Santa's got a brand new app

By Adela Talbot
December 07, 2011

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Adela Talbot, Western News
Third-year computer science student Hamed Saadat plays Santa’s Delivery, a 3-D game he developed, available for iOS Apple devices. A portion of game sale proceeds will go to the Bayat Foundation, a charity dedicated to helping the people of Afghanistan.

Thanks to Hamed Saadat, Santa’s delivery has arrived – just in time for the holidays.

Saadat, a third-year computer science student at The University of Western Ontario, developed Santa’s Delivery, a holiday-themed game available through the App Store on iOS Apple devices.

“It’s a 3-D Christmas game, where you play as Santa Claus in a jet-powered sleigh and you shoot presents into people’s houses,” Saadat explains.

Santa’s Delivery progressively gets more difficult, and the levels are randomly generated so they’re different each time you play. The game also has a high replay value because it’s infinite; players can’t beat it, he says.

The game is a production of UntitledD, a start-up application and game development studio founded by Saadat and his brother, Murtaza. With the release of Santa’s Delivery, the brothers say they’re testing the waters of the current platform with the goal of creating better, interactive mobile applications and games.

Following the Dec. 2 release of version 2.0, Santa’s Delivery has had more than 100 downloads and has a five star rating in Apple’s Game Center. In order to generate some feedback and awareness, the game will be free for a limited time, Sadaat says.

UntitledD will later be charging $.99 for the game, with 10 per cent of all proceeds going to the Bayat Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to fostering the health, education and general well-being of the people of Afghanistan.

For Saadat, a first-generation Canadian whose family is from Afghanistan, the charity was a deliberate choice because its work hits close to come, he says.

The remainder of the funds generated from the sale of Santa’s Delivery will help Saadat and his brother develop UntitledD and further its goals of creating interactive mobile apps.

“We have a couple of ideas in the works. The only problem is that we need funding to get co-op students to make our ideas a reality,” Saadat says.

“We want to revolutionize the way people use tablet computers. The problem with the tablet market right now is that people just consume the apps; they don’t create anything. We want to change that. And we want to change the way people interact with social platforms of video games.”

“I can’t say much more about it, without giving (our ideas) away,” he laughs.