Drapped — From idea to an iOS game in few hours

5 min readNov 4, 2015

Whether you want to uncover the secrets of the universe, or you want to pursue a career in the 21st century, basic computer programming is an essential skill to learn. — Stephen Hawking

I will give you hints how a simple idea can turn into an iOS game and how it can take only a few hours to sketch the idea down, write the code, create the icons, sounds, images and submit it to the Apple App Store.

Note: This is only one way how you can create a game and of course I can’t explain every part in detail! All Steps are hints with great linked resources and sites. Decide for your own what’s the best for you. For developing iOS apps you need a MacBook or iMac or need to setup a virtual PC application with Mac OS X.

Before following the steps, keep always in mind, things in the process which can change quickly, like the main colors of the game, the name of the game (use one or two words, short and crazy), the icon of the game.

1. Learn how to code

The internet is full with free resources like Codecademy, Coursera or RayWenderlich for example. You can also watch Youtube videos to get a first free experience, but most of them will be not up to date. If you want more there is also an official Stanford University Course about Developing iOS Apps with Swift. I mention this because I focus on iOS apps. Of course there will be also another free resources for every other programming language, for developing also Android Apps. After you get familiar with coding it’s time to choose an idea which you will use to build the app.

2. The idea

After getting familiar with writing code and developing litte examples you need an idea for setting a goal which you will claim at the end. The best way to do this watch out whats already out there on the app stores or in the world wide web. Sometimes it’s something in the real world which brings ideas. The best example is Flappy Bird. Dong Nyugen, the developer to this game was inspired by bouncing a ping pong ball on a paddle. You can also watch how people use their smartphones. The most common gestures are swiping, sliding, zooming, tapping. You can all get this ideas for free, you need only attention.

3. Write down your ideas and features

Either writing down your thoughts on paper or using great free tools like Evernote or Trello. Most important is, that you have your idea written down somewhere. Make an unordered list, make a todo list or make only bullet points which features should your game have. After you have written down everything which comes to your mind, you must sort out the irrelevant things like building more than one levels for example. For the beginning one level should be enough. Keep it simple. You will need at least a start screen, a game screen and game over screen, a player figure and maybe obstacles, a score system, a rule when the game will be over and of course you decide which gesture should be used by the player. What kind of sounds and what kind of background images.

4. Sketch your Ideas down

The best and fastest way is to use a pen and paper. Sketch your screens down. What should appear on the start screen, what objects will be on the game screen and how should the game over screen look like.

Wikipedia — Twitter blueprint sketch by Jack Dorsey

5. Setup Xcode and test your created apps for free

Xcode is the developing environment for iOS apps can be downloaded for free and you can also test you created code for free on the integrated iOS simulator.

6. Make the first flow

The first goal is to develope the flow from beginning the game until the point when the game over screen will be shown. That means starting the game showing the start screen, tapping on that screen, change screen to the game screen, tapping again on that screen, showing the game over screen, tapping on that screen again and after that showing again the start screen or immediately the game screen.

7. Get your tasks done

After you got the first flow. You need to reach the end of your goal by finishing task by task. One task can be “Add a title label to the start screen”. It’s a simple task but every task you finish will take you one step closer to finishing your game. If you get stuck the best resource to get a solution for your problem is Google, Stack Overflow or the Apple Developer Forums.

8. The last steps

Test your game on many devices as you can. Use the iOS simulators in Xcode. Use real devices. Submit your app to the App Store (For submitting the app to the app store you need to enroll the Apple Developer Program)

Remember no software or game is perfect. It can have always some bugs.

How I did this in few hours? For sure not at the first time. Practice is the key. Maybe you can do it in less than a hour.

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