Tom Longo had never created an iOS app before he started work on his zombie-survival app, but he is now a winning Objective-C developer and $2500 richer.
Longo’s winning zombie-themed entry
(Credit: Sensis)
“I’ve been a web developer for many years, and recently my interest turned to iOS. The SAPI Bounty Program came at the perfect time for me to test my skills and put the things I’d recently learned on the operating system into practice,” said Longo.
“I’d never before created an iOS app, so it was a huge challenge and a massive learning curve for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a hard slog for a while — I think I spent close to 100 hours finalising this app — but I’m really happy with how it has turned out.”
As well as developing the iOS app, Longo also created a companion website to provide a summary of a suburb’s survival chances in a zombie apocalypse.
“We felt that Tom’s ‘Zombie Survival Plan’ app met all of our key criteria — good functionality, clean design, easy to use when one is panicked and on the run from the undead hordes,” said Jason Cormier, partnerships development manager, Sensis API.
The zombie-themed competition was run by Sensis, and was the first in its bounty program. Cormier said that future competitions will likely focus on more practical problems.
“As long as the bounties continue to interest developers and get them using SAPI, we’ll keep putting new ones out,” he said.
“We want Australian developers to realise that they don’t need to build and maintain a business directory themselves; it’s bloody hard and expensive and time consuming! We already do that work, and we have an open API that is free to use.”
The next bounty competition is scheduled to begin in late June.
