So here is the back story - you guys know we just published one of the first professionally produced Christian Free game apps for iPhone iPad and Android ever done. The link to the iPhone one is here -
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/raegan-and-rjs-space-adventure/id1451464578?ls=1&mt=8
The link to the Android App is here -
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aol.raeganandrjsspaceadventure
How this all came about is an interesting story. I work on the sound crew at our church. Basically I show up early set up all the musician's and sound equipment on the stage, help with practice, run the sound board during service, and then put it all away after, Not just me there is a whole crew. So I am watching the ladies in the P&W band. When they show up for practice there kids sit in the seats for about two hours before the service while the practice is going on. The ladies hand thier iPhones, iPads, and androids to their kids and they sit their pretty well behaved the whole time every Sunday. Sometimes 4 or 5 kids will be huddled around one phone watching. So I asked one of the Moms what are the kids doing there. She replied they are playing FREE games on our phones. I was like what? So I asked here how is a game free, that is crazy. And seh told the games are FREE because they show adds during play, but we tell them don't click on or look at any adds so the kids don't. I was like wow, that is interesting. But every week week after week they do the same thing, for years now I have been watching this. So that is where I got the idea. Why not make a family friendly game for Christian kids to play on their moms phones that has no adds and is FREE. I have the story already, my 'Raegan and RJ in Space' story for kids, I just need to make the game. So I started looking around and found out the same company that was doing my cartoons could do the app game. So we came up with the concept that we would have R&RJ collecting valuable space rocks for the CSP, and trying to avoid endurance zapping obstacles, so basically no aliens, guns, or battles. The company was kind of skeptical about no enemies or guns or battles, but I was in charge so they made it happen. Then the question was how we were going to get our money back, Basically we decided on the game would be free to download and play level 1, and then there is a pay upgrade for one time 99 cent fee to get levels 2-5 forever, and no adds or logins. Basically fixing the Moms problems of having a Free game the kids could play without adds. It took about 6-8 months to actually get it done and on Google Play for Android and iTunes for iPhone and iPad, and alot of late nights after I came home from work I would look fro their e-mails and try to go back and forth with them. Basically I knew they were giving me a really good deal about half what they normally charged so I could have them make basic changes or functions, but the game had to be simple requiring as little artwork, modeling, and coding as possible to prevent them from charging me more and more. I was constantly trying to balance how cool it would be to do this, versus how much more that would cost me over what we agreed to. I think they got tired tired tired of my good ideas and asking HOW MUCH WOULD IT COST TO DO THIS? In the end I ended up paying more than we had budgeted twice but I thought it was required to make the game workable and likeable. So now that it is released we hope to get alot of downloads and eventually upgrades, so we can make more improvements. The company can do anything I imagine or tell them, but not for free! I would really like to have the company do some little video shorts of R&RJ in their shuttle as they go from planet to planet that comes up at certain points, but that is very expensive not only to do the 3D animation but also the coding and stuff. But eventually in time I hope to make improvements. So that is the story of one the first professionally produced and published Christian app games to ever be made. Go R&RJiS! God Bless. Rich Collins
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