High School student, Wezley Sherman, has done something that not many students his same age can claim to have achieved.   He recently created an Android phone app for his school that is available for download from Google Play.

Sherman, who is an experienced programmer, was asked by MHS Library Media Specialist Anita Glover to create the app for the school.  It features a school calendar, important phone numbers, links the school’s online newspaper, and links to the Montevallo City website. Students can also use the bell schedule feature to see the class they are currently in and how many minutes remain before class change.  He plans to add other things to the app, including links to the school lunch menu.

Sherman is part of a creative team of programmers, known as Mostwanted Game Development, who are also responsible for developing a gaming app known as Solar Forge.  The $1 game app has generated over $2,000 in revenue for its developers and caused Sherman, as the group’s accountant, to learn how to file the necessary tax paperwork.  The group is currently developing another game called Battlelines that should be completed by the end of this year.

“Our game received a boost from a free review,” Sherman said. “Luckily, the reviewer had a lot of positive things to say, and the criticisms allowed us to make improvements to the game.” 

To achieve such success, Sherman has dedicated himself to much study. Over the past three years, Sherman has studied hard and taught himself the programming langages Java, JavaScript and C# (pronounced “C sharp”). It took him two years to develop an app worthy of being marketed. 

“I started programming three years ago, when certain games became boring to me,” Sherman said. “I had a general interest in computers and wanted to learn how games were made, so I had to read and study.”

While Sherman is proficient in the type of programming needed for android devices, he doesn’t own a Mac computer so he hasn’t had the opportunity to master its coding system in order to develop apps for iPhones. That is one future goal he has established for himself, along with eventually seeking a degree in computer science and becoming a fulltime game developer.

(Blog post adapted from original article by Michelle Adams, English Teacher at Montevallo High School and student newspaper advisor.  Original story first appeared in the Shelby County Reporter.)