Young developers want to get your head in the game
Got a great idea for an iPad game but lacking the technical know-how to make your game a reality? The UntitledD team has got a program for that.
They're currently working on a game creation platform for iPad. “This is going to be a tool to allow anyone of any skill level to create the games that they always imagined,” explained Murtaza Saadat, a recent graduate from Fanshawe's Business Information Systems program, who is UntitledD's project manager. From Angry Birds-style catapult games to platformers to pinball and beyond, the tool will not require users to have any programming or graphic design knowledge to create the games they've always wanted to play.
UntitledD is a family project, with Murtaza working alongside two programmers: his brother, Hamed Saadat, a fourth-year Computer Science student at the University of Western Ontario, and his cousin, Behroz Saadat, a second-year student at University of Waterloo studying computer engineering.
In April, the trio participated in the first annual Seed Your Startup business pitch competition, hosted by the Student Success Centre and BizInc., the student business incubator at Western University and Fanshawe College. They were one of five teams selected out of over 60 applicants to present their idea at the event.
Though they didn't win the grand prize at the competition, Murtaza said it was a great experience. “We think we did pretty well getting up on stage and expressing our idea to everyone. Up until that point, we really never told anyone what we were doing.”
He said he would recommend other students get involved in competitions like Seed Your Startup. “Getting some feedback from the judges and just the audience's reaction was a huge plus for us,” he said. “There is also the experience of getting on stage and pitching your idea - something you will have to do a lot for investors down the road.”
After gaining experience from the Seed Your Startup competition, UntitledD was inspired to participate in a similar competition in Waterloo, where they took home the $4,000 prize.
Now that UntitledD has refined their idea, Murtaza said they are hoping to launch the program in the fall. The app will be available in the iPad app store, and Murtaza said he's shooting for a few hundred thousand downloads for the first month - the team will try to achieve that number by making the program available for free. “We will then be selling additional content and graphics that users can use for their games and help us start generating revenue for our business.” He said the team hopes to release the program for other devices in the future.
A future goal for the project is to “launch an online community where users can upload their games and have the world play them, rate them, share them and just see what (other) users are doing with the app,” said Murtaza, “but this is something that will be more down the road after the initial launch.”
Murtaza and the UntitledD team are currently looking for a dedicated graphics designer - likely a co-op student or an intern - who “has a passion for the gaming industry and just wants some experience to fill their resume for when they graduate,” said Murtaza. If you're interested in working with UntitledD, shoot them an email at contact@untitledd.com.
For more information about UntitledD and what they're working on, head to untitledd.com. For more information about how Biz Inc. can help you take your startup ideas and make them a reality, check out bizinc.ca.
They're currently working on a game creation platform for iPad. “This is going to be a tool to allow anyone of any skill level to create the games that they always imagined,” explained Murtaza Saadat, a recent graduate from Fanshawe's Business Information Systems program, who is UntitledD's project manager. From Angry Birds-style catapult games to platformers to pinball and beyond, the tool will not require users to have any programming or graphic design knowledge to create the games they've always wanted to play.
UntitledD is a family project, with Murtaza working alongside two programmers: his brother, Hamed Saadat, a fourth-year Computer Science student at the University of Western Ontario, and his cousin, Behroz Saadat, a second-year student at University of Waterloo studying computer engineering.
In April, the trio participated in the first annual Seed Your Startup business pitch competition, hosted by the Student Success Centre and BizInc., the student business incubator at Western University and Fanshawe College. They were one of five teams selected out of over 60 applicants to present their idea at the event.
Though they didn't win the grand prize at the competition, Murtaza said it was a great experience. “We think we did pretty well getting up on stage and expressing our idea to everyone. Up until that point, we really never told anyone what we were doing.”
He said he would recommend other students get involved in competitions like Seed Your Startup. “Getting some feedback from the judges and just the audience's reaction was a huge plus for us,” he said. “There is also the experience of getting on stage and pitching your idea - something you will have to do a lot for investors down the road.”
After gaining experience from the Seed Your Startup competition, UntitledD was inspired to participate in a similar competition in Waterloo, where they took home the $4,000 prize.
Now that UntitledD has refined their idea, Murtaza said they are hoping to launch the program in the fall. The app will be available in the iPad app store, and Murtaza said he's shooting for a few hundred thousand downloads for the first month - the team will try to achieve that number by making the program available for free. “We will then be selling additional content and graphics that users can use for their games and help us start generating revenue for our business.” He said the team hopes to release the program for other devices in the future.
A future goal for the project is to “launch an online community where users can upload their games and have the world play them, rate them, share them and just see what (other) users are doing with the app,” said Murtaza, “but this is something that will be more down the road after the initial launch.”
Murtaza and the UntitledD team are currently looking for a dedicated graphics designer - likely a co-op student or an intern - who “has a passion for the gaming industry and just wants some experience to fill their resume for when they graduate,” said Murtaza. If you're interested in working with UntitledD, shoot them an email at contact@untitledd.com.
For more information about UntitledD and what they're working on, head to untitledd.com. For more information about how Biz Inc. can help you take your startup ideas and make them a reality, check out bizinc.ca.
