Peter’s Workspace
Hard to believe it’s already been a year of these developer interviews! Next Friday will be our one-year anniversary and in celebration, I will post a list of all my favourite online tutorials for getting started developing for mobile devices! But right now, we have another interview to conduct! Peter Campanelli, ladies and gentlemen.
Could you start by telling me a little about yourself?
I’m a 15 year old developer from Hudson, OH. I attend Western Reserve Academy. Currently, I know Python, HTML, CSS, some JavaScript, some Java, and some Swift. I develop games using both the GameSalad and Unity engines. I am also working with Alex Choi and his company Arlix on Learn+, an online learning tool. I currently only have one app/game on the App Store, Square Fighter. When I’m not coding or studying, I also play the drums, listen to a lot of music, go on Snapchat and Twitter, play Ingress, and work for my local library in their tech department.
Do you prefer developing for the web or iOS devices? Why?
I have had more experience developing for the web than iOS devices, and right now I’m going to say that I prefer web development, because of the plethora of plugins and APIs available. With web, the sky is the limit, and even though I have years of web under my belt, I’ve only scratched the surface of web development.
How long have you been developing iOS apps for?
I have been learning Swift and app development within Xcode since the beginning of this summer, but I have been developing mobile games within other engines (GameMaker, GameSalad, and Unity) since the summer of 2013. I am hoping to apply for a WWDC student scholarship next year for WWDC 2016.
What made you come up with the idea for Square Fighter, your game for the iPhone and iPad?
Squarefighter
A little bit over a year ago, I was helping teach a camp for kids about the the 2D game engine GameSalad (this is a great engine for kids and people who want to learn how to make games without coding). As I was reading documentation and following tutorials, I started to make a simple game where a square on the left was shooting at squares on the right. As I kept working on the game, I added more and more to it. After a few weeks of work, I could see that this little game I had started was turning into much more. I continued to work on it, and I released version 1.0 to the App Store on December 1, 2014. On March 1, 2015, I released version 3.0, the most recent version. You can download it on the App Store for free.
What’s the hardest challenge you’ve had to face while programming?
Peter’s Cleveland Championship Clock
My hardest programming job so far was building the Cleveland Championship Clock for Crain’s Cleveland Business. I worked maybe 10 hours on this fun concept the business publication came up with. The idea was to have a clock similar to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock, except for Cleveland sports teams. When the clock strikes midnight, a Cleveland sports team has won a championship. Before making this, I knew plenty of HTML and CSS as well as JavaScript syntax, but I had no idea how to connect JS with HTML. I watched and read lots of material on JavaScript and I ended up making an awesome site using canvas elements and multiple stylesheets. Both my version (Github) and the version published on Crain’s Cleveland Business, are available to view on the web.
Anything else you’d like to add?
You can learn more about me and my projects at petercampanelli.com and follow me on Twitter or Github. If any other teen developers are looking for someone else to work on their projects, let me know!
Contact Info:
Website: Petercampanelli.com; Squarefighter.com; Cleveland Championship Clock
Twitter: @PeterCampanelli
Github: Peter Campanelli
Email: [email protected]
Peter’s Hardware:
Main Computer: Macbook Pro
Specs: 2010; 13″ Unibody; 8 GB of RAM; Samsung SSD and original hard drive
Main Smartphone: Samsung Galaxy S5
Specs: Black; 16 GB
Alternative Smartphone: iPhone 5
Specs: Black; 16 GB