“We checked with the school to see if they could give us some funding or some help but they decided to cancel the project, so we had to go on our own,” begins Yoganathan as he shows us the early version of the software. “The school only has one economics teacher and they said that he was quite busy already and the building project is obviously more important for them in long term than what we’re doing.” “In some ways though, it’s been better to go independent rather than with the school,” adds Shah to his right. “It’s become more like a proper business venture than a school project.” Forming the group back in October 2010 was not as easy as it might have seemed, however, with 15 boys in the class all interested in the idea, but as the four found out very quickly it was just not a manageable number. “It was a bit like the early rounds of The Apprentice with lots of people shouting out ideas but nothing really heard,” points out Shah. “It just wasn’t going to work.” After a some ruthless decision making the team was forged but the process of what kind of app they were going to make was a comparative snap. “It was always going to be a game,” Karia tell us, the four of them beaming as he does so.
And how did it make them feel to see their work up there? The one word unison from the boys pretty much said it all. Proud, was the reply. “It already felt like a success,” said Khullar. “The fact that it was out there on the market and it wasn’t just us guys talking about something but actually doing it. That felt really good.” Friends and family were the first to download it but it was only when the team experimented by making Paraslinger free for a day that they saw any significant downloads. The stats jumped by 2,000 in 24 hours where they’d been struggling before with the game proving a big hit in Taiwan, but the four will need figures of around double that when the game is pay-only before they can break even - something which Pocket-lint would like to help them to do by making it our App of the Day. While admiring highly produced apps games like FIFA football and Forbidden Brakes, the team are realistic about the kind of product that have with Shah underlining its USP. “It’s an addictive game and you have to spend a lot of time to learn how to play it properly and by doing so, then you get addicted. So it’s got a few stages. There’s around 25 people playing it each day but we expect it to stay active on people’s devices for a couple of weeks.” Success for the four is to make their money back, as far as they’re concerned, and after that they’d love to have enough to improve their game with more power-ups, two-player over Bluetooth and even a store where you can buy improvements to your slingshot for a micro payment here and there. “We’d like to get it onto Android as well,” says Khullar tapping his HTC Desire, “and we might consider a lite, ad-funded model for that platform which should help get some more sales too.” “Eventually, if it gets really popular,” adds Karia. “We might consider selling the app to a company. I heard that Tweetdeck was sold to Twitter for $40 million. That sounds pretty good.” Whether or not Paraslinger makes them a fortune, all of the boys agree that they’ve got plenty out of their venture. When asked if they’d choose their business over a place at university, there was certainly some interest from all but each remains grounded as to what it’s all been about. “I’m not saying for the rest of my life, I’m going to be developing apps," says Khullar. “I’m looking to become a doctor but it’s certainly something that might be interesring.” “It’s a great experience to have,” adds Shah, “and it’s something that we wouldn’t have learned otherwise. We’ve learned how to deal with people, how to keep a check on our business and how to get a product made from start to finish. You don’t get taught that in economics.”
