Stories

Doodis — drawing app especially for beginners

App Story

• Tell us about your app.

Doodis is a simplified drawing/colouring app for kids to understand. Yet, it is feature-rich enough to help kids copy/trace any drawing, artwork, cartoon and easily allows them to colour their art pieces . Adults can help by getting the art images for the kids. This then makes it an adult/kid art activity.

• Tell us about you / your team / your organization.

No team, just me. I am just passionate about programming and love to ‘crystallise’ ideas into apps. I used to be a programmer 30 odd years ago, but career moves took me away from programming. I was always intrigued by people who could develop games, especially on mobile phones. Until I discovered Corona, there was just no opportunity or an environment simple enough for me to do so. Corona gave me my programming passion back.

• What was the inspiration behind your game/app?

Kids just love drawing and colouring but holding their attention is the difficult part. The mobile phone itself is a draw, so I started to source for some mobile apps that kids could use, but drew a blank. The drawing app was either too difficult or too “fixed”. I wanted an app that would allow kids to create and colour their own drawings. Drawing itself is a challenge but I soon realised that kids are able to “copy” and “trace” well. So I incorporated two much-needed features – copying/tracing and a drawing/coloring layering feature.

• How did you first hear about Corona?

Trawling the web and I found Corona by chance. It was meant to be.

• How is Corona being used by you / your team?

I use it to develop mobile applications/games which I dream up of. I love to explore the Corona features. I have a couple of projects that I would like to begin, especially to be used as kids’ teaching aids.

• Tell us about the results you’ve achieved using Corona.

I have developed several games but my big milestones were developing a Festival Finder’s App for a local festival for 2016 and 2017. The next big milestone for me with Corona is with Doodis. Seeing the kid’s creation is quite amazing. After several twigging versions, the app became simple to understand and use.

• Are there any specific features within Corona that you found particularly useful in the development process?

There are so many things I love about Corona. If I had to choose, it would have to be the ability to do programming with simulator (even without internet) and the compilation process is so simple.

• On average, how long does it take your team to develop a game/app with Corona?

If it is a basic game/app, I can now do it in couple of weeks, taking it from from designing to publishing.

• Do you have advice for others who are interested in mobile or desktop development?

Corona is the BEST!

• Would you recommend Corona to other companies, studios, and developers?

Yes, most definitely. The stability, support and richness gives companies rapid development. I am exploring the idea of creating a coding club in my country and I am considering using Corona as the programming tool, either I develop a basic app using Corona just to teach the programming concepts (like scratch but maybe not as sophisticated) or just use corona as is (I have not contacted Corona about this if there is a licensing issue).

If Your App Has Been Featured…

• How did it feel to see your hard work recognized?

Seeing the app being used and seeing the faces of kids once they have created their own artwork is amazing.

How it All Began…

• Tell us a bit about how you got started. How long did it take?

It took me about 2 months to get to the current version with all the needed features.

• Did you need outside funding? If so, how did you get it?

No funding needed

“The stability, support and richness of Corona gives companies rapid development. I am exploring the idea of creating with a coding club in my country and I am considering using Corona as the programming tool.”

Creative Vision

• How did you or your team come up with the inspiration for what you’ve created?

Explained above.

• What have you done to make your app unique among the vast array already out there?

I observed how kids draw and colour on paper. I also noticed that the drawings on paper were not very creative. Kids these days are so adept at using mobile phones, so I thought ‘why not create an app to draw?’. I also wanted kids to feel proud and show off their work through social media. They can make personalised greeting cards and share with friends.

• What is your creative process like?

By observing kids learning process and then looking at how other apps approach a problem. Sharing with other people the idea, especially those working with kids.

• How do you monetize your app? In-app advertising? In-app purchases? Other? Do you feel this is the best strategy?

No monetisation. Probably not the best strategy but that’s not my objective anyway.

• Do you think you’ve succeeded? If so, how do you tell?

Fairly, but would love to have more people using the app. In the art classes I conducted using the app, you can see the kids faces when they play with it. Once they are familiar with the app, they are empowered to create other art pieces by themselves.

Finally…

• What top 3 pieces of advice would you give to other aspiring app developers?

I don’t think I have achieved that level of success to provide any meaningful advice at this point.