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Meet the Devs - bytecombo

In this week's developer interview, we talk to Lars Quentmeier from Bytecombo who have done a fairly well regarded cat game (with an umbrella).
By
November 4, 2014
bytecombo developer interview
Welcome back to our Meet the Devs segment! In this piece we take a little time to get to know the people who really make Android what it is today and that is the app developers. In this week’s developer interview, we are talking to Lars Quentmeier of Bytecombo.

Name: Lars Quentmeier

Developer Name: bytecombo

Country: Germany

Google+ Profile/Page: N/A

How many people on your team? 2

bytecombo developer interview

About your company?

Bytecombo is a small startup, founded in 2013 in Berlin. We love liquorice, coffee and good mobile games. We especially love innovative small indie games with simple graphics. These are exactly the kind of games we want to develop.

What level of experience do you have with coding and development?

Both of us studied Media Informatics and develop software for more than 10 years. Two days a week we delvelop games of our own, the rest of the week we work as software developers for several companies and projects.

What languages do you know? How and where did you learn them?

We both spend the last years developing Web and Java Enterprise applications before we started our journey into game development and founded bytecombo. So we both feel compfortable in Languages like Java, C#, Php and Javascript that we used regularly in the last years. As our experiences with C, C++, Objective-C, OpenGL and DirectX are a bit rusty we decided to go for a higer level language and to develop “Bronko Blue” with a cross platform language called Haxe.

What level of experience do you have with design?

We do have some design and UX skills due to our studies and personal hobbies but there is still a lot to learn.

What apps have you made?

We just released a sidescroller called Bronko Blue, the kitten copter which provides a challenging gameplay inside a physics based world with simple touch controll, a stunning atmosphere and some charming graphics. Last year we developed a small picture book for children called “Harold the horse”. In the past, we also developed some apps for clients.

bytecombo developer interview

How do you monetize your apps?

For now we have got a free lite version and paid full version. So far we haven’t tried another monitization model yet.

Do you consider yourself successful?

If you mean financially, then we have to admit, “no” would be the right answer. But we have fun while developing games. With every step we gain new skills and knowledge how to do better next time. :-)

How difficult is it to make money as a developer?

As a hired developer you usually earn a lot of money. Creating your own applications could be a complete different matter. It’s especially difficult to get noticed in the app stores without being a known company for example.

What can Android do to improve?

All in all we are content with how Android supports developing and publishing apps. New apps though could be placed more prominently in order to be seen by a larger audience.

Why did you choose Android? Do you develop for other platforms? What are the differences between them?

Right now we develop cross platform, so the only differences we came across are about the stores themselves and the publishing process. We especially do like Google play due to its easy, self-explaining and fast publishing process which stands out against other markets.

What are your thoughts on iOS and Windows 8?

Android, iOS and Windows 8 are the main mobile makets and therefor interesting for mobile developers.

What do you think of the Android design guidelines?

In order to have a unique and consistent user experience, the guidelines are useful and necessary.

bytecombo developer interview

What are your favorite apps?

What has been your experience been like working with Google?

We like Google play because the publishing process is easy, self-explaining and fast.

What does the future of development look like?

evelopment will speed up even more as frameworks and prgogramming languages improve every day and allow the developer to work on a higher abstraction level.

What tips do you have for aspiring developers?

Love what you are doing and try out a lot of technologies.


We want to thank Lars for chatting with us in this week’s developer interview! If you’re a developer and this looks like something you’d like to do, check out our Meet the Devs form! We look forward to hearing from you.