Nottingham.
Bricks can be downloaded for free from the Apple app store. It is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. You can follow @Bricksplay on Twitter.
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Notes to editors: The University of Nottinghamhas 43,000 students and is ‘the nearest Britain has to a truly global university, with campuses in China and Malaysia modelled on a headquarters that is among the most attractive in Britain’ (Times Good University Guide 2014). It is also the most popular university in the UK among graduate employers, one of the world’s greenest universities, and winner of the Times Higher Education Award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Sustainable Development’. It is ranked in the World’s Top 75 universities by the QS World University Rankings.
Impact: The Nottingham Campaign, its biggest ever fundraising campaign, will deliver the University’s vision to change lives, tackle global issues and shape the future. More news