Utah Developer Releases iPad App Brainbean — Reaches 400,000 Games Played in Just Two Days
As of 20 minutes ago, Brainbean was in the top 10 apps worldwide.
Is it possible to hold a full-time job and develop a successful mobile application on the side? Utah developer Tanner Christensen has done exactly that. Christensen’s iPad-exclusive app, Brainbean, is a gaming app that allows you to, “Exercise your creativity and play with your brain like never before.”
Having produced three other iOS apps to date, Christensen now appears to have a hit on his hands. “The stats coming in are a bit unfathomable,” said Christensen, “the app has had over 400,000 games played since release, with as many as 36,000 playing it simultaneously.” Differing from his previous apps, the Brainbean app is using a freemium model. Four of the apps’ eight games are free to play, with the others able to be unlocked for $0.99 each.
In addition to making the app while holding a full-time marketing-related job, we also learned that Christensen did all of the design and development for the app on his own. Curious as to how he acquired such a variety of skills, we asked Christensen to share his story with us (which he graciously did).
“I learned to code back when I was about 14, starting with Basic & C++,” explained Christensen. “Originally, though, I wanted to be a graphic designer. I taught myself Photoshop and eventually became good enough at it that I knew more than the teachers who taught me the classes. I actually ended up being asked to teach the class, with lessons and everything.”
Wondering what resources he could have used to teach himself at such a young age, he explained, “I mostly learned from online forums.” After speaking with him further about his educational background, Christensen revealed that he is almost completely self-taught.
When asked why he chose to make Brainbean for iOS, Christensen playfully admitted to being a Mac fanboy. He also explained, though, that he really enjoys the closed-source platform and the benefits Apple’s App Store provides. In fact, Christensen credits the folks at the Apple App Store for a lot of the success he has had so far. “Due to my experience with them from my previous apps, they knew who I was and were familiar with my work,” he explained. As an outgrowth of this relationship, the App Store chose to have Brainbean as a featured app. When asked how much this has helped, Christensen stated, “As of 20 minutes ago, Brainbean was in the top 10 apps worldwide.”
When asked what the inspiration for creating Brainbean was, Christensen told us, “Creativity has always been a huge passion. About six years ago I started the Creative Something blog, so I’ve always been thinking and writing about creativity. I did some research into Lumosity and other brain-teaser programs, but found that they really didn’t work to make you smarter. I wanted to do something that really appealed to the creative side of people’s brains, no matter what age they were.”
When asked about his plans for the future, Christensen told us that he will likely keep developing apps, simply because he enjoys the challenge producing them presents. “I’d love to have my own studio one day,” he added, “one where I can continue helping others with creative projects.”
For more information and to download Brainbean, click here.
Published 6/9/2014
