Lim Jia Shen grew up in a lovely family. He spent most of his time playing with butterflies & dragonflies, doing gardening during his childhood. Lim Jia Shen even had a try rearing a caterpillar! To him life was simple then. That may explain why he never had any other passion or interest in games. To him, playing games are like living in a virtual world. That virtual world makes people neglect the real people around them. Thus he is always a nerd to his friends.
Being nerd does not mean he is a bookworm. He loves to explore various stuff. He love to watch Ted talks. This habit got him to get to know with a boy named Thomas Suarez. Suarez was 12 years old boy at that time. He had developed no. of apps already. Suarez age and talent really struck Lim Jia Shen. Suarez being an engineering student knows how complicated programming codes can be, and it is almost learning a new spoken language. But he made it!
Suarez made an app and named “Bustin Jieber”, which is “Justin Bieber’s Whac-a-mole”. Lim Jia Shen was intrigued by the idea and thought, “Wait a second. Why limit this to Justin Bieber? People should be able to whack anyone you want too!” And that is how he got my inspiration for his Whack Or Love app. It has the same idea, but you get to whack or love with anyone you want to!
However deep down in his heart, he had doubts about making this app. He did want to do something different. He wanted a game that connects people in the real world and has real identities. He did like his game app to have just virtual characters and names. So, he added the multi-player feature to his game. In other words, you will get to whack or love opponent’s profile pic.
And Of course, it is always easier to be said than done. The next months was terrific and stressful to him. To develop the app, he joined hands with a talented developer. He had to work on his final year project too at the same time. So he spent restless nights in order to make the game as much perfect as possible. He felt like giving up sometime, but he knew good things come to those who work hard. He refused to give up! Finally, that hard work he put had paid off. He launched his app and at the same time obtained first class honors in University College London (UCL).
For him, those memories are like yesterday! One message that he likes to deliver “Every accomplishment starts with the decision to TRY!”. And this is the story of he made his first app. Not particularly successful, yet hopefully motivating. This is his story and what is yours?
