Coding in 2020
With the end of year coming around - now’s a good time to reflect on what I worked on in 2020.
Tory Ferry Tickets
The most recent effort to the Tory Ferry mobile app and website, brings new accounts & ticketing features to the Tory Ferry customers. The app gives users the ability to sign in using their social network logins (AKA no new passwords to remember) and manage their tickets.
We’ve made it as simple as possible to buy using new or saved cards and thrown in a cute confetti animation for when the ticket is confirmed. This update was the largest update since the creation of the app over 3 years ago and we’re really looking forward to adding more features in the future.
You can download the Tory Ferry apps now on Google Play and the Apple App Store.
Google Play → Apple App Store →
Tory Ferry Admin React
We couldn’t pass up the opptunity to mention the new React based admin panel that was built from scratch the manage all the ticket ferry functionality. The team can send notifications, view the latest ticket information and of course manage the changing timetables all from this custom built dashboard.
Arranmore Weather
The Arranmore Weather app is a brand new app built to utilise the weather station on Arranmore Island as part of their ‘Most Connected Island’ campaign with Three. We developed the app with help from the Arranmore Community Council responsible for MODAM on the island.
The most recent, seasonal, update brings snowfall and wintry backgrounds to the app too.
You can download Arranmore Weather now here:
Google Play → Apple App Store →
Hi Sign
One small app we released this year as a learning lesson more than anything else, was “Hi Sign”. It was designed to share short quick messages when speaking out loud isn’t an option.
Over the year we’ve used it while on conference calls (using the mirror function to reverse the text too), while other people were on phones and even when projecting a message on a screen via Chromecast.
The longer I’ve had the app on our phones the more uses I’ve found for it. It’s available for download now:
Google Play → Apple App Store →
Adventures of the Boy Wonder
As far as presents go, this one will be my favourite for quite some time. For my brother Owen’s 21st birthday, in reponse to his birthday present for me, I built a mobile game based on the Adventures of the Boy Wonder.
The game uses so many new pieces of technology (to me) that it was a fantastic learning experience with a brilliant pay off: listening to Owen’s frustration trying to complete all the levels. There may be more levels to come in 2021, but for now enjoy the trailer and download it if you have a spare few minutes.
Google Play → Apple App Store →
Family Fortunes Style Game
Amid the first COVID-19 lockdown I developed a quick website for an online version of Family Fortunes, the game is available on github and has become the first project that I’ve made available online and had pull requests on. Big moment :).
The game has a static file for answers in JSON format and can be edited for your own purposes easily.
Hexa Website
Finally, the Hexa Studios website itself has had a makeover. The new website is built using Jekyll and blogs posts are written using Markdown. The whole website is hosted on github pages, and get’s built automatically with every git push. Let me know what you think of it.
2021
This years been a rough one, but working with people on all these projects and releasing them thoughout the year has been a lot of fun. If you have any ideas for future projects for 2021 and beyond, please feel free to reach out.