Editor's note: A previous version of the story listed a student's name as "Vivela" instead of "Viveka." Additionally, it listed Seth Campbell as a member of the development team, although he is a member of the design team. This story has since been edited to reflect these changes.
Ball State students now have the ability to chirp like a true Cardinal with just the shake of a hand.
Ball State’s Digital Corps, a program that allows students to enhance their creativity and abilities with technology by working on real-world projects, released an update for its phone app, The Chirper.
The Chirper is designed to increase school spirit by allowing the user to chirp, play games, listen to the fight song and use stickers in messaging apps.
Elizabeth Schapker, junior project manager for the app, said it needed to be updated because the original version, released in 2008, used software too old to be compatible with the newer smartphone operating systems.
“On Apple, you couldn’t even download it,” said Viveka Melo, a representative from the user experience team.
The original version of the app included an image of the Cardinal head, which would chirp after tapping the screen. The background alternated between red and white with each chirp.
The development team decided to add more to the app, including the fight song, stickers and three games: Ball State Trivia Game, Charlie Destroyer of Worlds and Charlie Eats Worms.
“[User experience] and design sat down and brainstormed what would be content that would continue the goal of school spirit,” Melo said. “We already had the games themselves made, it was just a matter of making sure it fit into the phone size.”
Digital Corps students created these games as a way to practice their technical skills, and all games are available to students on the giant touch screen outside of the Digital Corps lab in BC 210.
The trivia game is exactly what it sounds like –– select the correct answer to the question in order to increase the time on the countdown clock by five seconds. If the wrong answer is selected, five seconds are subtracted from the countdown clock.
In Charlie Destroyer of Worlds, the objective is to clear all the planets by shooting ammo of the same color at them, lining up three in a row. When the three are lined up, they are destroyed.
Charlie Eats worms is comparable to Fruit Ninja –– the objective is to collect worms that are thrown up from the bottom of the screen by tapping on them. When a worm is dropped, the player loses a life. A player should be sure to watch out for the bombs.
Seth Campbell, a representative of the development team for the app, said the most difficult part about updating the app was trying to learn a new system.
In order to release an app for both Apple and Android products, two different apps must be made because Apple and Android devices have different operating systems. The new system would allow one universal app to be created for both products.
“It’s a fairly new system,” Campbell said. “That’s the way the industry is leading, so we decided to learn this new system.”
The app is now available for free in Google Play and the Apple App Store.
Contact Hannah Gunnell with comments hrgunnell@bsu.edu.
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