
Show HN: I made 30 apps this year and I'm 15 - stasy
http://www.aeipsapps.tumblr.com
======
sillysaurus2
One tip: Ignore everybody and keep creating. If I'd done that at 15, then I
wouldn't have started to doubt myself and stop working on ideas that later
turned out to be very prescient.

The most important thing you should do is the thing that's most important to
you. Be sure it's not defined by other people's opinions.

There will always be people in life like the guy who replied "While it is
impressive to see another 15 year old programmer (I've never met one in real
life even though I've been to three schools in two different countries (I'm a
expat kid) ), the actual programming skill required to make games like these
are little to none and truthfully i'm not overly impressed."

Ignore 'em and keep working.

EDIT: Oh, I should also mention: don't let the praise go to your head. Another
mistake I made. In general, it's it's a bad idea to compare yourself to anyone
else -- whether feeling smug and superior that you've accomplished all this at
15 (surprise, I know your secret!) or feeling weak and inferior that you're
not as talented as some other person. They're not you, and you're not them.
Relative comparisons like that don't matter one bit. Instead, it's far more
advantageous to always be comparing your current self to your past self.
That's how Carmack became so incredibly good, for example. He didn't wait for
anyone to surpass him; he did it himself. That's only possible if you believe
you're not as skilled as you could be, i.e. having no ego. Nor did he let
people convince him he was wasting his time back when he was working on his
early projects.

It's complicated. Just keep working.

~~~
kyro
One thing I've learned is that if you've found yourself ruffling feathers and
receiving criticism for something that you've done that isn't objectively bad
or immoral, you're probably on the right track.

------
jebus989
It's worth noting that this isn't a cool github account someone's turned up of
a surprisingly young programmer, it's a serial publicist [0-2] using primarily
a game creation engine (which he doesn't acknowledge upfront) to build low-
quality games and display them on an unsightly tumblr page. I think to heap
praise on this because of their age alone is patronising. Encouragement
absolutely, it's great to see young people interested in programming, but at
what age would this has been flagged and removed quickly after posting, 17?
19?

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6864667](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6864667)

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6800925](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6800925)

[2]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6799065](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6799065)

~~~
sillysaurus2
I think it's great that he continued to search for a way to promote his own
work. Your links demonstrate that he was asking us for help, received
absolutely none, then figured out how to help himself.

New programmers (of any age) aren't competing at the level of professional,
kickstarter-funded projects. And most people don't know how difficult it is to
do this kind of gamedev work when you're just starting out, so it seems like
people are labeling this as low-quality just because it's the work of a newer
craftsman.

He's out there actually doing something and trying to make his own vision
happen, and he hasn't resorted to spammy behavior. It looks like he kept his
head down and continued to produce while looking for a way to promote his
work, then correctly ascertained that the sheer quantity of work would
intrigue people.

------
tmikaeld
C'mon! No one here read the sourcecode?

It's made without any programming using this app:
[https://www.scirra.com/](https://www.scirra.com/)

... still more games than i have done though :-P

~~~
bliti
May you please link to any of your projects? Were any built without using any
third party tools or libraries?

~~~
BlackDeath3
Please. There is quite a difference between not using third-party
tools/libraries, and (arguably) _not programming at all_.

I mean, the tool's tagline is "Create Games. Effortlessly."

This isn't an attempt to put the OP down, but let's keep things in
perspective.

~~~
bliti
I disagree. It is an attempt to put the OP down. The tool may not have people
writing code, but they are programming. They have define algorithms through
the use of data types, loops, conditionals, etc. What the OP did is noteworthy
because he/she was able to create cool games with the limitations of the tools
(and went as far as adding his own JS).

No software these days is run or built without the help of others. Why make
such comment? It is not constructive nor does it aim to develop the
conversation.

~~~
BlackDeath3
You can disagree all that you like. What you cannot do is ascribe intention to
my posts.

At any rate, I think that you're so focused on the specific case of the OP
that you've missed the point of my post. That's fine. I expected contention
over my use of the word "programming", and apparently I should have been more
pedantic.

~~~
bliti
I was not focusing on your post. My point is geared towards the parent
comment, and not yours. Not looking to argue. We both share the same view.

------
C1D
EDIT: I apologize for coming off as arrogant. Criticism isn't really doing any
good and I regret that post. To the creator, I'm glad to see a 15 year
actually doing something in computing.

I understand that this was a good experience for you and hopefully has further
developed you skills. Sorry for the unnecessary criticism and blatant self
promotion. My post was pointless, possibly narcissistic and I was doing what I
hate people doing to me. Please keep it up and I hope you get even better;
Also a little tip, check out Unity3D, it is costly but if you're into game
deving it will let you develop games in 3D easily (though you're going to need
to know basic Javascript or C) and it is multi-platform so it can publish to
mobile.

OLD POST: Quality not quantity. While it is impressive to see another 15 year
old programmer (I've never met one in real life even though I've been to three
schools in two different countries (I'm a expat kid) ), the actual programming
skill required to make games like these are little to none and truthfully i'm
not overly impressed.

I too am 15 mind you and although I haven't developed any games I have created
a RSA secure chatting social network website and app for it too which could
communicate between each other using websockets and a node.JS server (this
hasn't been published, while making it my partner quit :(, and I eventually
lost hope that it would even be used since I was only 15).

I hope this doesn't come off as criticism. Its actually great to see another
young programmer such as my self but all I am trying to say is that this is
not __overly __impressing.

~~~
gertisen
> I haven't developed any games I have created a RSA secure chatting social
> network website and app for it too which could communicate between each
> other using websockets and a node.JS server

I would avoid talking like this. To me it sounds like you only vaguely know
what you're talking about. To non-techies you sound like you're trying too
hard.

As someone who started freelancing as a sophomore in highschool I hope I can
lend some advice I learned the hard way. You have a head start, which will
seriously come in handy when you do something amazing. To get there you have
to leave the ego at the door. Your success will be more centered on how you
communicate with people, not machines.

~~~
C1D
Okay that was over descriptive. I basically created a chatting platform that
used Websockets (so it worked on the web instead of application only) and
would send data from a PHP frontend to a node.JS backend (hosted in AWS) via
SSL and RSA encryption (I used cryptico.JS to encrypt and decrypt). The
node.JS server was running engine.io (base for socket.io).

Also i'm sorry if it came off like I have a big ego!

~~~
krrishd
PHP frontend? Just curious how that works...

~~~
C1D
Opps, by that I mean't a website done in PHP and the WS server was in node.

Also @krrishd, are you still working on your suicide-prevention app, I emailed
you about it a few weeks ago and didn't get a response.

~~~
krrishd
I'm trying to learn about both suicide and backend development conceptually,
so the actual development will start soon. I'll shoot you an email about it
soon :)

------
jmduke
Jesus, this is impressive.

When I was fifteen, I'm pretty sure my main accomplishment was hitting level
40 in Halo 2 matchmaking.

You will probably get lots of valid and actionable advice about branching out
to new platforms, focusing on one or two apps, or trying something new -- but
more than anything else, keep building things! You've clearly got a
ridiculously high level of aptitude and passion.

~~~
atmosx
When I was 15 my parents hated computers. However, I had hot girlfriends,
where one of the best player of my basketball team and was having really too
much fun.

I don't regret nothing, but I'd sure love being able to write code at that age
- If that would make me a better programmer today, which means that I would
have to continue writing code for another 17 years :-)

Congrats to the kid.

------
BSousa
Ok, first of all, congratulations! I remember being 15 and hacking away (It
was Turbo Pascal for me). Ignore any naysayers that complain there is no code
or it was done with a simple tool. Do what you like and enjoy.

But now on a more serious note, I'm about twice your age, so not too old to be
screaming 'get of my lawn', but old enough to hopefully give you some advice
that will resonate.

This projects mean an average of a game every two weeks, even if they are
simple, I'm sure this is taking a lot of your time. I'm extrapolating here, so
if I'm wrong just ignore me, but I'm assuming you are spending a lot of time
doing these and not a lot of social activities. Please please please, do some
socialisation with folks within the dev community and in your school and
neighbourhood. I'm not going to say these are the best times of your life or
whatnot, but believe it or not, when you are older and start looking for jobs,
you will start understanding that social knowledge is as much, or more
important that tech knowledge, and you will regret not developing those skills
at younger age when it is easier to do so.

Again, good work, keep producing, but find some balance.

------
SyneRyder
This is awesome. And while there's some valid criticism in this thread
(regarding quality over quantity & originality), that criticism shouldn't
detract from a few points:

* You're averaging a product a fortnight. Whoa.

* You've learned to leverage 3rd party tools to increase productivity / output.

* You've learned to actually -ship- product.

* You made the front page of Hacker News.

All of that is incredibly valuable. Who cares if it isn't written in Java or
Objective-C or Haskell or Erlang, so long as your customers love what you're
making? (And if they don't love it, at least you now know what to improve on
next!)

If you do follow the advice of taking longer to make a higher quality product,
don't fall into the trap of becoming a perfectionist and never shipping. It's
better to ship something and keep improving it based on customer feedback,
than to make something that never sees the light of day.

Did you join onegameamonth.com? If not, you definitely should.

~~~
diminoten
Yeah, if we just ignore the products themselves (which may sound sarcastic but
I genuinely think is valid), this guy's pumping out more completed projects
over the past year than almost anyone posting here's done in their lifetime.

That, alone, is _huge_.

------
chromejs10
Kudos for learning to program at such a young age. It'll give you a leg up
when you decide to get a job or start a company and need funding. However, I'd
suggest taking some time and working on the quality and originality of the
apps over the sheer number of apps that you can churn out in a year. A number
of the apps seem almost identical. You want to get known for high quality apps
and not as someone who just fills the app store with small apps.

------
MJR
This doesn't detract what the fact that you had the initiative and drive to
complete 30 different games. But if I can offer some advice now, rather than
when something real happens: Create your own characters rather than borrowing
someone else's creations and building them into your games. Pac-Man, Mario,
Minecraft, My Little Pony are all great characters, just unfortunately not
yours to make a game with. Find a friend who can draw and have them create
some unique characters for you, write a little story and you've got an indie
game that's all your own.

~~~
sillysaurus2
_Create your own characters rather than borrowing someone else 's creations
and building them into your games. Pac-Man, Mario, Minecraft, My Little Pony
are all great characters, just unfortunately not yours to make a game with._

Speaking as a game developer, this is remarkably bad advice for a young
gamedev to follow. It doesn't matter whether or not they're "his". It matters
that he continues creating. That's the most important thing. He's not making
money off of other people's work. He's building a skillset that will serve him
for a lifetime. Wasting time fitting society's arbitrary moral standard is
time not spent becoming a better gamedev.

Even if he's served with a DCMA takedown notice for some of his apps, it
doesn't matter even slightly, because the app isn't the end goal. Talent is.
And the way to foster talent is to not stop working.

I'd encourage him to pursue art if he wants to, as it's also a skill which
will serve him the rest of his life -- the creators of Minecraft, Super Meat
Boy, and World of Goo were all artist-programmers, which seems more than a
coincidence -- but it's not a requirement to be a gamedev.

~~~
MJR
First, no being an artist isn't a requirement to be a gamedev. That's why I
said find a friend who is.

Second, If, as you say, the app isn't the end goal, then don't release it and
this issue doesn't even come up.

Third, you said " _Wasting time fitting society 's arbitrary moral standard is
time not spent becoming a better gamedev._"

As a parent, that is exactly why I would encourage him to create his own
characters. It's not at all an arbitrary moral standard. Is theft an arbitrary
moral standard? Plagiarism? If you don't have permission to use the
characters, don't use them. These games are available on the official MS site
right next to the official ones. Why go down the path of having to potentially
have your account suspended, or whatever the punishment is if MS decides your
apps are infringing.

Finally, What do you tell the kid the first time they have a successful
project and someone rips it off? Don't get upset, you did it when you started,
so it's ok? It doesn't matter that he's just getting his start, stealing these
characters is just like stealing the source code an releasing it as your own.
Are we condoning that as well? In my opinion, it's just as important to learn
integrity as it is to build the app.

~~~
caprad
Finding someone else makes it much harder to start working. Stealing assets is
the tried and true method of getting something to show off, and get going
quite quickly.

There are enough issues with writing your own games, you have just made it
that much harder.

Of course there are also lots of free assets out there for use, but designers
are more hesitant than developers to give stuff out for free.

~~~
MJR
Seriously? Go look at the games, we're talking about a single image of a
character in most cases. And showing something off doesn't have to be putting
it up on Microsoft.com for the world to download. The kid is 15, my point is
find the friend you have that is taking art class and get them to sketch
something for you. I bet money that if this kid is into games, one of his
gamer friends can sketch a game character for him pro-bono. We're not talking
about developers and designers - these are high school kids making one-off
test-the-water apps.

------
cvburgess
While these apps are impressive _for a 15 year old developer_ they are not
really "high-quality" titles... yet MSFT allowed __30 __of these games into
the store by the same developer. If I were MSFT, I would 've thrown a red flag
up if not for QA, for potential spam.

Great work and keep it up, OP! I wouldn't worry about co-founders just yet.
Keep hacking till you find something you are _really_ passionate about and a
co-founder will join you when and if the time is right (probably a t least 3
years down the road for legal reasons)

------
suedadam
I'm 14 and I've been coding since 6th grade and have coded very advanced
things for my company and other small projects;it's not a big deal and I'm
amused to see all the other kids who have coded these small games brag so much
about it and how "coding changed my life" just simply for the attention. In my
opinion, I could care less about how old you are;as long as you don't brag
about it then there is nothing stopping you from succeeding;age seems to be
the only factor of which has limited me and my company from succeeding, I've
put through the efforts and work required;however, investors and actual
business men believe the level of maturity is too little as put per my age.

tl;Dr: I agree;don't brag and I don't like how people brag about how you've
done so much as per your age group as if that would have limited you. I've
done much more when I was in 6-7th grade yet I don't brag about it. on another
note;congrats on your efforts and I urge you to continue to in your path.

~~~
deeteecee
Good for you man, I'm way behind. I'm 24 and haven't accomplished much. I'm
just working my way to seeing what I want to use as my career. Just a note,
though: "I've done much more when I was in 6-7th grade yet I don't brag about
it." That's called bragging.

~~~
suedadam
Sorry for the confusion;I was rather simply stating that I had done some work
in the 6-7th grade;however, in my comment it was meant to be, I don't make a
thread about it;on that note, you should very well simply push yourself into
doing something, a good way to start with this new era of technology is to
learn how to program and learn the new tools that are being developed each
day.

------
zachlatta
Hey, I'm around your age and very impressed with what you're doing.

It's neat that you've released so many apps this year. As others have noted,
it looks like you're using some form of game creation engine to make these
quickly. I'd encourage you to try to move away from that and learn what's
actually happening behind the scenes. Doing this will allow you to make more
complex and impressive games in the future. It'll also serve as a tremendous
learning experience.

Also, it's really neat that you're young and doing incredible things, but I'd
warn against relying on your age to impress people. Try to make things that
are impressive regardless of who made them.

I'm one of the developers on a fairly popular game in the App Store (800,000+
downloads). If you're up to it, I'd like to chat with you more about what
you're doing. Shoot me an email at zach@zachlatta.com. I look forward to
hearing from you!

------
beatboxrevival
When I was 15, I was also creating code. I met some "smart" older guy who
worked as a product manager for britannica.com before wikipedia and the first
bubble. I asked him for some advice on how to make a career out of it. He
said, "you don't want to build shit, you want to manage people. Writing code
is for the losers." As a young impressionable kid with no tech mentors, I
listened. It took ten years to come back to writing code. Anyways, like the
sillysaurus2 said, ignore the critics and keep doing what you love to do.

------
wushupork
Just the fact that you are 15, reading hackernews and making apps and NOT
spending your time kicking some middle-aged man at Halo is AMAZING. Kudos to
you. I wish I was more like you when I was your age.

~~~
caprad
When I was a kid we could only afford a cheap computer (VZ-300, Australia
computer), with a z80, while all my mates had c64s. So they were busy swapping
games with each other, I had to program my own, first in basic, from magazines
(thanks APC), and then in z80 assembly. I still love developing today, things
may have been different if we were not poor.

------
InTheSwiss
Good job! Have you look into Android apps? You will have a bigger audience. I
am assuming you are using C# as they are Windows Store apps if so Java will be
very similar for you to switch too.

~~~
stasy
It is mostly made with JavaScript. I really liked making apps on Windows 8
because I can use languages I already knew from making websites.

~~~
jawns
You might be interested in PhoneGap
([http://phonegap.com](http://phonegap.com)). You use HTML/CSS/Javascript to
build the apps, and then Phonegap compiles them to work on multiple platforms,
such as Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and more.

~~~
mooreds
I think PhoneGap/Cordova (the open source base of PhoneGap) can be great for
certain types of apps, and it definitely leverages your existing skillset.
Here's a showcase: [http://phonegap.com/app/](http://phonegap.com/app/)

That said, I've never done a game with PhoneGap, and I'd worry about
performance (for certain types of games)--I definitely worry about performance
with javascript maps, which is closer to what we do). Just something to be
aware of.

~~~
krrishd
I'd definitely worry about performance in Phonegap, as to me it seems more
useful for static, informational apps rather than games. I'd be interested in
seeing a Phonegap game though, it would be interesting to see its acceptance
in any major app market.

------
thinkersilver
This is encouraging and I think it's great that you are interacting with the
community and getting feedback on your work at an early stage. This will help
you grow. I guess you've posted this for constructive criticism. You should
look at challenging yourself further by finding a problem area that you are
passionate about and digging deep into the data structures and the algorithms.
Consider when I was 15. I was fascinated with computer graphics and games and
wrote a raytracer in C, wrote a doom-like game-engine in pascal. Writing the
game logic was always the easy part, dealing with limited memory and
optimising for hardware were always a problem. My mates were all building
their own graphics engines, dabbling with operating systems development and
one kid was playing around with Classes and tree like data structures. We
looked at him like he was a god. This isn't a put down but a push. You can do
so much more kid and you have a good headstart but try something harder. Post
your work here and most will be glad to give a helping hand. Ironically the
most talented of us ended up being a musician when he left for University.

------
mtrn
Wonderful. And - nostalgia advances. And how, at 15 I probably was a more
productive programmer than now, where I barely manage to wrap up a few
miniscule open source projects per year, if any. Back then I wrote what looks
like major projects to me now - in month, alongside school, friends, holidays
and everything ...

Any experiences or tips on how to get 15 again in terms of productivity? :)

~~~
krrishd
I think it would be slightly unrealistic to 'get back to 15'. I'm 15, and I'm
a developer; the main advantage I have right now is that I don't need to worry
about rent, food, and other stuff, since I'm still with my parents. This gives
me time to work on whatever project I want without any other worries.

I guess in your case, you would probably have to get some sort of job where
they are a lot more lenient and give you time for side projects.

~~~
radicalbyte
No chores, no kids, no girlfriend/wife. That's where time goes. I was crazy
productive when I was 15 (and when I was 12). Now I'm 33 with a wife and kids
I just don't have the time. But then again I work on problems that are two-
three factors harder than this during the day, so it all evens out.

Keep up the good work kid, try lots of stuff out now, find something you like,
then go deep. It only gets more fun :)

~~~
dualogy
It's not about chores, kids, wives. I purposely avoided all those in order to
"stay in my 20s even well into my 30s, ideally forever". Sad to report that
simply doesn't work, even with zero money or chore worries _whatsoever_!

~~~
meddlepal
At least you tried to live the dream...

------
chameco
I have two pieces of advice. First, expand your horizons. Yes, Windows jumping
games using a game creator are a _great_ start, but there is so much more. At
12, when I started off, I was writing very similar games, albeit using Python
and Pygame rather than JS. Your route is equally valid, with its own unique
challenges, and hey, in the end you get the same result. However, from here,
the paths begin to branch. While the Windows world you've embraced will lead
you to Visual Basic and eventually Visual C++ and C#, you could take another
path. At 11, I installed Ubuntu Linux for the first time; at 14, I switched to
Arch. This was probably a bad decision, given I knew nothing about the OS and
had to essentially re-learn everything. You might be intimidated. Don't be.
Learning your way around Unix now will make a world of difference later. By
16, I had written my first compiler, a basic baremetal assembly kernel, and an
interpreted language with a decent optimizing compiler and VM. I am still not
an amazing programmer, and I still have a lot to learn. Don't doubt yourself
because of your age. My second piece of advice ties into the first: don't try
to use your age to gain an advantage. Not because it's unfair: because it will
bring you more personal validation when people praise you because of the
quality of your work rather than how young you are. It's the diffence between
making a good program, and making a good program _for a teenager_. Also, it
makes it far easier to find jobs.

Source: My own experiences as the 16-year old (breaking my own rule here for
the first time) author of the solid programming language.

P.S. I'm not trying to be arrogant. I just don't want you to repeat my
mistakes. Don't be afraid to do things that seem difficult: with research and
a little elbow grease, you can accomplish anything, and nothing anyone says
can take that away from you.

------
j45
Awesome!

What you're learning from doing so many different things will serve you well
in the future. Out of all of these different apps, one will either catch your
attention, or others and you'll have a chance. Keep moving!

Continue to cultivate and live live in a mindset of creativity and
possibility, and be wary of doubt worshippers/haters who are busy doing
nothing :).

~~~
stasy
Thanks!

------
duked
pretty cool portfolio for your age ! Did you use C#/XNA for your 2 games ?
Which tutorial did you use, and how much supervision did you get? I'm asking
because I'm trying to teach game programming to my son and he's 13 and I would
like for him to do most of it as opposed to me doing it for him.

~~~
stasy
I made the basic structure with scirra's construct 2 ( www.scrirra.com ), but
I made the rest with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. To learn those, I got some
books. O'reilly has some really good books if you know the basics.

------
ankurdhama
To all comments which are either criticizing or motivating, the most important
thing to remember is this : "We are standing on the shoulder of giants".

The people have criticizing opinions needs to remember that similar criticism
will be given to you by your preceding generation (it may be on any
achievement).

The people have motivating/amazement opinions needs to remember that "this
seemingly amazing feet" is possible because of the exponential growth in
technology and most importantly the exposure to it. If you had similar
exposure to technology at your time, you could have achieved same thing.

So, lets appreciate the fact that this 15 year old is "utilizing" his exposure
to technology and at the same time don't make him too proud of himself by
using words like genius etc which inevitably leads more show-off than
learning.

------
orik
Nice use of Maplestory assets - I did the same sorta thing in the summer of my
7th grade year for a "intro to game design" class.

Can't find the game anymore, but I had edited the chirppy sprite
([http://i.imgur.com/ccSY4RE.png](http://i.imgur.com/ccSY4RE.png)) to be
holding and firing a bow.

I ended up getting a A- on my final for using assets that weren't mine. That's
pretty small compared to the sort of things you could run into when you're
actually putting this stuff on an app store.

I'd recommend toying around with a sprite editor and getting familiar with
pixel art techniques like dithering. You might even enjoy it as much as
coding!

------
Antwan
And that's why Win/Google store are full of crap.

Come on, we all started a piece of website/soft/app/gamemaker/whatever
trending techno atm when we were 14/15/16.

That's undoubtedly worth these 140+pts.

------
primitivesuave
Look for a summer internship. Clearly you're passionate about this, you should
look for some real-world exposure to propel you to that next level of software
engineering. Best of luck to you!

------
robert-wallis
Nice work getting things done!

I see your Minecraft and Mario games are "unavailable". I'm sure you'll keep
creating your own IP in the future, like you did with the other 22 games
instead of dealing with copyright and trademark infringement. Especially if
you want to generate some revenue.

I am not a lawyer. But it will be much better for you to keep doing your own
thing (like you did with most of your games), than to be taken down by lawyers
working for people who's characters, names, or art you "re-purposed".

------
krrishd
This is pretty impressive :)

What I would recommend is that instead of distributing your time and energy to
this many apps, you should stick to one concept and channel all your time into
it. I like the games, but they could use some improvement in concept and
overall quality, which shouldn't be hard for you if you spend enough time on
each and every one. Focusing on one app would allow you to spend enough time,
and would help you succeed further in the Windows App Market :)

~~~
stasy
That is what I want/am going to do. I was just seeing all the things I could
make and get some experience in submitting an app.

~~~
pcharles
any iOS apps in your plans?

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philliphaydon
I'm somewhat jealous. When I was 15 I was teaching myself to program so I
could build features in the Ultima Online Shard I was running with a friend.
We had quite a successful Shard for 2 years until he decided he didn't wanna
pay for the server anymore.

It made me want to get into programming to do games development, because I
still think since UO / EQ, we haven't had a good MMORPG to date.

I ended up in application / web development instead :( got to pay the bills...

------
daemonk
Nice. Keep at it. Following a project through to the end is very difficult and
you've done it many times.

Learning a game engine and implementing it is not a trivial task so don't get
discouraged by the people saying it's not a big deal.

The important thing now is to make progress with your skill. Do not become
stagnant and be content with knowing the game engine. Start doing things from
scratch and see where that takes you.

------
bliti
The minecraft-themed jump game has potential. I would skin it with more
minecraft looking assets and include monsters. Maybe a creeper that explodes
and takes away all surrounding blocks when you jump nearby? Or a skeleton that
shoots arrows and nudges the player to the side (making it harder to control)?
You may also vary the level by using the different biome textures from the
original.

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enraged_camel
I read this description of the zombie game and thought it was hilarious.

"Zombies have taken over Earth. It is up to you to defend yourself as long as
you can. The zombies have an infectious touch that kills you in one touch.
Watch out and beware! Currently does not support touch support."

(Not the grammar, but the irony that a game in which a zombie's touch kills
you does not support touch. :P)

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kybernetyk
That's pretty cool. Somehow I wish there would have been app stores back then
when I was 15 and making games. Not to earn money but to get people to play my
games - which was pretty damn hard back in 1997.

Nowadays you can get 100 users pretty easily just by releasing the game. 100
users back then was something I dreamed about reaching some day :)

~~~
mynameishere
I remember the equivalent years ago. I would make (awful) games in turbo
pascal, and submit them to BBSes. The sysops usually put them available for
download.

I doubt anyone ever did.

------
lcasela
I'm not tring to be rude at all, but why did you have to mention your age?
It's completely irrelevant.

~~~
krrishd
I think its probably the only reason this link had any relevance at all. It
probably would have otherwise just been another Show HN submission with not
much response, as it still doesn't have much quality or use (not to downplay
OP's achievement) until you realize who made it.

------
Haul4ss
Wow, you've certainly been productive! How was your experience with the
Microsoft Store and getting apps approved? What language did you write all the
games in? How much code got reused between the games (I noticed a number of
them appear to be skins on top of the same underlying concept).

~~~
stasy
I used JavaScript to make the apps. The only thing that was difficult about
getting approved was making it support touch and keyboard inputs. Other than
that, it was pretty easy.

------
ovechtrick
Awesome!! Great seeing young people being creative/learning and building. Keep
going! :)

------
kumarski
Well done. Keep going and creating stuff. Be sure to talk to your users as
well.

Wish you the best.

------
andrewljohnson
Now that I have kids, I've been considering whether I want them to play as
much Magic as I did (traveled a lot for it).

My conclusion is I would encourage them to be more like this kid, but not
actually force my will in the end.

~~~
MrJagil
force my will...

~~~
andrewljohnson
I think I did that on accident, but I like the way you think!

------
DaveSapien
Totally impressive!!! You have a bright, bright future ahead of yourself!

------
sunseb
Be proud of your work, that's nice ! Keep moving forward ! :-)

------
abhi3188
This is awesome! Great work dude, I wish I had such a productive sense at 15.
While using javascript did you see any performance lag when playing on the
actual device?

------
yansuck
I am sorry, I think your apps are really shitty.

------
jorgecastillo
Damn! now I am depressed. What more can I say the first sentence says it all.
Adding to my comment would be pointless.

------
osman123
good work. Keep at it and branch out. Try and ignore the negative comments
here. The IT industry is full of big egos.

------
napolux
Good job. Now focus only on one app (from design to store) and make it not
just like a tutorial.

------
farabove
You have shipped 30 times more then me, so all I can say is congrats :) have
lovely new year.

------
apunic
> All writing, graphics, coding and publishing was done on a nexus 7

This deserves a dedicated blog post

------
AfroDiva
Amazing, i wish that my cousins would be as productive as you at that age.

------
goshx
Nice! At 15 I was just learning what a computer was :o (15 years ago)

------
sodafountan
That's awesome, Keep it up! Did you make anything off of them?

------
bratsche
Great job! So what are your plans for 2014? 60 apps? :)

~~~
stasy
My goal is to make 1 app. On all Windows 8, iOS, and Android. One that makes
some revenue!

------
pseudometa
Now it is time to learn illustrator and photoshop.

~~~
SimHacker
Better yet, now is the time to create your own reusable Illustrator and
Photoshop components, and write games that build them in to enable users to
customize and create their own content. Oh, and 3D Studio Max, too. Not 100%
of the features and complexity, just the 50% that you need 95% of the time.
The same way many games and other apps use built-inn text editors to enable
users to write their own text, instead of saying "oh just use Word for that".

------
arasmussen
Your paid link is broken :P

~~~
stasy
I don't have any paid apps yet

~~~
arasmussen
Then you should say that instead of your 404 page :P

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Lilme
15 is the new 25

------
bayesianhorse
Here's a cookie ...

