In February 2017, Helen Harris woke at 3 a.m. and began furiously writing down an idea for a word game that had come to her in her sleep. Four hours later, the entire concept for the game, from the rules to the gameplay and scoring, was on paper.
“Jottit Down” was born.
The word puzzle game provides the player with six consonants and up to three vowels.
From there, the player is tasked with coming up with 12 words that can be made out of the letters provided in three minutes or less. Points are awarded at the end of every round and a winner is determined after six rounds, but the game can also be played solo.
By December of that year, “Jottit Down” had been fully produced and was ready to be sold. But, after a couple years of selling a physical version of her game, Harris finally came to the realization there was potential for her game beyond pencil and paper.
People are also reading…
“My son said to me, even in the beginning, ‘I don’t know why you’re making a board game,’”Harris said. “So, in early 2020, I began working on a digital version.”
After another 16 months of hard work seeking IT advice, finding programmers, and designing a mobile version of her game, “Jottit Down Digital” was released to the public on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store on August 21.
“I never, in 100 years, thought that I would be throwing an app release party for an app I helped to create,” Harris said. “But, when I get a hold of something and I want to do it, I’m going to get it done.”
Harris, a former teacher, principal, and tutor at Mitchell Community College before she retired, had no prior experience conceptualizing or designing word games, let alone apps. But, true to her word, and searching for an outlet for her time following her husband’s death, she saw the project through.
“I refused to put my husband in a nursing home, so every day I would get up and take care of him every day,” Harris said. “Creating Jottit Down was therapeutic for me. After taking care of him every day for a year-and-a-half, the game allowed me to refocus and find a new purpose.”
During the process of developing her board game, Harris was able to test it with some of her students at Mitchell. The game was well-received. Following the testing phase, Harris began seeking out companies that could potentially produce her game only to find that many of those factories were charging far more than she was comfortable with spending.
“The people were very nice, but I quickly realized that it wasn’t feasible for me or my budget,” she said. “I wasn’t sure if we were going to be able to sell that many games, so I didn’t want to make that kind of commitment.”
Undeterred, Harris began producing the game herself. By utilizing many printing companies across Iredell County and hiring a young artist named Elyse Byers, Harris was able to complete the project without the need for a large production run.
But when it came to app development, Harris quickly realized that it would be a completely different animal.
“I realized it would be much harder when people started talking about technical stuff with me and I didn’t know anything about it,” she said. “Some of the people I consulted with gave me articles to read to learn about the various parts of app development. I didn’t know anything about Android and iOS, but I do now. I was determined that I was going to do this.”
The development process did not always go as smoothly as Harris would have liked, though. Webuters Technologies out of India, was able to win Harris over with their attention to detail on what would go into turning “Jottit Down” into a mobile game.
“They went well beyond what we asked them to answer,” Harris said about her interview process.
According to Harris, as of mid-October, “Jottit Down” had been downloaded over 500 times, a number she hopes will continue to grow.
“I think the game is excellent, so we just want the game to get out there so people can find out for themselves,” Harris said. “But not only that, I wanted to do this because there’s not a lot of women out there in the gaming market and I just hope to inspire minority developers.”
Harris is proud of both versions of her game and refuses to pick a favorite. She just loves to see people enjoying the game that she created.
“You never know where you’re going to be or where you’re going to go,” Harris said with a laugh. “I never would have thought this is where I’d be now, but I’m blessed with a product I’m proud of and some great people I met along the way.”
