Local Developers Dream Big with Homemade Apps

Ray Merkler is new to the area from Delran. He’s a musician, an artist, and has “always been into video games,” he says; he even sports a Super Mario Bros. tattoo on his arm as proof.

In the decade or so he’s spent as a programmer, Merkler finally finished his first video game, a playing-card-based strategy game called Fortress, just a few weeks ago. It was three rocky years in the making.

Merkler has suffered greatly from depression, he says, and his last job just made things “100 times worse.” Eventually he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and after seven years, decided to quit his workplace to get some relief.

It didn’t help much in the beginning, he says. The stress of the transition, which also included selling his condo and relocating to Haddon Township, made him “nonfunctional” for a month.

“When it comes to depression and bipolar disorder, a lot of times when you start the healing process, you get quite a bit worse,” Merkler says.

His struggle to get well was actually compounded by the pressure he put on himself to complete the project. Thankfully, a change in medication and a sabbatical-like vacation got him up and running again.

It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles he’d hoped, but Fortress works, it’s fun, and it’s out there for people to play. Moreover, completing the project gave him a much-needed ego boost.

“It creates a lot of self-confidence to finish a game,” he says. “99 percent of games under development never get done because it is very, very hard to complete a video game. I had canceled and restarted Fortress so many times.”

A slice of the pie

Every developer with a catchy idea and some artistic ability wants the chance to wet his beak in the $20 billion mobile device application market. The democratic nature of the gaming market combined with the emergence of friendlier programming platforms makes it seem more accessible than ever.

But for the independent programmer, many of these simple diversions are less about catching the next Angry Birds wave and more about the creative sandbox in which it allows them to play.

“There are definitely fashions and trends in the game development space,” Merkler says, “but if you’re going to target what people like today, by the time you finish, people aren’t going to like it anymore.”

Even when you have a good idea and a fun, playable game, Merkler says, it is extremely difficult to catch on in the app sphere.

“Even to me game development looks like magic,” he says. “It’s a curious thing. You have to make an absolutely outstanding effort and an outstanding game to really be noticed.”

Like Merkler, Collingswood resident Douglas McVarish threw his hat into the app ring during a transitional period in his life. McVarish was laid off from his job as an architectural historian in 2011, and says the time since has been spent “trying to figure out possibilities.

“App development seems to be where things are headed,” McVarish says. “I held off as long as I could for a smartphone.”

Like Merkler, McVarish is excited at the prospect of coding a program that will delight users, but he’s starting by aiming at a slightly more practical audience with his Collingswood app.

It’s still early in the design phase, but McVarish’s vision for the Collingswood app is as a community information center that would debut in two versions: one for residents and one for visitors to the borough.

From its roots as “an online bulletin board,” he says, there is hope that the Collingswood app can grow into the shoes of its namesake.

“I want to get some personality in it,” McVarish says. “There are characters around.”