App by ICT Labs student achieves top ranking
An app co-designed by a student at the EIT ICT Labs Master School is currently the most popular music game app in the Windows Phone Store.
SongArc has been downloaded over 800,000 times in just three months and is ranked number one in music games and number six in all games in the online app store. Chief designer and EIT ICT Labs student Adam Kapos said: “Our aim is to get one million downloads.”
The three-man development team has been amazed by the success of their app. Before the launch they had set a target of 250,000 downloads, but this was achieved in just a few weeks. SongArc, launched in October, was finalised with the support of the Finnish app accelerator, AppCampus. AppCampus is run by Aalto University, Nokia, and Microsoft. SongArc is one of the 40 products and 180 ideas that AppCampus has so far supported. The SongArc team received coaching as well as €20,000 towards the development work.
In SongArc, one tries to touch dropping geometric, colourful forms before they reach the bottom. The forms drop in accordance with the music the player has chosen. This creates the illusion that one is actually playing the song. This combination of music and forms is called a ‘sheet’ and the user can create his own sheets or download sheets that other users have already created.
Kapos cites the reason behind SongArc’s success is in the music. SongArc is the only music game in Windows Phone Store where the player can use their own music.
