14-Year-Old Whiz Kid Knocks Angry Birds Off Its Roost

[Tom Goldman]

14-Year-Old Whiz Kid Knocks Angry Birds Off Its Roost


The number one free download on the App Store is no longer Angry Birds, thanks to a 14-year-old kid.

While many 14-year-olds are busy Call of Duty: Black Ops [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103083-Call-of-Duty-Military-Advisor-Hates-12-Year-Olds], Robert Nay toils away at game development. The 8th grader not only learned how to program his own iPhone game, but actually released it to hugely successful results.

Nay's Bubble Ball has risen to the very top spot in the list of free downloads on the iOS App Store, unseating longtime champion Angry Birds. Bubble Ball was released on December 29, 2010, and has already been downloaded more than 2 million times. It's also available on the Android marketplace, but is much more popular on the App Store.

Nay is apparently a computer whiz that figured out the easiest path to releasing an app. He created Bubble Ball with the help of Ansca Mobile's Corona [http://www.anscamobile.com/corona/] software development kit (SDK), which required the 14-year-old to learn the Lua programming language. Admittedly, Nay did enlist his mother as a level designer.

"I was pretty astonished," Nay told ABC News. "When I released it, I didn't think it would do so well."

Nay forgot to include a way for he and his family to make some money off Bubble Ball, but he's a kid so cut him some slack. Nay plans to put his newfound popularity to good use in the future and already has a paid app in the works. Maybe he'll be kind and wait 10 years to release it, because he's making everyone that's not a teenager anymore look bad.

Source: ABC News [http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/tweens-game-tops-itunes-list-unseats-angry-birds/story?id=12630449]

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[Trivun]

Woot, I bought my first ever iPod (the brand new Touch, 4th generation, 8GB) the other day, so I'm going to grab this right now. Looks half decent, and considering the kid's only 14 and learned a whole new programming language to make this, he puts me and many others to shame. Which is kind of annoying in a way, as I want to be a games developer myself after I graduate this year. Ah well, fair play to the guy, and I wish him the best of luck in his future app and game making exploits .

 

[benbenthegamerman]

Non trolling ubernerd 14 year olds represent!

(crickets)

Um, anyway, grats to this kid. Might check out the game, support this kid. After all, never bad to support indie (baby?) developers.

 

[Leg End]

It was bound to happen.

Even better that it was a 14 year old.

Ahh, this made my week.

 

[Trivun]

Update: I'm playing it right now and although it's very short (only 21 levels), as physics games go it isn't too bad. Nice gameplay, though it can be a bit hard to see where things are being placed when your finger is in the way (though you can always use a stylus ). Given he got his mother to help out, the level design is pretty good, with a decent set of challenges for you, and generally this is pretty well-polished. Overall, one of the better apps I've seen,and this kid seems like he could go a long way .

 

[duchaked]

NERD (jk!)
...but no really props to the kid

I just downloaded the game. too bad he didn't get some ads in there to make him some money, but with that kinda initiative...well he'll soon be more successful than I've been (and I've got quite a few years on him heh...meh)

 

[dex-dex]

pretty sweet for a 14 year old. many 14 year olds I know are not willing to do anything like this.

 

[Eric the Orange]

Either it's damn good or it's free if it's selling that well.

 

[Skuffyshootster]

Has anyone noticed that the popular games on the Iphone have tons of counterparts on the Internet?

I've probably played +50 flash games with the same shtick as Angry Birds and Bubble Ball.

 

[teh_Canape]

ah, the good old days of bedroom devs

seems like they're coming back

on a side note, that's quite awesome for a 14 yr old

 

[Ldude893]

The simplest concepts are the best. Congrats to the 14 year old kid.

 

[MasterChief892039]

Wow, good for him. I wish he'd made some money off it, he deserves it.

 

[RvLeshrac]

Has anyone noticed that the popular games on the Iphone have tons of counterparts on the Internet?

I've probably played +50 flash games with the same shtick as Angry Birds and Bubble Ball.

But you can't play those flash games on the i*.

(ed: Hands up, all the indie flash devs who plan on putting in all the hours necessary to completely recode all their free flash games for HTML5!... Any time now!... Yeah!... Show of hands!... Anyone!...)

 

[Madmanonfire]

What's really amazing is how something like this became so popular in such a short amount of time. It looks pretty dull and unoriginal.

 

[matrix3509]

Has anyone noticed that the popular games on the Iphone have tons of counterparts on the Internet?

I've probably played +50 flash games with the same shtick as Angry Birds and Bubble Ball.

Its cause most iPhone users are tards that will accept any recreation of a previously popular flash game as long as it has a different name. It also helps that its free. Pretty much every popular game for smartphones was already popular as a different title at least 5 years ago on Newgrounds.

While iPhone users are tards that will hype up anything, Android users are the smartphone equivalent to hardcore WoW players in that they complain about literally everything and cannot be pleased.

 

[Cryo84R]

What's really amazing is how something like this became so popular in such a short amount of time. It looks pretty dull and unoriginal.

Get back to me when your game is ready for the market.

 

[Madmanonfire]

What's really amazing is how something like this became so popular in such a short amount of time. It looks pretty dull and unoriginal.

Get back to me when your game is ready for the market.

That'll be never. I have no desire to make a game for the market.
Besides, that just sounds like "If you can't make it, you have no right to judge it poorly!" Really. Can you come up with a decent reason why I can't dislike it?

 

[XT inc]

I've seen this kind of game done in flash a bazillion times before, grats on building it or whatever.