Fly High the Royale Way with a Fortnite Stats App

The battle royale game formula has been spreading like wildfire. So much so that 10 years from now, we will most likely look back at 2018 as the year that launched of some of the best games in this genre. Fortnite Battle Royale is a consistently strong contender for the top spot—even surpassing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) in many ways. The fact that Fortnite BR has been on Xbox 1, PlayStation 4, PC, and Switch is a shining testament to its popularity and dominance in the battle royale arena. There’s just no stopping Epic Games’ free-to-play behemoth.

It is in this moment that our featured developer, Orhan, got struck with inspiration and developed one of the biggest Fortnite Stats apps right now: RoyaleStats. The app continues to fly high as if riding on the waves of the phenomenally successful game it is developed for.

Let’s delve into the mind of Orhan, developer to get an idea how it all started for him, what it was like to learn how to program on his own, and how he overcame the inevitable challenges that greeted him along the way.

(1) Tell us about yourself (your name/nickname, hometown, age, occupation, favorite games that you play and what platform(s) you play)?

Hi, my name is Orhan Tozan, I’m currently 19 years old and I live in The Netherlands. I am a Software Developer. I love making apps, websites, and anything related to programming. Besides working on my app, I also work at a startup software company. That is part-time though since I am still a student and follow a bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering.

Gaming is also what I regularly do… well, more like “did.” I’ve been busy lately with my app and job — that leaves less gaming time for me. I played a lot of different games during my life. PC is what I play on. What I currently play is Fortnite, the game is very fun and skill-based. I try to take the game not too seriously, but I have a competitive mindset which can cause me some frustrations during playing. That’s why I occasionally leave the Epic Games Launcher on my desktop alone and play single player games rather, such as GTA V. Playing that game (despite its violence) leaves me calmer than playing Fortnite.

(2) Share with us how it feels to be the creator of something big for this game?

It feels fun! Sometimes it is still hard for me to grasp the number of daily users my app is having. But I feel proud and slightly lucky.

(3) What inspired you to create an app specifically for this game? When did it cross your mind to create your app?

Back in mid-October 2017, I was bored with the games I was playing. I was fed up with CS:GO and League of Legends. PUBG was getting popular at the time, but my laptop (my only device I used for playing games and programming) at the time wasn’t strong enough to run PUBG. I was scrolling through Twitch and saw a new game high on the list called Fortnite. Ilooked up the gameplay and it looked fun. When I read it is free-to-play, I downloaded the game and started playing it. I realized the popularity it was getting (still not nearly as popular as it is today) since it was free-to-play and also playable on PS4 and XB1, so it attracted a lot of casual players as well. I searched up Fortnite in the Play Store and I was very surprised there wasn’t a single app for Fortnite yet. I knew this was a chance, knowing the potential this game had and the growth it was awaiting. I slammed my laptop open, rushed opening Android Studio and start making the very first version of RoyaleStats. At the time it’s the only function was the Search Player function, which I used to brand my app.

(4) Do you work independently or in a team? If in a team, how big is it?

I work independently.

(5) From the developer’s (and gamer’s) perspective, how do you think the app affects the overall experience of the game?

Because of the stats my app provides, I think it motivates players to play better so he/shecan get a higher KD or more wins. The items info will give the players more objective knowledge about it and because of the news feature, it is very easy to be notified when a new patch arrives. Because of this last feature, a higher percentage of casual players who normally never look up the patch notes are informed by the updates.

(6) Is there any margin of error when it comes to the app’s performance and provided information?

The app still crashes too much. Now I added a lot of features to the app, I am shifting the focus to the stability of the app.

(7) When it comes to designing the user experience/UX of the app, what motivated you or what influences did you have?

I tried making the Player Stats screen to look unique, and I think I accomplished that. Besides that, I try to maintain the color palette of the app (green and orange). I leave the rest to the Material Design (program).

(8) What programming language or tool did you use to create this app? Do you have any favorite PLs or tools in particular?

I am using Android Studio as my IDE for Android Development. When I started with myapp, I was using Java as a programming language and was testing the app on my own phone (Samsung Galaxy S7 at the time, I now switched to the S9). A few months after the first release of my app, I stumbled upon the Kotlin programming language. After reading and investigating it a bit, I was convinced and rewrote my entire app in Kotlin, and since then I write with it. Ever since, my favorite programming language actually became Kotlin (it is a fantastic programming language).

(9) What were your biggest challenges for this project? How did you overcome them?

I don’t think I really stumbled upon a hard challenge, but oh boy, was implementing localization a pain in the ass. I recently implemented localization for 7 languages in my app. I am satisfied with the final result, but man was it boring and annoying to make it work.

(10) Are you expecting the game’s expansions to change your app’s dynamics and performance? Is it something that you’ve already prepared to tackle?

We will see what happens when Fortnite releases on Android and how it will influence my app. I think if the game would get a competitive playlist with ranks etc. it will attractmore users to my app, so they can look up their ranks for themselves, friends etc.

(11) Are there any exciting new developments for your app that you would care to share?

Not at the moment, no. Like I said, for RoyaleStats, stability is the priority right now. I might/probably will redesign some parts of the app.

(12) Do you plan to create more apps like these for other games in the future?

Before RoyaleStats, I actually created an app with a similar functionality for a gamecalled Battlerite (that was back in 2016). I actually now am already busy on my new app RealmMaster! I aim it to be a similar appto Realm Royale as what RoyaleStats is for Fortnite. The first release is already live for a week now, but there is still A LOT to do for it. I learned some things developing RoyaleStats that I’m bringing to RealmMaster.

(13) Could you share a few quick tips to new players of the game?

Just build lol jokes aside, yes the building is important. What resulted in me in getting a lot better in buildingis remapping my building keys (standard F1, F2, F3, and F4 keys for PC) to keys that aremuch easier for your fingers to reach.

(14) Any advice you’d like to share to aspiring game app or web developers?

For beginners, don’t spend too much time on courses and tutorials. After knowing the basics and fundamentals of a programming language, start making something with it. Start with something like programming a console program for tic tac toe, then go with a harder project, like a desktop game for pong, then keep going for something harder.

During the development of those projects, if you don’t know how to do x or y, just Googleit. If it seems that your question is too specific or too vague for you problem, try to splityour problem in smaller questions and Google those. I am fully self-taught and the internet for learning programming is key. To be honest, the only reason I am going for that bachelor’s degree is just for that certificate paper, so thatapplying for jobs is easier. But for programming knowledge and best practices, you arebetter off learning that from the internet.

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