A Rotorua game designer has shared her first game on iTunes, opening her work up to the world.
Rebeccah Cox spent six months developing her first game called Koi Pond Code Breaker which is now available on iTunes Apple Store for $1.29.
Cox, 25, said it was great to see her game on the world-wide store after being approved by Apple last month.
"It was a big relief because I had heard so many stories online of the approval process and so much people complaining about it." She said it was actually a relatively easy process, first paying an annual Apple developer fee of US$99 ($125) and then meeting the Apple criteria for the game.
Cox said this was only the beginning for her Rotorua-based gaming business Bexcellent, with more games in the pipeline.
"I have got quite a few games planned," she said.
"By the end of the year we will have four or five games in the store."
She said her favourite games were puzzle games, explaining why Koi Pond Code Breaker was a code-breaker colour game similar to Ultimate Mastermind.
Cox is currently doing all the programming for the games while her brother, Eathan Cox (pictured p1), does the graphics and art. Cox grew up in Rotorua and left high school at age 15.
After training to be a chef and working in hospitality and retail she then decided to go after a better career.
Cox studied game programming at the Media Design School in Auckland for two and a half years before starting up her own business in September last year.
Cox, like other game developers, takes a cut of profits from each download and from advertising in each game.
She said it would probably take another year before her gaming company became profitable.