14-year-old creates hottest new iOS game

January 17, 2011 By Molly McHugh

A programming prodigy has taken advantage of his skills to create one of today's top iOS apps.

Shocking, we know, but Angry Birds has lost its top spot in the App Store. The hugely popular game has been knocked from number one by a game consisting of little more than platforms and a ball. Bubble Ball, created by eighth grader Robert Nay, was introduced last month and already skyrocketed to some two million downloads, earning it the distinguished title of number one free app for iOS devices.

The free game was launched under the 14-year-old’s production company, Nay Games, and with minimal assistance from his mother Kari, Nay is responsible for the app’s development and programming. Nay used the Corona SDK from Ansca Mobile to create the physics-based puzzle game, and learned the programming language Lua. Nay worked for roughly a month and a half, and ultimately wrote more than 4,000 lines of code for Bubble Ball. According to an interview with ABC News, Nay has always had a knack with software, creating his own website by third grade.

Nay says he’s interested in adding an in-game currency and purchasing options to create some revenue in the future. He’s also planning another app, which for now is classified.

Showing 16 comments

@JeffreyVC at 4:58am 18th January 2011 I credit the kid for making an interesting learning game, but am mostly mad that there hasn't been a "The Incredible Machine" game in so long that no one remembers that this style of gameplay has been done before, and much better.
Fenik at 8:43pm 17th January 2011 Although I applaud the kid for seeing his game through to completion, I must say that to call him a prodigy or genius is disrespectful to other video game designers. The Corona SDK in particular does all the hard work for you. It takes roughly 50 lines of code to create something similar to Bubble Ball. If it really was over 4,000 lines of code, he must have hard-coded each level separately, which is just bad coding. I don't mean to offend, just a bit irritated about all this publicity people are getting for such simple things.
1. paul at 10:07pm 17th January 2011 if it is so simple then make one i will give 2 hours
Gabe at 8:31pm 17th January 2011 When I was 14 I designed a web site using html and javascript in notepad for a car dealership and earned 1000 dollars. And that was ten years ago.
Joe at 8:24pm 17th January 2011 Hahahaha nice one Roy. Tom and Bro were busy... Busy thinking how to solve the problem 1+1=?? hahaha!.. I can see that this kid is the future Mark Elliot Zuckerberg.!!
JTC at 8:16pm 17th January 2011 Well Im impressed. Kids these days know more about computers than we do..
ron at 8:14pm 17th January 2011 Very cool. Good job young man.
Mark at 8:02pm 17th January 2011 nice idea~
Roy at 7:58pm 17th January 2011 Tom & Bro -So when you were 14 what were you doing ? What were you proud of ?
Chris at 7:39pm 17th January 2011 You all ought to be ashamed of yourself for berating a 14 year old. Sheesh!
Bro at 7:25pm 17th January 2011 This game sucks, and age means nothing. Also this kid used some SDK , so most of the credit should go to them. Let see this kid hand code a good website. His current website sucks and looks like it was made with .webs or something.
1. Avenger at 8:27pm 17th January 2011 You are an insufferable jackass. The kid is 14 and developed the number one game for the iPhone. At 14 you were developing a chubby with the help of a magazine and your limited imagination. Good job kid. Don't let douche bags like this bring you down.
lance22 at 7:18pm 17th January 2011 A nod of respect to the kid.
Tom at 6:29pm 17th January 2011 The game is awful and unplayable on the iPhone
1. draw at 6:50pm 17th January 2011 So Tom - where is you game? This kid has developed this. If you can submit you game we can evaluate it.
2. Jake at 7:15pm 17th January 2011 Riiiiiiiiiiiiight lol...maybe its the PLAYER...works fine on every phone i've used it on lol