George (left) and Stefanos (right) presenting in the StudentGuru Patras Community
Tell us about your experience with Windows Phone.
Our first steps in the mobile world were in Windows Phone. Microsoft has created an environment that is powerful but at the same time developer friendly - and that made the deal. Since then, we've published 6 apps for Windows Phone and lately one app for Windows 8. What we like most is the simplicity of the developing experience - the Windows Phone SDK, the Visual Studio IDE, C# - and last but not least the ability to easily port your applications to the Windows 8 platform. We are absolutely confident we made the right choice developing for Windows Phone.
What inspired you to start developing? What age were you when you started?
Both of us started developing at a very young age. Since we are technology-maniacs, everything related to computers made us curious to learn. At first we worked on simple programs, small projects and it led to more complex projects, platform developing and game designing. That led, us create Brainstorm (our software company) and to start systematically developing apps and games or even play around with hardware and Arduino boards.
Please tell us about the apps that you have built.
From the day we started developing Windows Phone apps the one thing we had in our minds was quality and great user experience - that we try to apply in everything we do. One of our most successful apps, Illuminate - for Windows 8 and Windows Phone - reflects our latest attempt to achieve our mantra. Illuminate is the classic Lights Out puzzle, the goal is to switch of every light in the game board. You can play the game in different modes while listening to smooth ambient music (coming soon in the Windows Phone version). You can also see more of our apps on our website.
Is there anything that you have had to overcome while developing? Did you ever hit a bump, what/how did you learn from it?
During the developing process bumps are always inevitable. Things you don't know, things you know but you can't get them work, things that have a different outcome than you expected. The solution? Ask. Development is - or can be - a social process. For one thing, there's always a solution and never - ever - give up. Microsoft has done a great job documenting *literally* everything on MSDN plus there are a ton of blogs and posts about everything you could imagine. In the end the more bumps you hit the more you learn.
Do you have any advice for students?
First of all, be creative. There are many things college will not teach you. So don't be stationary and make something new and awesome by yourself or even better with a friend. The world is yours to live and to explore.
Secondly, don't be afraid to fail. No one was born knowing everything or immune to mistakes. The important thing is to understand what brought you there and figure out how to prevent that from happening in the future. In the end of the day you'll be wiser and stronger.
Remember always think positive ;)
Do you participate in any other Microsoft programs (Imagine Cup, Microsoft Student Partner, DreamSpark, etc.)?
Since October of 2012 we are both Microsoft Student Partners and members of StudentGuru a tech community at the University of Patras. Being members of those communities has given us the opportunity to evolve many of our skills (e.g. presentation, teamwork skills).
StudentGuru team at ITProDev Connections conference.
Where you can find us
You find Brainstorm on Facebook, Twitter, or our official website.
Also you can find us personally. George is @ldkge on Twitter and find Stefanos on Facebook.