Provo, Utah – On Wednesday, PepperGum Labs(PGL) simulated the integration of two cutting technologies: the Oculus Rift, and the Apple Watch. Using an iPhone to stand-in for the Apple Watch, PGL Software Engineer and iOS instructor Ontario Britton demonstrated interaction with an augmented 3D world with his Apple Watch fill-in. “It feels pretty amazing to control these next-generation user interfaces with hands empty of devices or sensors,” says Ontario.

PGL also demonstrated some of the first games for the Apple Watch. These games are playable via WatchKit and include a beautifully animated martial arts fighter, Pong and others in ongoing development. PGL made these games for the Apple Watch as part of a class it will offer online to teach Apple Watch development.

Ontario is a veteran game programmer and iOS instructor, so creating Apple Watch games was his first interest when the WatchKit SDK launched last month. He has found great success using games and other highly visual apps to teach programming classes. These projects will “help you easily learn and maintain your new Apple Watch programming skills,” says Ontario. “You’ll learn through fun and engaging applications not found anywhere else.”

“You’ll create these cutting-edge Watchkit applications as some of your first Apple Watch Apps,” he continued while showing Pong in the Apple Watch simulator. Ontario is no stranger to creating classes for Apple technologies, having developed curriculum for various courses in iOS programming taught at a Gold Level Apple Authorized Training Center in Manhattan.

With such strong worldwide interest in Apple’s newly released WatchKit SDK, PGL aims to meet the needs of programmers and newcomers alike with some of the highest quality and most unique instruction in Apple Watch programming. The class covers 24 hours of online instruction and provides source code for 10 fully-functional games and other programming projects, including simple starting-point templates. The source code is all written in Apple’s new programming language Swift utilizing Apple’s newly released iOS8. Instruction is focused on learning concepts of Apple Watch programming and immediately implementing them in code, so students build these games as the class progresses.

PepperGum Labs is using KickStarter not only to crowd-fund the initial cost of creating this online class, but to also generate a community around the new curriculum. For a $49 pledge (or $39 for early adopters), aspiring WatchKit developers get unlimited access through KickStarter to an otherwise $500 online course. The same course costs $1,500 if taken in-person through a training center.

The instructor, Ontario Britton, teaches classes in Apple technologies across the United States. He was the lead mobile trainer at a Gold Level Apple Authorized Training Center in Manhattan where he teaches Swift, Obj-C, Java, iOS Frameworks, Game Programming and Android Development. He has taught non-programmers and experienced engineers, and says that “everyone leaves my classes successfully writing their own apps, often for the first time”. This is his first class to be offered online, and it will be hosted through the Udemy website.

The instructor also has impressive iOS experience, having contributed to more than 20 iPhone and iPad apps with over two million downloads among them, mostly games. Included in games Ontario helped engineer is Endless Alphabet, which was one of a select group of apps awarded Apple’s “Best of 2014” award and which appeared onstage with Tim Cook at Apple’s 2014 World Wide Developers Conference.

PepperGum Labs
Kickstarter Campaign
YouTube Video (Apple Watch + Oculus)
YouTube Video (Story)
Image (Oculus Rift + Apple Watch Game)
Image (WatchKit Games)

After contributing to over 20 successful apps with over two million downloads, Ontario Britton founded PepperGum Labs to expand into education, starting with its Apple Watch Developers class which will be funded by KickStarter. All Material and Software (C) Copyright 2014 PepperGum Labs. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other trademarks and registered trademarks may be the property of their respective owners.