Brainspin, originally a physical card game, was able to raise funding through a grant to develop an app version of the product. The goal of the digital version of the game was to make it more accessible to audiences, so that players could enjoy the game on the go with others. The game is free to download and play, and paid card extension packs could be downloaded from within the app.
The client wanted to begin with simultaneously creating 2 apps - an iOS version and an Android version - in order to get the most audience exposure and revenue potential from in-app payments. This presented an interesting challenge of needing to develop on 2 platforms and deliver apps for 2 app stores, while still staying on a conservative budget.
We chose to use React Native in order to develop the apps because of the cross-compatibility with iOS and Android, to provide basically the same "native" look and feel on both platforms with the convenience of being able to develop in Javascript with React. This saved both time and money by not having to write apps in different languages for each platform. Additionally, React Native, like React.js, is developed and sponsored by Facebook, which guarantees a large developer community with great support and up-to-date features. The in-app payments were done according to the specifications outlined by Apple and Google, so as to not break the rules they have in place for their app stores.
Leveraging our expertise with React as a foundation for our work in this instance with using React Native, we successfully developed mobile apps for the client that were fun, easy to play, and generated 1000s of downloads. The client was very pleased the end results, and leaned heavily on our technical understandings to also setup the backend infrastructure needed for user accountd and in-app payments. We also handled getting the app approved by Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store for the client. Overall, in 6 months time, we further enhanced the Brainspin game by improving it from a niche card game to a revenue-generating mobile game with 1000s of users around the world.