Have thoroughly enjoyed the BT video tutorials but have gotten myself completely turned around trying to figure out if it would be a good tool for a novice programmer who wants to create an illustrated trivia app. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated! I draw cartoons for greeting cards (http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/jencosgrove) and am learning how to create simple animated gifs as well. My idea is to create a trivia app that I would illustrate with cartoons and some animated gifs. The user would simply hit the next button to advance through items. I would also include bookmarks and quick category buttons. I would start with an app for Android since I use a PC. From searching on the Web I see examples of java code that I would use to display animated gifs in android. From searching the forums, it looks like there are also workarounds for using animations in iOS apps if I move in that direction. Anyway, my trial membership expires soon and I'm trying to decide if BuzzTouch is the right place for me to dig in and any suggestions for topics to start with. Certainly the friendly atmosphere in the forums is a plus! Thanks for any guidance you wish to offer!

Hi Jen! Welcome to Buzztouch! The answer is long and complex. Naturally "I" think it's an easy project, but that's because I've done this a little while... for others, sometimes it's fast, most times it's slow. It takes patience, perseverance and dedication if you 'really' want a classy product. That said, 'yes' what you want can be done via Buzztouch. Keep in mind, BT is really just a 'preconfigured framework' that can apply to both Apple and Android. The configuration done in your control panel creates a text file that is downloaded and read by your app periodically. What this means is you'll be able to update content in your app without having to resort to resubmission every time you have a change. This is a good thing; a very good thing. You'll want to start off with some of GoNorthWest's Youtube videos. He's created a 'getting started with Android Studio' video for just about every platform available, in both Windows and Mac environments; I'm sure yours is in there somewhere. Listen to what he says, there are pearls of wisdom given. Follow what 'Dusko' has to say. He is (in my humble opinion) one of our Premiere Android developers, and has a lot of good information to contribute when he comments. He also has a seriously cool blog: http://duskosavic.com/blog/ Take a few minutes, and draw out on paper what you'd like to see in your app. Be creative, but realistic. Peruse the Plugin market. Not all plugins cost money, and the Free plugins bring great value to an app when used in the right way. 'Content is King' so focus on the best way to present your material. Usually that can be done with a couple of good menus and judicious use of the 'HTML' or 'HTMLPro' plugin. Try and use plugins that will perform natively in Android, without using 'helper' applications. The goal is to keep people in your app as much as possible, usually. With Trivia, It's almost a given that you'll be using one of the 'quiz' plugins. The free quiz plugin is nice, but if you can pull it off, Nad's 'Advanced Quiz' plugin really brings it all home and is a worthy purchase. There are literally thousands of non-programmers who publish many apps in both the Google Play and Apple App Stores... They did it by seeing what was available to them, and publishing using existing plugins in creative ways. This is how it's done, and you can do it too. And by all means, use the forums to ask questions about almost anything app driven. Cheers! -- Smug

Thanks so much for the thoughtful response, Smug! Really appreciate the suggestions and pointers. Excited to keep exploring. Thank you! Jen

Hi Jen, Welcome to Buzztouch! I agree with everything that Smug said (and he's one of the premier members of the site, so his word is like gold!). Everything you want to do can be done fairly easily here. Keep in mind the new pay model that's coming - $15/month - and make sure that fits for you. Having an app like you described would be a great way to get exposure for your business! Don't hesitate to let us know if you have any questions! Mark (GoNorthWest)

Thanks, Mark! And thanks for creating such helpful tutorials as well. Best, Jen