This former Auburnite took a talent for art, his math smarts and the need to make a living and discovered an app-titude for making mobile apps for smartphones, tablets and the like. He has a new one coming out soon and another under way tied to an upcoming short film. Cross Wilkins on Martian Math, tumbleweeds and watching your back.

Name: Crossman Lyons Wilkins

Age: 26

Hometown: Born in Boston, raised in Auburn

Living now: Los Angeles

Graduate of: Edward Little High School ’03, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ’06, Otis College of Art and Design ’09

What do you like most about making apps, aside from the income? I like being able to take an abstract idea for a game and turn it into something tangible. I make the apps I want to play, but seeing other people enjoy them is very rewarding.

How many apps have you gotten on the market so far? Six, with another one coming out named Brickz hopefully in the next few days.

Can you list the apps (so readers can go check them out) and which is your favorite? Transmission, Polar Wing, Martian Math, Sky Barons, Hacked and It Came From Space. Martian Math, an arithmetic quiz game, is probably my favorite, and most successful so far. I think there is a lot of work to be done in education technology. Mobile devices seem to have a lot of potential in the classroom, and working in that space is interesting and rewarding.

What does it take to make a popular app? It’s hard to say. Some apps seem to take off randomly, and there are a lot of good apps that I’m sure don’t get seen, with the extreme volume of apps. I think as long as you’re trying to do something different and you make the best app possible and you’re willing to try again after a lot of failure, then hopefully something will be successful eventually.

Can you tell us what you have in the works for future apps? My app Brickz should be out in the next week or so. Further down the road is a game called Dumbleweed based on a short film a friend of mine made. In the game you play as a tumbleweed and you roll through an obstacle course of cacti, rocks and desert animals.

Do you know if Mainers will get a chance to see the film “Dumbleweed” at next spring’s Lewiston-Auburn Film Festival? I hope so. I don’t have any control over the film, but I will be pushing the filmmakers to apply.

Your day jobs include creating apps and teaching how to create apps. What do you do for fun when you’re not busy app-ing? I sail at the UCLA boat house when the wind is good, but I always have on the back of my mind that my competitors are working while I am playing.

Coincidence that you went from one L-A to another? Which one’s better? What do you miss most? I’m sure it is a coincidence. I can diplomatically say that I enjoy both. My family and some friends are in the Northeast so it’s tough to be so far, but there’s always holidays and weddings.

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