An application is born
Ian Graves and Chad Godsey of iGalaxy
March 2009
Team Spacial: Mike Daly, Chad Godsey, Ian Graves, Drew Stewart
Their application is iGalaxy, a spatial-based, casual multiplayer online role-playing game that uses GPS to overlay a virtual world over the real world, allowing players to interact within a persistent world from their cellular phone.
What has the experience been like?
MIKE: The contest was very interesting. Although it required that we only come up with a pitch, because three-fourths of our team was computer science students, we were already working on the prototype long before the pitch was made. All members knew each other, with the exception of Drew Stewart, who I knew through the local music scene in Columbia. The hardest part probably would have been the game design aspect. The gameplay will sell iGalaxy and, if the gameplay is poorly planned, then the game will not do well. I came up with the original concept, but based it on pirates and on the open sea. After several meetings with the group, we came up with the design you see today.
I think all of us have learned quite a bit about taking on a large project and what sort of preparations need to be done. My plans have always been to develop games professionally. iGalaxy fits perfectly into what I want to do.
Chris Stein and Kevin Karsch of NewsFlash
Team Custom Fit News: Mary Beth Bergsieker, Brian Grinstead, Kevin Karsch, Chris Stein
Their application is Newsflash, a unique, customizable news application that pulls up-to-date stories based on a user's GPS location.
How did your team and your idea come together?
BRIAN: Kevin and I were in the same computer graphics research group before the contest. We grouped up with Chris in a Senior Capstone class, where we decided to enter into the contest as our project. Chris introduced us to Mary Beth, the journalism student.
Getting an idea off the ground and initial development were the hardest parts. There were multiple ideas that were attempted before the news reader stuck. Some of these ideas were a barcode reader, a video camera, and a speech-to-text client application. These did not get off of the ground because they proved impossible (the iPhone's camera is not able to focus well enough to get a clear image of the barcode), illegal (building a video camera requires a lower level interface with the iPhone's hardware, which violates the agreement with Apple), or unpredictable (voice recognition is a large problem and the existing engines for doing it gave really bizarre results from speech). After these attempts, Brian thought of the news reader. It required much less of a legal and technological hurdle, and it fit the goals of the contest well, since it was journalism- and advertising-based. The idea stuck, and the group got to work on it. Once past the first stages of development, it was encouraging to see it work.
What did you like best?
The best part was having a working version of the program and being able to demo it for the judges on the pitch night. It took a lot of hard work to get the app to that stage, and it paid off for us.
Danny Beard and Geoff Pado of ADverse Network
Team ADverse Network: Danny Beard, Adam Hosp, Nick Leonard, Geoff Pado
Their application is the ADverse network, which is a Location Based advertising network.
How did your team and your idea come together?
ADAM: Three of us (Danny, Nick and I) participated in the contest last year and won with our project Wallowr (http://www.wallowr.com). We had a great time last year, so of course we wanted to do it again. We set out to find a new group member and picked up a great one in Geoff. The hardest part was definitely coming up with a good idea. We all contributed to it, or had a little part of it. We kept refining it, until we came up with something we all liked and wanted to pitch.
What did you like best?
The best part of this competition (last year and this year, I suppose) is just the opportunity to get to do something with new technology and have our university sponsor it. Wallowr opened up a lot of doors for us last year, and I hope that Adverse can do it this year.
Peng Zhuang and Tony Brown of NearBuy
Team NearBuy: Anthony Brown, Zhenhua Ma, Dan Wang, Peng Zhuang
Their application is Nearbuy, which searches classified items around your current location and visualizes them on an easy-to-use Google map interface.
How did your team and your idea come together? In your case, which came first?
PENG: Tony first came out with the idea and name. Later we all put our thoughts into it and Nearbuy grew up to a fairly ambitious design.
TONY: I met the rest of the team at the competition's "speed dating" event. They were the first individuals I approached, and after I pitched them my idea, we seemed to immediately feel that we could really accomplish something substantial as a team.
What’s been the hardest part?
The hardest part of the project thus far has been grasping the "next step" beyond our initial pitches. Fleshing out our idea and starting development of the software were the easy parts, but determining what businesses we would try to partner with and where the classified ads for the application were going to come from has been our greatest challenge.
What have you liked best?
For me personally, I've discovered a bit of a passion within myself for entrepreneurship. I'll be considering that as I begin to pin down my goals for my undergrad education at Mizzou.
Xin Deng, Mehfux Khan, and Hongfei Cao of DealFreeq
Team DealFreeq: Hongfei Cao, Anne Christian, Xin Deng, Mehfuz Khan, Greg Spielberg
Their application is DealFreeq, a portal for local businesses to access their customer base directly with the use of tempting and exciting sweepstakes opportunities that offer freeqin’ amazin’ deals.
What’s it been like to be in the contest?
ANNE: The contest has been a constant learning process. I know so little about computers, so my focus has mainly been the business side of our application. I didn’t know much about that in the beginning either, but now I find myself talking about ad networks and revenue like I’m an old pro. There is still so much more to learn, but it’s getting easier. This application has changed the way I think about advertising and marketing completely!
How did your idea and team come together?
The concept came from a project that is currently in development at Woodruff Sweitzer. We were lucky enough to team up with the firm, and they were really receptive to some of our ideas. The original concept might have been theirs, but we’ve definitely made it our own.
I came to the project through Greg, who knew I needed to join a team because it was for a grade in Marty Steffens’ class. When I came on, I was responsible for putting together the initial presentation, but as I got more and more interested in what this team was doing I found myself getting into more business or revenue type things. It has been great working with team DealFreeq. The other members are so knowledgeable! Most of the time I have no idea what they’re talking about or doing, so when I get to see the final product I’m floored.
What was the best part?
GREG: The best part of the competition is that it shows there are no barriers to entry for a successful or useful application. With computer software, we can mesh creativity and engineering in a fluid way. It's no longer necessary to raise boatloads of capital in order to create a product for the open market. To me, this is the most inspiring notion and something that never existed before. Freeqy.