Brown evading typical high school experience, ends up on app store
On Feb. 5, Coppell High School junior Ryan Brown works on updating the features of his gaming app “EVADE” after school at the CHS library. Brown decided to create the app as a productive pastime during the summer, though the process took four months to complete. Graphic by Kaylee Aguilar.
February 9, 2018
Wanting to spend his free time in a productive way, Coppell High School junior Ryan Brown made something which would show off his technological skills. He created a game on the app store called EVADE.
The objective of EVADE is to pilot a small ship through the blackness of space, dodging an endless wave of spikes to avoid death.
Coppell High School junior Ryan Brown created a game called EVADE on the app store. The game has been gaining recent popularity among students at CHS.
The app has been gaining recent popularity with 4.7 stars out of 5. People who have played the game, including CHS sophomore Shruti Sankar, finds the app to be a fun distraction.
“It’s a simple game which takes your mind off things,” Sankar said. “It’s a really nice way to have a quick brain break, without being way too caught up in other things.”
With motivation to do something productive, Brown embarked on the perilous journey to create the game, starting around July.
“So I wanted to create the app because whenever I had free time, I’d spend it watching Netflix or YouTube or being on social media,” Brown said. “I wanted to use my time in a more productive way.”
With major inspiration from Ragdoll Avalanche (a game that also involves spikes) and the Internet, Brown was able to create a storyline and start coding, which ultimately led to further development of the game.
“There wasn’t anything like EVADE on the app store,” Brown said.”That’s why I knew I would go with this idea.”
Brown created the game with a lot of help from Internet research and tutorials, but also from his friend, CHS junior Grace Hao. At the end of the game, when your spaceship hits a spike, there are little statements that appear after you die, an idea given by Hao.
“It was Ryan making it, I just helped him with the aesthetics, different styles, and graphics,” Hao said. “These little aesthetics added a lot of uniqueness and humor to the game.”
Brown’s biggest setback was coincidentally, time. He needed to finish what he started, but with seven AP courses, working as a tutor, more homework and getting a job at Sonic, Brown seemingly had absolutely zero time.
“Sometimes a week would go by and I wouldn’t be able to work on it at all,” Brown stated.
But after four months of juggling academics and his job, Brown was able to put EVADE on the app store, around the end of October.
“I’d say the biggest accomplishment after creating the game would be the positive feedback that I’ve gotten,” Brown said. “Most people say they like it or that it’s fun. It also has a 4.7 rating out of 31 reviews, which I’m pretty proud of.”
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