Dennis van Duin (left)
Working since: June 2013
I am the designer of the team. Usually, I create, draw and design all aspects of the games and website we make. This process starts with developing a game concept with the developers. Then I design a general overview and developing is about to begin!
Tristan Nottelman (right)
Working since: March 2015
I’m programmer as well. My focus is on the availability of the apps on all platforms and screen formats. Furthermore, I present various ideas and improvements for the app, which I work out in detail after which they are assembled together in the app.
Massimo Achterberg (middle)
Working since: June 2013
I’m one of the programmers in the team. My task is to implement/program the ideas into the app, and to work them out as correctly as possible. At the very end of development, I thoroughly test all apps and make sure as less bugs as possible are present in the game.
The roots of Appsurd date back to 2009. At that time, Dennis van Duin founded the company DvDtv Games, the precursor of Appsurd. From 2009 until 2013, many games were developed for Windows computers. The games were creative games with different genres and original gameplay, but were specifically designed for Windows and are therefore no longer available.
During summer 2013, Dennis van Duin started to cooperate with another programmer, Massimo Achterberg. Together the long-term goal was determined: creating mobile games and applications. Within a couple of months, in November 2013, the first game was released in the Google Play Store: Strategic Blocks. After almost half a year, the second major title, Alien Flight, was published in July, 2014.
A while later, in November 2014, the company name was changed to PeliStar. The new name is better understandable for a larger audience. Also all applications were made available for Windows Phone.
In March 2015, Tristan Nottelman from Orchestral Games joined the company. Together a new app was published in January 2016: Double Touch, a quick reaction game with online highscores.
In the following years not many games were created, but games originally developed by Tristan Nottelman were incorporated into the PeliStar framework. This included the polishing of several games, including Does It Fit, Alien Flight and Dodge the Snake.
In May 2018, PeliStar and Orchestral Games officially merged and the new company was called Appsurd. Upon completing the transition in January 2019, all games became available on iOS.
The development of WeWords, the largest mobile app by Appsurd, was initiated in 2017 and the game was finally released in 2020. The goal in WeWords is to select words in a large field of letters, making long words and efficiently using bonusses to score points! WeWords has received many updates, and is still regularly updated, including support for multiple languages, an online pvp mode and many, many single player levels.
In winter 2022, the word game Wordle became very popular and Appsurd decided to develop a Dutch version, called Woordle! Our app was released on the Google Play Store in February 2022 and attracts every day almost 5000 players trying to guess the daily word, consisting of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or even 8 letters.
Inspired by the enthusiastic participants of Woordle, Appsurd decided to expand on the idea of "one puzzle a day" and launched Puzzaily in 2022, Daily Bingo in 2023 and Daily Wood Block Puzzle in 2023. These “daily” games are among the most popular Appsurd games, so we are planning to develop more similar games in the future.
Additionally, Appsurd also released Swinga in 2022 and Dragle in 2023, which are both fun arcade games. Of course, all games can be downloaded free to play in the Google Play Store (Android) and the Apple App Store (iOS).
In 2024, Appsurd is planning to release more games, but no titles can be announced yet. Additionally, all games are being updated to ensure playability in the future years.
