Designer David Larusso had always wanted to release his own app in the App Store, so when he found Treehouse taught the iOS programming language, Swift, it was the perfect opportunity to give it a shot in his free time. After completing the Swift Track, David was able to code his first app, a retro game called Maddest Bomber. From there he took on the challenge of creating the other creative elements of the game. David’s hard work has since paid off with the successful release of his app in the App Store and the reward of seeing people playing his game.
We asked David to share his experience building his first iOS app with the Treehouse community.
To see people playing and enjoying my game has been a great feeling.
What first encouraged you to learn to code iOS apps?
I started to learn Swift because I’d always wanted to have my own app in the App Store, but I never thought I would be able to design an app or game that was “good enough”. Then I read an article on Medium where OS X and iOS developer Alexander Repty described how he developed a game for AppleTV without any major background knowledge of game design. I thought “I can and want to do that too”. So I signed up for Treehouse and began coding my way through the iOS Swift courses.
Which Treehouse Track did you choose and why?
I chose the iOS Development with Swift track because I preferred Swift as a more modern language over the older Objective-C. I started with the Swift Basics course since it was an entirely new language to me.
You recently released your first iOS app to the App Store. Tell us a little bit about your app and your experience building it.
Maddest Bomber is a fun little game where you try to catch the bombs thrown by the ”Maddest Bomber“. I got the idea from a game on the C64 and thought it would be cool to bring the game to the iPhone, iPad, and AppleTV. Some weeks after I finished the iOS Development with Swift course I began to create the game. To be honest, I hadn’t realized there was so much to do in addition to building the game itself. I also had to create the graphics, sounds, logos, screenshots, and landing page for the game. But after Beta testing and a few rejections, I finally got the app to the App Store, which was really exciting! To see people playing and enjoying my game has been a great feeling.
What advice would you share with aspiring mobile developers?
Don’t give up! Creating a game is just a part of the complete process. The code itself is just a part of it. Don’t underestimate “the rest“ – especially if you do it all by yourself.
Interested in learning how to build your own app? Start learning to code in Swift with Treehouse.