Hashtag Magazine 1 | Page 32

By Leigh Marie Precia / Layout by Suzanne Pagkaliwangan C e l l p h o n e applications are very popular today especially to teenagers. With the growing number of apps that can be downloaded, doesn‘t it make you wonder how these applications are made? What process does it undergo before it reaches your phone? Can anyone just make an application? To answer these questions, we need to meet with an application maker. Charles Emmanuel Sagun is a graduating IT student at De La Salle University-Dasmariñas. He is 19 years old and is currently working with mangafox as a manga scanlator. He introduced me to one of his group‘s developed application, ‘Music Tapping‘. With one other IT student, four Computer Science students, and two La Salle alumni, they developed a ga me application that anyone can enjoy. Through the application, you can tap to the beat of the music you like. You can choose five songs for starters. The cool thing is that you can edit your own beat through Editor Plus. Music Tapping allows you to choose and use your own saved music to play. You can also edit and personalize your own game. 32 You can atleast play 50 songs through the application. It can be downloaded for free in various android app stores. application will be tested. If there are no failures, they can launch it for free through various sites. The app now has a 3.9 rating in Google Play, but how did they start developing the app? Our app maker shared the steps in how an idea became a product. First, through an online forum where open source softwares are posted, they get concepts and try to develop the programs. In the case of ‘Music Tapping’, they got the idea from a Vietnamese group online. The group wanted a game like ‘Tap Tap Revenge’ but they want it to be more convenient. They want a music tapping game where they can use their own playlist and tap to the beat of their favorite songs. Through these recommendations and requests from groups to develop games and applications, the makers develop the software and came up with the final concept. They coordinated with one another; they assigned who will do the programming, which will make the animations, the graphics and other things needed. The language of the app is also important for the makers. After everything is settled and done, the The hardest part of it according to Eman is making the graphics, and communicating and coordinating with the other developers. While the best part is making the animations and when the app is finished, seeing the comments and feedback of the people who played the game. It makes them want to develop other applications. Eman‘s group has already made 6 cellphone applications and they are even planning to make more. Music Tapping is just one of their developed applications, and maybe it can be the next big app. Applications are not just there for people to download. They help people in a lot of ways. Apps can be educational or for entertainment but they all go through the process and testing. If you have the knowledge, you can even make your own app. What will be the next big app? It can just be an idea right now but it can produce a greater effect to the people who download it.