Hi everyone, my name is Zander. I am 12 years old, and I have just launched my very first game on the Apple App Store. You can play it on your iPhone or iPad, it costs $1.49. The game is a 3D geometric puzzle with 20 levels, so I hope you enjoy solving it!

It had always been a dream of mine to put an app on the Apple App Store. I would play other mobile games such as Monument Valley and Minecraft and be inspired by these worlds that other developers had managed to create, wishing I could do the same. I came up with the concept of Slidez just over half a year ago. I was talking to my dad about an old board game he used to play that he really enjoyed. I thought it would be cool to develop my own game but for mobile devices. I was hoping to bring back the old memories of playing board games in a new way. I started experimenting with Unity and managed to get a little prototype working.

My 3D puzzle game is called “Slidez”. It has 20 levels with 2 different themes. At each level, a player has to move different blocks with a joystick to release one block to hit the gold block out. I also arranged and composed the music for this game.

The development of this game took much longer than expected because I encountered many bugs and had to research along the way in order to fix them properly. However, I know that what I learned from my experience will be useful in the future. In total, Slidez took about 6 months of work. I eventually got to a point where I could release the game. I was very excited at the thought of having a mobile game like the others I played when I was younger. However, it still had to pass Apple’s testing and lodgement program to get on the App Store. I sent in the application to Apple and two days later I found that my game had passed all the tests and had gone onto the App Store. I was very happy that I finally accomplished one of my dreams: I have been recognised by Apple as a Software Developer and I am authorised to develop further Apps for the App Store.

My journey in programming started 5 years ago, when I joined CODE4FUN Scratch beginner class in Castle Hill. Since then I’ve completed four CODE4FUN coding courses: Scratch Beginner, Scratch Intermediate, Intro to Java and Java Pro, and currently I am studying Unity 3D and C# game development course in The Granville Centre. It’s been a long and exciting journey, and I would like to thank all CODE4FUN teachers for their support and knowledge they have given me over the years.

If you want to check out my game, search “Slidez” in the Apple App Store or just click this link:

https://apps.apple.com/au/app/slidez/id1542413218#?platform=iphone

I hope you will enjoy playing it as much as I have enjoyed developing it.