Meet the team
Coming from a graduate degree in economics and having 12 years of managerial experience in the service sector, building a series of family oriented educational apps was the furthest thing on my mind back when I agreed to be a part of this endeavor in 2012. However, looking back at the experience, although there were many hiccups along the way, including graphical design, audio and coding glitches some of which would have led any sane person to want to pull out all of the hair on their head, the response from the public has been so positive that it has made the entire experience incredibly worthwhile! It is really hard to describe just how rewarding it is to know that your hard work has touched all different kinds of people from all over the world in a number of different ways. For instance, hearing from parents that their toddlers first words were “apple” or “pizza” as a direct result of using this Touch hear! or that others are totally frustrated that they cannot pass level 4 on Apple Memory, all of it makes me feel as if the pains we went through to bring these three projects to market were all worth it. I think the episode that touched me most was when I was sitting on the train in Tokyo next to one of my friends and her two year old son was begging, (practically screaming) so that he could use his mother’s iPhone to play “Touch Hear!”. Just knowing that I was one of the primary individuals responsible in creating a product that may forever change his life was absolutely overwhelming! That positive response has led me and the rest of our team to be committed to continue to bring the best possible family oriented educational products to the market that we can.
By completing these products, I have come to realize that patience and coming to a unanimous decision across all the key players involved in the process is a critical element in making any project a success. It is inevitable to butt heads when working in a creative environment, but learning how to work around those issues and not harbor any long term resentment is a critical aspect when it comes to building a strong team. I can proudly say that our team never moves forward in any area unless we are in 100% agreement and this has led to the team becoming stronger as a unit. In the future, as our team expands and we begin to work on new projects for clients, I am positive that our process will definitely be one of our strengths in helping deliver excellent future products.
I can’t wait to get working on the apps we have coming down the pipeline. After working on Apple Memory and realizing that it is possible to develop an interesting educational product that can entertain both parents and children alike, we started to focus our energies on developing future products of this nature and I am happy to say that we have two absolutely amazing projects in the works that we hope to deliver within the next year.
I grew up with computers, starting programming with BASIC back in the day. That love of computers, which has proven to be a love-hate relationship, motivated me to obtain a bachelor of science in computer sciences way back in 1995. Although I have worked with a bunch of different languages I hadn't had any experience with objective C until we started working on these projects a little over a year ago. I find it pretty amazing to see a project of this level of complexity go from concept to positively impacting people's lives the world over in just over a year! One of the key things that I learned during this process was just how imperative it is to stay on top of the latest versions of iOS. XCode is constantly changing and a great way to stay on top of the changes is to keep participating, or at least watching, great communities like Cocoapods and Ray Wenderlich's great tutorial site. App development has really progressed from the days of funny noise apps to beautifully designed 3D animations.
We land squarely in the middle of these so there's lots to learn! From our first set of apps, which was just buttons, audio, and video; we've now got apps with a sliding menu, countdown timer, in-game coin system, and global high score list; that's quite a lot now that I think about it!
I love seeing our hard work bringing joy to people!
My wife's aunt spent nearly an hour in easy mode on Card Touch. She was even answering Aina's question "Are you ready?"
"Yes, yes, yes!" every time!
Moreover, it was my wife's niece who actually gave us the idea for Touch Hear! I showed her an early version of Apple Memory, where I just had linked up the card touches with audio. She laughed and repeated the words after each touch! Wow! We sure were overthinking things! Sometimes the simplest apps can bring the greatest amount of joy.
Even though there are thousands of apps on the Appstore, the App ecosystem is really just in its infancy and there is a lot of room for growth for simple, innovative and family oriented apps. That's where we see ourselves fitting in.
With that said, we've got a few great game ideas in mind, and will definitely be using a framework besides UIKit!
With new iOS versions every year, there's plenty of opportunity to change the world, so come join in on the fun!
Rob Nugen - CIO
Aina Malik
First, when I started recording my voice I thought that it would be easy and that I would become famous. But, after I started recording, I realized that it isn’t easy at all. I had to do it over and over again many times. I also didn’t know that when I was saying words like “apple” that the p sounds made me spit. It was really hard to say apple without spitting for me.
After we finished, I was so happy because the games are fun and cool but I realized that it is not easy to be famous! I realized that just by putting your voice in a game you won't become famous but I want to make more games because they are so cool.
Mai Kiya
A couple of years ago, I worked on my first piece of translation work for a medical clinic in Tokyo. In fact, once I completed that assignment I have been bitten by the bug! I really felt as if the work I did was incredibly meaningful as it helped break down language barriers and enable people to improve the quality of their life by getting much needed medical care. After that experience, I have worked in a variety of fields, primarily translating English to Japanese, and last year worked in the education sector for the first time. That engagement led me to work on apps for the very first time. It was incredibly rewarding to see how my work has been able to bring great English products to the Japanese market.
More importantly joining this team has been one of the highlights of my career so far! Not only have they asked me for my input on the project but also asked to the Japanese voice over for the release of the Japanese versions of Apple Memory, Card Touch and Touch Hear! Of course, I said YES, without hesitation, and that has proven to be a fantastic decision!
Since then, I began studying about voice over work but actually, once I got in front of the mic I realized that it has come naturally to me. Even though I have a hard time listening to my own voice, I was surprised to realize that my pronunciation and enunciation was so clear. Surprisingly, when my friends and family heard my voice over samples, they were so impressed and they couldn’t believe that it was my voice! My mother went so far as to say that I should think about focusing solely on voice over work as a career!
Maybe because I take my work very seriously or maybe because I just love working with this team, they asked me to be a permanent member of this team in December of last year. Since then I have started taking much more of a hands-on approach and becoming involved in all aspects of app development. I'm really excited and can’t wait for us to release all of our upcoming products. I’m sure that they will have a positive family friendly experience on people the world over!
By the way, if you are wondering what I sound like, go to the ringtones page and download any of the Japanese ringtones and you can hear what I sound like.
Tariq Malik - CEO
