LDSTech Contest Winners Create “Worthy” Gospel Games, Apps
Contributed By Ryan Morgenegg, Church News staff writer
Winners of the LDSTech Gospel App and Game Contest were announced during the annual LDSTech Conference October 16-17 in Salt Lake City.
Winners of the LDSTech Gospel App and Game Contest were announced during the annual LDSTech Conference October 16-17 in Salt Lake City.
LDSTech fosters collaboration on technology projects between the Church and volunteers from the technology community. Annual conferences give community volunteers a chance to learn about Church technology and opportunities to help test and develop Church software.
“The main highlight this year has been the Gospel App and Game Contest,” said Anna Butler, committee chairperson for the conference. “We had submissions from all over the world.”
Several months before the conference, developers were invited to submit gospel-related mobile games and apps for the contest. Their only guideline was to “create something worthy.”
[See the list of the final app entries with descriptions and links.]
The apps were submitted under three categories: Primary, Youth, and Family.
Primary
First place went to Clint, Rachel, and Kristen Jones, who developed “Quiet Games for LDS Children.” This app consists of five LDS games that are quiet, fun, and ad-free for general conference or church.
Second place was Corban Anderson with the “Children’s Activity” app. This app for children helps get them through sacrament meeting. It includes various games such as Memory, 2048, and Simon Says.
Third place went to Michael, Janet, and Wade Hatch for their app “Catherine.” This app is an illustrated, interactive true pioneer story about a convert family’s journey to Zion from the perspective of a child.
Youth
First place was awarded to Nick Pasto, Megan and Jonathon Chan, and Eric Haddad for their creation “Scripture Mastery Superstar.” Memorize the Doctrine and Covenants seminary scripture mastery passages in a new and fun way that combines text, voice acting, animation, and other mnemonic devices that help cement the concepts in your mind.
Second place went to Kevin, Kammi, and Matt Pyles for “Scripture Fling,” which is an exciting way to quickly connect verses with their references. All 100 scripture mastery verses are included, each set with four levels of difficulty.
Third place went to Dustin Hill for “Mormon Tube.” This app puts Mormon-related videos into one app for easy access to clean, uplifting content. Search, watch, and get notified about new videos with this app.
Family
First place went to Cassie Wooley for “Scripture Charts.com.” This is a free online scripture reading chart that allows a person to track what they have read in the scriptures.
Second place went to Trevor Holyoak for “LDS Tweets Free,” a collection of Twitter feeds including official accounts from the Church.
Third place winners were Kevin, Sean, Lindsey, and David Wade, along with Veronica Bendersky, Laura Leibson, and Matt Taylor, with their submission “My Mission.” My Mission helps LDS missionaries organize and share their favorite missionary pictures, stories, and experiences with their family and friends back home.
Attendance at this year’s LDSTech conference was similar to past years, and sessions were duplicated each day to allow people who attend only one day to not miss out, said Sister Butler. New this year were the “Birds of a Feather” sessions, where people interested in a certain platform could get together and discuss a topic. For example, there were “Birds of a Feather” sessions for stake technology specialists, Android development, and iOS development.
“Idea sharing is always popular at the conference,” said Sister Butler. “If anyone has an idea for the Church about technology, there are opportunities to pitch those ideas in front of Church technology employees. We fill up two afternoons with people who want to pitch their ideas, and then those ideas are shared further with appropriate departments for potential development.”
