Ever dreamt of creating your own app or game? These indie developers have, and they’ve turned those dreams into reality with the help of other apps. Here’s how they did it.

Developers: Jieyu Yong, founder of Peekabook and Xin Li Lee, illustrator
They created: The Neighbourhood, an interactive storybook in Peekabook

Peekabook satisfies your child’s curiosity through original digital storybooks such as The Neighbourhood, which offers an interactive tour of Singapore’s heritage-packed streets. Kids explore using a virtual ring that is paired with the app, looking at buildings and meeting the locals, including the tai-chi master going through his morning routine and a group of chattering uncles at a kopitiam.

“As a parent, I hold the belief that we should teach our children to manage their relationship with devices and utilise them in beneficial ways,” says Peekabook founder Yong. “We see Peekabook as being an entertaining, educational and healthy companion to learning and exploring our world.”

Go-to app: Procreate

Pro tip: Lee uses Procreate paired with Apple Pencil to illustrate storybooks. “The instinctive design of Procreate makes everything feel seamless, from sketching to tapping AirDrop or apps such as Dropbox and OneDrive to upload files to the cloud for multi-platform use,” says Lee. New to the sketching app? “Watch YouTube videos that provide step-by-step guidance, or give yourself time to explore the range of features Procreate carries,” he suggests.

Developer: Brigitta Rena, artistic director of Mojiken Studio
She created: When the Past Was Around

Playing as Eda in When the Past Was Around (WTPWA), you get to explore rooms, solve puzzles and unlock memories of Owl, her deceased violin-playing lover. This story-led game poetically packages a journey of grief, acceptance and healing in detailed hand-drawn imagery and stirring music.

“We want to give a nostalgic impression [like] when we are looking at an old photo album or painting,” says Rena, who created the key artwork that the Indonesia–based Mojiken Studio team refers to while developing the game. “It’s kind of weathered, low saturation with a kind of dust stain on top, but still gives us a warm feeling.”

Go-to app: Pinterest to make mood boards and find fashion inspiration for her characters.

Pro tip: Rena brainstorms keywords that define the personality of the game (for WTPWA they were romance, angst and past). Using those keywords, she searches for recommended illustrations and images in Pinterest. “I also created a mood board Pinterest] for the wardrobe of Eda and Owl. This is useful when I delegate the task to other artists in my team – they can add more references to the board and experiment.”

Developer: Jakob Lykkegaard, founder of Lykke Studios
He created: Stitch on Apple Arcade

The idea for Stitch originated from a social media post by an embroidery artist. “We were inspired by the beauty of embroidery and wanted to recreate that experience on a screen,” says Lykkegaard, founder of Thailand-based Lykke Studios. To design the intricately textured surface, the team collaborated with a Thai embroidery artist.

Somjade Chunthavorn and Piyathida Pondpitchyapong – Lykke Studios’ art director and hoop artist (they’re also husband and wife) – then created the sketches and 3D meshes for the embroidery hoops, incorporating local references where possible. The result is a charming cross between casual puzzler, meditative exercise and craft project. It was one of the winners in the Inclusivity category for this year’s Apple Design Awards.

Go-to app: Morpholio Trace to draw perspective sketches and make 3D designs.

Pro tip: This architecture drawing app combines the speed of sketching on the go with the precision of CAD. “It’s super fast to sketch a UI interface under another piece of paper, drawing buttons on top of other features that would be nice to have,” shares Lykkegaard.

Developers: Shawn Beck and JT Yean, co-founders of Weyrdworks
They created: WarPods

In the turn-based game WarPods, you get to save the galaxy by destroying blocks of warmongering space oddities. All you need to do is aim and shoot, and as you progress you’ll unlock more zany characters. Will you be a pirate captain? A cat doctor? Or a chicken called Cluck?

“Our art style is heavily influenced by the childlike wonder and imagination found in Saturday-morning cartoons,” says Beck. “We want our players to feel like they’re stepping into a colourful and fantastic world when they play our games.”

Go-to app: Notion for project management, file sharing and the team’s knowledge base.

Pro tip: The productivity app Notion is especially useful for the Weyrdworks team. “Paired with Siri Shortcuts, we use Notion to capture ideas and quick note tasks,” says Beck. “Its ability to create databases also allows us to leverage it as a game backend prototype, where we’re able to pull live data to be used in our games. Notion pages are also shareable on the web, so you can build a public roadmap for your players, a game press kit or an entire game’s web page.”