March 19, 2014

By Rumasa Noor

Mobile apps have become more popular than ever. According to money.cnn.com, “Mobile devices accounted for 55 percent of Internet usage in the United States in January [2014].”

Kyle Van Dyn Hoven, a former UW-Whitewater student, has joined the mobile app industry. He is the CEO and founder of two online-based companies: Creation Burst and Slick Lizard Games.

In 2013, he transfered to an online school in New York.

Van Dyn Hoven said Creation Burst Studio is a “mobile and web development company.”

“We do anything from apps for iOS, apps for android, web design, graphic design, branding, video creation,” Van Dyn Hoven said.

Van Dyn Hoven said people come to Creation Burst Studio with their ideas and the company helps them turn those ideas into reality.

“We have made like five or six apps for clients so far,” Van Dyn Hoven said.

Slick Lizard Games is a gaming company. One of the apps they have created is called “Flappy the Pig,” which is derived from the popular game “Flappy Bird.”

Van Dyn Hoven said his company has been working on a new game for seven months.

“We are working on a mobile racing game; its going to be something that’s going to be available on iOS devices, iPads, iPhones, iPods, and it also will be available for android as well,” Van Dyn Hoven said.

The racing game is set to be released by the end of April.

Van Dyn Hoven has a background in coding. He studied integral science at UW-W, and his interest in making games and apps led him to create these companies.

“It’s fun to make games, apps, it’s enjoyable for me, and it’s also the kind of industry that I want to get into,” Van Dyn Hoven said. “It’s growing very very fast. You could be very successful if you know what you are doing.”

Although he has interest in making games and apps, Van Dyn Hoven does not design them. He works with different people who design apps and games for him.

“I kind of do most of the management, I deal with all the clients and make sure everyone is happy,” Van Dyn Hoven said. “I kind of work with people from all over the world. Most of my developers I work with are actually from India.”

Van Dyn Hoven has a business partner based in California and a manager who works for him from India. He said he does not have permanent employees; most of his employees work for him on project -to-project basis.

Van Dyn Hoven said before starting his businesses, he used to buy apps from other people and work on them. He started getting a sense of this business, and he has been working on them for about a year now.

“I started out with doing just the game for myself and then I later decided that I also wanted to start doing stuff for clients as well,” Van Dyn Hoven said.

Van Dyn Hoven is hopeful for the future of his companies. Right now he does not have a physical location for his businesses and everything is based online.

“If our racing game does well, we would like to open up a whole studio, probably in California, add fulltime employees and I guess continue to work on games from here on out,” Van Dyn Hoven said.

People who are interested in having their apps developed can leave a message at creationburst.com.