Top iOS App Created by 14-Year-Old Whiz Kid
Looking back, I remember being engaged in several activities, both at home and in school, when I was 14. Those activities, however, did not include what 14-year-old prodigy Robert Nay was able to do: create what is now the hottest game for iOS devices.
A feature on Digital Trends shared the feat achieved by the eighth grader, who developed the free game Bubble Ball. The game, according to the post, consists of platforms, a ball, and not much else – but it was able to unseat Angry Birds, and now holds the distinguished title of “number 1 free app for iOS devices” in the App Store. Since its introduction last month, there has been two million downloads for Bubble Ball.
The 14-year-old (I just can’t help but repeat his age!) launched the game under his own production company, Nay Games. The feature mentioned that he had “minimal” help from his mom Kari, and we are presuming this is for handling the more “business” aspect of the company. Development and programming is the young Nay’s domain.
The physics-based puzzle game was created by Nay using the Corona Software Development Kit from Ansca Mobile, which he found in the public library through research. He also learned the programming language Lua. He worked on Bubble Ball for about a month and a half, ending up with more than 4,000 lines of code.
Unsurprisingly, Nay excels in school, and plays the piano, trumpet, and mandolin. He built his first website in the third grade, and is reportedly working on his next app.
[...] For those of us who grew up before smart phones and personal computers and the Internet became part of daily living, there were quite a number of fun activities and games to keep us busy during our spare time. With the onset of technology, these games became nothing more than inspiration for computer, online and mobile games. [...]