mDevCamp brought speakers from around the globe & we couldn’t miss it
June 15 was the day that all mobile enthusiasts had circled in their calendars. On this day, everyone had the same goal — get to the Prague Congress Centre for mDevCamp on time. And the Kiwi.com Mobile team was no exception. We also gained new inspiration on how to do things even better.
As usual, mDevCamp was geared towards the mobile developer community. All attendees could choose from about 20 talks by speakers from Google, Facebook, Avast, and lots more. One of the speakers was also the winner of Apple Design Award Ján Ilavský, who talked about creating VR games in Unity. He was also one of the speakers at a previous BrMo event.
Cryptocurrencies everywhere
The main theme of this year’s mDevCamp was the unique cryptocurrency made specifically for mDevCamp. The organisers made three different virtual coins which the participants traded and won at the partners’ booths. The more coins you received, the better prizes you won. Some of the hottest goods you could win included a DJI Spark Drone and Kiwi.com vouchers, of course.
Kiwi.com works hard and plays hard and that's something we also bet on at our booth. Everyone who stopped by could play video games, have a rest in our chill-out zone and win some virtual coins. However, nothing comes for free.
The Kiwi.com Mobile Team came up with a puzzle game and the puzzle was nothing but a code cut into pieces. Participants could have chosen one of three difficulty levels and then structured the code in the right order. By the end of the day, we distributed all the coins we had among the contestants. Good job, everyone!
The talks & what we learned
Most of the other talks focussed on how to write code, decision making, and other aspects of development.
And what did we learn?
- Machine learning can help tailor the user experience by processing the constantly growing amount of data. Multiplatform tools like TensorFlow are available. But beware! Without proper ethics, you could easily end up with a psychopathic or racially biased monster.
- One platform to rule them all is always a topic. Everyone wants to keep their iron in the fire. Including Microsoft with Xamarin, Google with “Unity for apps” Flutter, and Facebook with React Native. But is it the way to go? Airbnb is leaving React Native after two years.
- Market competition is fierce, so creating your own niche can be a way to go (not only) for game developers. Start trends, break new ground, don’t depend on one big thing, prototype and exit early. When you find the magic, run, there are fast followers right behind you.
- Virtual reality and augmented reality are still waiting for a killer use case. Who will beat the challenge?
- After 10 years with Android there’s finally a (jet)pack of suggested architecture approaches and tools. Kill your home-made tyrant and hail the king.
- Having a style guide is a must: everyone needs a set of standards for designing within an app
(After)partying hard
In the free time between the talks, everyone could visit the booths, win some coins, and simply enjoy what the partners were offering. The top attraction was the Beat Saber VR rhythm game, where your goal was to slash the beats in perfect timing to the handcrafted music.
When the speeches ended, there was a networking afterparty where you could share your knowledge and get to know other mobile developers.
To sum up, mDevCamp provided a great opportunity for the whole mobile community to gather and share their knowledge.
Would you like to go with us next year? Make sure you follow us on Facebook. Sometimes, we give away tickets for such events.
And don't forget to download our mobile app.
