Apple’s App Store hosts more than 350,000 apps available for download, and at least two of them were designed by a University graduate.
Ben Richardson, computer science alumnus, launched his second game “Pling Plong 2” on Wednesday.
“Pling Plong 2” reached the top-100 games within its first day of launch, Richardson said.
“Ninety percent of the kids in the computer engineering program were in it to make video games,” said Richardson, now a software engineer at Lockheed Software.
While working on code for collision detection, Richardson began to “bounce” a ball off of another. When his brother Wil saw the project, the idea for “Pling Plong” began to take shape.
With so many games flooding the Apple market, competition was stiff for a small team of three, consisting of the Richardson brothers and artist Zach Lowery of the University of Illinois, to break into the field. With the brothers writing, coding and producing and Lowery leading design, the team produced a successful app within a year.
“At first … it’s kind of intimidating. Apple is picky,” Richardson said. “You have to meet their standards.”
Richardson did most of the writing for “Pling Plong” and had inspiration from all angles. He included characters based on his friends, family and even teachers.
“There’s all kinds of Easter eggs hidden for my friends. It’s not too often people are featured in something that thousands of people use,” Richardson said.
The original “Pling Plong” had some success despite absolutely no marketing, and the team decided to make a sequel. Richardson has worked on “Pling Plong 2” for about a year in his spare time, using Skype to work with his partners from across the country.
“I just want to show that the LSU-Baton Rouge community can launch a successful app — all it takes is support,” Richardson said.
 
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Contact Christian Grimaldo at [email protected]