Where the time has been spent

Next Level Entrepreneurship: Breaking into the Mobile App and Web Design Markets

At Cal State Fullerton, I never imagined I would have the opportunity to delve into the video game industry. The possibility arose when my friend approached me with an idea for a mobile game for the iOS platform and an offer for partnership in the game once it was released. My job consisted of creating most of the graphics interface and marketing the product once it was in the App Store. I immediately jumped on the project in late 2011 and began teaching myself to create graphics in Photoshop.

Meanwhile, I opted to take an Entrepreneurship class which involved a student consulting project. Professor John Bradley Jackson’s “Marketing for Entrepreneurs” class brought on a fresh perspective as to how I could take the business further once the game launched in the app store. Through various presentations and projects, the class raised my levels of awareness as to how I could leverage various avenues to promote the app.

One of the most significant projects in the class opened the door for me to analyze a local business with a team of students in a sophisticated student consulting project. The semester-long project permitted me to garner real-world business experience that later gave me several valuable tools to market the app and also begin contract work designing websites for two consulting groups and a doctor.

The entrepreneurship class challenged me to apply the vast majority of my marketing skills and provided me with a clear vision of drive, passion and the conviction that it takes to start a new business. It also served to invigorate my motivation to finish developing the iOS game and release it to the market.

As the last weeks of the entrepreneurship course began to draw to a close, the iPhone game, officially titled “Lightning Assault” cleared Apple’s approval process and was officially released to the world on the app store. My feelings of accomplishment and excitement when Lightning Assault launched on December 3rd, 2012 were indescribable.

Then came the challenge of marketing the game. Naturally, the first approach was getting all my friends to download the app, a resource that quickly exhausted itself. Within a few weeks of the game’s launch, I had the website LightningAssault.com up and running, as well as several social media channels in an attempt to push traffic towards the website and collect downloads.

However, it was soon evident that I needed to go beyond the most obvious methods of raising awareness for our game. I decided to contact a friend in the journalism industry. She sent my name out, and I soon had an interview scheduled with the OC Register, which resulted in the following article.

Today, Lightning Assault maintains a small yet steady growth in downloads. There is still much room for experimentation in aggressive promotion techniques, yet it has been stated that the game holds potential for massive popularity. Above all, it stands as a beacon of the accomplishments of the three person team that created it, and as an inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs.

http://business.fullerton.edu/centers/cfe/success-Vincent.htm

I have not seen thee for too long of a time

Well, hello again blog. It certainly has been a while since words last touched your page. I was browsing over posts from years ago, and to my surprise I still find them relevant. They hold so much of personal meaning I gave them when I first wrote them, despite being very abstract.

After many experiences and much education over the past year, I have ventured into the world of first person. Not only have I cast off the third person, I also find that I apply greater consideration to what I write, am more aware of sentence structure and organization of ideas. Perhaps I came back here because of an indwelling fear of complete conformity, of unbreakable structure brought on by living with a routine.

I have discovered a great internal conflict with two aspects that threaten to tear my will in two. It is here that I wish to release the original flare of creativity that I began writing with, before my thoughts began to conform to influences of society's demands. I can still appreciate the skills and structure that I have been taught, yet the danger lies in allowing extinguishing that precious flame of creative freedom.

It has frequently been experienced that the most difficult part of any task is simply starting it, because so many other items vie for attention and focus is easily diverted. Now this piece has been written, and has created a crack in the dam through which the streams of creativity may creep, and eventually break through and flow.

The mind has been aroused, risen to its full stature, and begun to gallop across the endless horizon as it once did. It is gathering speed and fury to tear across the horizon as it once did, uprooting the original topic from its comfortable place at the top of the page, and dragging it, whipping and struggling, across the windswept plains of thought.

Fragility of order

Every day, it becomes more evident that lawlessness and chaos abides behind every facade. Although pieces of the world that is so familiar seem to run in order, others have been pushed over the edge by the spirit of lawlessness that runs silently rampant through society. It has been gnawing at the pillars of humanity since history was recorded. Now we are in a time in which laws are met with derision, and rules are ignored with indifference. All things point to a time of ultimate collapse.

When Love Dies

She is quiet, she is still
She is constantly ill.
She has given up everything
including her will.

The warmth of the sun and the light it once shone
Are gone from her life and she sits here alone.

There's not a reason, an answer or even a cure.
This is what happens when love lives no more.

Renée C Poissant

Test Scoring Machine

Clicking away throughout the day, oblivious to all else.
Living on electricity, consuming paper,
Unconscious and uncaring, yet powerful.
Determining the fate of the students,
Judging not by character, charisma, or efficiency,
But only by one ability.
That most useful and irreplaceable ability
To color in marked areas.
Not artistically or abstractly, or with willful thought.
But exactly, within the borders, and no further
Lest there be dire consequences.
For that machine has much power
And will punish those that dare think
Outside of the bubble it has created.
All hail the test scoring machine!
For it has the power to discern
Between those who are worthy and those that are not.
It is the Great Leader; on its cue we must lay our fate.
When we have finished, and emptied our brains.
And conformed our minds to fit into miniature bubbles.
Then we must wait in great apprehension
To see what the machine has made of our work.
Behold the excitement!
The results have come back!
Ah, what show of emotion there is
When the students gather round'
In fervent and silent pleading.
Those that have not gained its favor
Are faced with despair and a future as garbage men.
Those that do might be prosperous
Yet ever stuck in a rut as creatures of habit.
Never daring to think away from the path.
Ever obedient servants
To that great and mighty test scoring machine.

Feature Poem Four

Working on Saturday

Yippie! It's Friday
And I work tomorrow...
Yet working on Saturdays
Brings me no sorrow.
I still have two days
When I don't have to work.
Being an old-timer
Is definitely a perk.
Sundays and Mondays are
good days to rest.
I come back on Tuesday
Feeling my best.
When Monday is a holiday
I never have dread.
I'm luck enough
to have off on Tuesdays instead.

Renée C Poissant

Inspired by the Feature Poems

There is a line of customers reaching to the door.
I wish I could hide, or curl up on the floor
Yet I have to smile all the more.
I dare not show any chink in my armor
Lest I fall into disfavor.
I must maintain control
and keep track of every dollar.