GerMemz
GerMemz was a mobile soundboard application and first the first serious Dynamotivation project developed in 2017 at age 15. It was designed for playback of popular German television commercial soundbits, quotes and jingles. The application was created for Android phones and stood out as an early entrant into the niche of curated German TV commercial soundboards, which at that time had no competitors.
Development
Development for GerMemz commenced around early to mid 2017 at age 15, with the first proof of concept build created on February 13, 2017.
It was written in Java utilising Android Studio.
The project was conceived due to an overlap of perceived void in the market and demand among friend groups: a lack of dedicated, easy-to-use soundboard compilations of German TV commercial memes, as popularised by edits on YouTube, for Android.
Content was periodically added in waves, starting with 9, then 15, 21, and 30 sounds from 1&1 commercials, followed by a separate addition of 15 Carglass sounds.
Features
GerMemz functioned as a multi-page soundboard, categorizing its content across multiple pages, each containing 15 individual sound clips, for a total of 45 sounds.
The sound clips were derived from widely recognized German television commercials. The first 30 sounds stem from "1&1" commercials, featuring the distinctive voice lines of Marcel D'Avis. The other 15 sounds originated from "Carglass" commercials, prominently featuring the voice and lines of Thorsten Bohms.
Highlights:
- 45 Sounds
- Playback Control:
Users had the ability to stop any currently playing sound at will. - Introductory Tutorial:
Upon its initial launch, an interactive tutorial, highlighting clickable areas and their functions, was provided to the user, as was common in the Android 4 and 5 era. - Themed Pages:
The visual design of the application pages was a tweaked, bolder Material Design. The theming was customized to reflect the branding of the respective company per page (Carglass and 1&1).
Challenges
Developing GerMemz presented several significant hurdles:
- First-Time Development:
As this was my first exposure to high level object oriented languages such as Java, the learning curve was quite steep. - Language Barrier:
A lack of English proficiency at the time hindered effective searching for and understanding of advanced or detailed online tutorials.
Availibility
GerMemz was initially well-received by the small circle of friends, who found its content humorous and engaging.
The application was however never publicly released on platforms such as the Google Play Store due to significant intellectual property concerns. These included the unauthorized use of:
- Company logos (Carglass, 1&1).
- Commercial jingles.
- The voices and recognizable lines of actors Thorsten Bohms and Marcel D'Avis.
The original APKs and decompiled source code for GerMemz are still preserved and remain unreleased.
Lessons Learned
Regardless, developing GerMemz provided invaluable insights, significantly shaping my understanding of software development and influencing my subsequent career path:
- Niech Specialization:
The project taught me how to recognise market nieches and is responsible for the continued efforts towards creating highly specialized edit- and generation utilities. - Mobile App Advantages:
Demonstrated the inherent ease of distributing and spreading mobile applications due to the widespread availability of smartphones. - Intellectual Property and Monetization:
A critical lesson learned was the infeasibility of monetizing content directly tied to specific persons or established copyrights and trademarks.