A diploma and a job was only the first step for Humber grad Kyle Halladay.
This week Halladay is celebrating the release of Block Academy for iOS devices on the App Store. What began as his Game Programming capstone project became an augmented reality puzzle game that uses a marker card and the iPhone camera to make it seem like the game is being played on a surface in front of the player.
When Halladay started brainstorming ideas for his assignment, his goal was to create something unique. He decided that learning about augmented reality and applying it to an iPhone game would be a worthy challenge.
“It’s a technology that’s only just beginning to go mainstream,” explains Halladay. “Not many people are doing things like this.”
After showing his professors that he was qualified to take on the project, he spent ten months juggling course work and building the game, and dedicating his spare time to learning the technology.
LIke many programmers, he found himself facing a lot of trial and error.
“I spent most of my free time trying new things, “ says Halladay. “And then I would need to go back and fix the problems I caused by trying those new things.”
His ambitious approach paid off as soon as word about his game starting circulating. Months before graduation, Halladay was offered a position as a mobile + augmented reality developer at Toronto-based technology company, BNOTIONS.
Looking to the future, Halladay wants to use the skills that he learned at Humber to make great products.
“As long as I get to keep building cool stuff, I’m happy with whatever comes my way”.
Learn more about the Game Programming advanced diploma program.
