I was listening to the radio this morning and heard an interview
with a 12 year old who's become the youngest mac app developer
for a half hour he knocked Angry Birds off the top spot in the Mac App Store
with his game Pizzabot.
The game looks like a Space Invaders type game and the graphics are basic
but good luck to him, here's hope for us all :)
http://www.gamezone.com/news/pizzabot-dethrones-angry-birds-claims-top-spot-on-app-store
This title says is all in these recent media reports:
"Appy kids making big bucks"
http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/smartphone-apps/appy-kids-making-big-bucks-20111116-1nj3u.html (http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/smartphone-apps/appy-kids-making-big-bucks-20111116-1nj3u.html)
"TEDxManhattanBeach - Thomas Suarez - iPhone Application Developer... and 6th Grader "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehDAP1OQ9Zw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehDAP1OQ9Zw)
this sound too ´marketing´ for me... ;)
I doubt a 12 year old can manage the full coding and testing and submitting and certifying and bla bla.
This is pure marketing for me, and a low one. Kids should never be used that way.
Hat on a Stick... being born on the 70s give you the full experience on whatever ´coding´means, you are on the perfect/best era to be.
You experience the born of everything that makes the digital world what it is today.
No area of human work lives without computers, farming maybe? But you still need a comp for accounts, analysis and so on.
Can a 12 years old kid manage code and a game? of course, even younger, but not on these scales.
There, I´ve said it! :rant:
Please prove me wrong. :|
If I was 12 again, I bet I could prove you wrong. =D
Just kidding. I agree, I think it's pure marketing too. I just need to pull my finger out and get something I can put on the store done, instead of mucking about with various tests and examples that I've been working on. Then I'll feel better about my situation I think -- wont matter to me whether I do well or not with my first few applications, it's more about breaking my cycle of procrastination and leaving projects once I work out how to do it all. ::)
If it helps, I´m on the same boat, am trying hard to do exactly what you said and also help as many friends around here as I can.
I´m not perfect, I fail, but there is where I learn, and learning is the thing!
If I was 12 again, I guess I could prove myself wrong too hehe ;)
I started coding with 12 and had lots of problems with simple math. OK, todays tools are better and maybe he has a dad that can help, which none of us had.
I started coding at 10 and at 12 years old I was doing very simple games but nothing fully complete. If I were 12 now I seriously doubt I would be able to package up a game, do all the XCode Certs and get it on the Mac Store. I assume his Mum/Dad obviously paid the Mac Store Dev license fee and I'd be interested to know exactly how much the kid actually did himself.
If a 12 year old has done all this (or most of it), then absolutely fantastic and hats off to him/her, seriously :good:
Seriously, how many 12 years old have the patience to deal with all the $#!+ that Apple chucks at it's developers? No way did he do everything to get that game created and upped to the App Store. I was 13 when I created my first full game, however I never had a computer before then. Kids that grow up with computers, do start learning about them from a very early age.
But nevertheless, good luck to him and I hope he has a bright career ahead of him.
I started flicking through my Amstrad CPC manual when I was 9, made my first game when I was 10, simple little maze came, that used ink testing for collisions (TEST or TESTR, cannot remember now), continued using that method, along with creating graphics using SYMBOL, from there, started using Sean McManus's sprite tools as well as mixing machine code with Locomotive BASIC...
All gleaned from Amstrad Action, and the benefit of running my own PD library! :D
Glory years IMO! :)
Dabz
Quote from: Dabz on 2011-Nov-19
I started flicking through my Amstrad CPC manual when I was 9, made my first game when I was 10, simple little maze came, that used ink testing for collisions (TEST or TESTR, cannot remember now), continued using that method, along with creating graphics using SYMBOL, from there, started using Sean McManus's sprite tools as well as mixing machine code with Locomotive BASIC...
All gleaned from Amstrad Action, and the benefit of running my own PD library! :D
Glory years IMO! :)
Dabz
That was me too (but I was 13 when the CPC came out (1984)). Except for the age and PD library, you could well have been me!
To know the CPC is to love the CPC forever =D
My 1st use of a computer was when I was 8 on a Apple II my uncle had & he's the one to blame for getting me into computers :D.
I had to wait 2 years till I got my own computer & that was a ZX80 kit, which I built myself under the supervision of my uncle & after him giving me soldering lessons. Thanks to the dizzy highs of 1k of ram my usage of basic did not last long & I had used machine code on the Apple II (my uncle has a lot to answer for) so that was the obvious step on the ZX80. I must admit the memories of writing Z80 mnemonics down on paper & hand assembling them are not my most pleasant childhood ones lol.
Back then info was scarce & what was available as in books & such was expensive (more than I got in pocket money anyway). Today there are so many tools available & thanks to the internet more info then you could ever want that it is no surprise seeing the above story, especially as kids are surrounded by technology at ages way younger than most of us was.
Lee
Quote from: Ian Price on 2011-Nov-19
Quote from: Dabz on 2011-Nov-19
I started flicking through my Amstrad CPC manual when I was 9, made my first game when I was 10, simple little maze came, that used ink testing for collisions (TEST or TESTR, cannot remember now), continued using that method, along with creating graphics using SYMBOL, from there, started using Sean McManus's sprite tools as well as mixing machine code with Locomotive BASIC...
All gleaned from Amstrad Action, and the benefit of running my own PD library! :D
Glory years IMO! :)
Dabz
That was me too (but I was 13 when the CPC came out (1984)). Except for the age and PD library, you could well have been me!
To know the CPC is to love the CPC forever =D
And me. Man, the CPC was fun to program and I _loved_ the manual. Maybe it's nostalgia but I don't think I've ever seen as well a put together manual since.
Back then, a real teenage programmer achieved international fame by submitting game code to a programmers' magazine for $25.
The subject, if historic analyzed, is really interesting.
Nowadays we have all sorts of possibilities and parents with more knowledge on it.
But more tech gets kids interest away too. You expect kids to be subject to games really early.
Less time for everything else.
PS:. reason to say so is that today, while shopping for a friend´s daughter first anniversary, I saw a rocket made of wood and natural paint, full of so much constructive material, elements, wheels, gravity elevators... and also a dozen characters, cargo,etc had top notch retro design, 500$ was the price :O
Such a wonderful gift for a boy, but I knew if he was about older then 5, he would not bother it but video games right? Cracked my mind, if I had the cash I would buy it for myself ;)
My dad is a carpenter by trade & I used to help him during the school holidays & weekends, but as both my parents were working to save up for their 1st house (living with my dads mum at the time, luckily it was a big house :D) I used to go to my uncles after school as he lived practically next door to it. Then one of my parents would pick me up from his when they finished work.
If I had not have gone to my uncles then who knows, besides me & my uncle the rest of the family think computers are for ebay, facebook & online banking (for the more adventurous ones) which is a route I could have easily followed if I had not had the exposure to them back then.
Mom is an artist/educator, dad was a system designer back on the mainframe days...
Even though my dad had knowledge and could help my programming he chose not to do so.
But he bought me some computers without complains...hehe :good: