14-Year-Old's 'Bubble Ball' App Knocks 'Angry Birds' Out Of Top Spot

Bubble Ball, a physics puzzle game, knocked the smash hit game Angry Birds out of its top spot on the Apple App Store's list of most popular free apps.

While Angry Birds was created by a 17-person company based in Finland, Bubble Ball is the work of 14-year-old Robert Nay, an eighth grader living in Spanish Fork, Utah, who taught himself how to program and created his first website while in third grade.

His company, Nay Games, launched an iOS version of the app on December 29 and its popularity in the App Store quickly skyrocketed. As ABC News reports, "during the past two weeks, his free game 'Bubble Ball' has been downloaded more than 2 million times."

All Things Digital explains how Nay learned the skills needed to create the app:

Some months back, a friend suggested that if Nay liked his iPod touch so much, perhaps he should try his hand at programming for it. At first he tried the standard Objective-C programming tools, but found the learning curve a little steep. He tried another tool called GameSalad, but didn't like the results. In the end, he settled on the Corona tools from Ansca Mobile. Corona was easy to use, he said, and also let him write once and publish for both Apple and Android devices. [...]

Robert's mom, Kari Nay, drew some of the levels of the game, though Robert did all the coding. Kari Nay also handles the business tasks, such as submitting the apps to the App Store and Android marketplaces.

See Good Morning America's story on Nay and a preview for Bubble Ball below. An Android version of the app is also available.

WATCH:

Comments

[Social Shrink]

02:04 PM on 01/20/2011

Genius kid!

http://thesocialshrink.blogspot.com/

[ldavidson]

11:12 AM on 01/20/2011

i got that game this week! cant get through the last level either. is this little genius messing w/ me! good for him, maybe he can do a $.99 version and put himself through college.
saw a story of a guy about to lose his house, made a iphone app and its sold over 600,000 times, and that was last year.

[Dominick Roffo]

04:54 PM on 01/19/2011

Good for him...kid has a bright future ahead of him

[captainspirou]

12:18 PM on 01/19/2011

The reporter says that if he charged he could have had $2 million. Fat chance. The reason why it got to two million downloads is because it was free. She makes the same argument that record companies and movie companies make when they talk about lost revenue from free downloads when the fact is that a huge percentage would have never bought the album or paid to watch the movie anyway.

[Jacob Jones]

09:14 PM on 01/19/2011

exactly. i mean good for the kid, me personally downloaded it, i think its ok. buy like you said, he got the two million downloads because it was free. case closed.

[Prateek Panchal]

07:33 AM on 01/19/2011

WOW!! Thats so koollll

I hats off the kid!!!!.....

3 cheers for your great job!!!!

http://www.Cellphoneshopper.net

[Femonanon]

12:11 PM on 01/18/2011

Machinarium is still my fav...uses the brain much more.

[Eric Laufer]

11:06 AM on 01/18/2011

This is a perfect example of how unstructured but positively influenced time for children can lead to better results, in terms of learning and fun, then the 24/7 scheduled lesson lifestyle.

I bet Amy Chua's Chinese Method would never yield such a result.

[angelwax]

10:11 AM on 01/18/2011

Hmmm, I guess the question that begs to be asked is, Has this child developed a game that is compelling to the intelligence of an adult or have adults taken their entertainment sophistication to the level of a 14 year old?

[Ngonyama]

10:41 AM on 01/18/2011

or have adults taken their entertainm­ent sophistica­tion UP to the level of a 14 year old?

[Benbo]

09:51 AM on 01/18/2011

I hate stories like this. Why? Because it highlights my complete failure at success. God speed, 14-year-old.

[hypnotoad72]

08:32 PM on 01/18/2011

'failure' is a relative term and is as variable as the economic and social paradigms people currently accept.

[Figwire]

03:07 PM on 01/20/2011

hahaha I love this comment!

[djnc]

09:18 AM on 01/18/2011

This game isn't very fun...angry birds is 1000x better as a time killer

[masterdaddy0]

03:59 PM on 01/18/2011

Yeah and what did you make that was extremely successful at that age?

[djnc]

07:30 PM on 01/18/2011

i'm sure you're a joy to be around

[ldavidson]

11:15 AM on 01/20/2011

thats not the point either. the article said he did this one on his own at 14, while angry birds was done by a 17 person (adult) company. its just a happy, feel good story. let it be that.

[tnlcallen]

09:11 AM on 01/18/2011

After reading this last night I downloaded the game. It is actually a very cool little game. It requires a lot of thought to get through the levels.

[ldavidson]

11:16 AM on 01/20/2011

i just happen to downloaded it this wknd before this story. have you made it through the final level? i cant get that one
i hope he makes another version to sell and make money for his college.

[bigdaddyva]

08:39 AM on 01/18/2011

The key to developing a successful game app is it should be playable from start to finish while one sits on the commode.

[vippy]

07:56 AM on 01/18/2011

Good for the kid, at least he found something to occupy his time and stay out of trouble.  Myself, I love
Angry Birds and I used to frown on people who play computer games.  Getting the angle right is as far as I want to go, relaxing and getting to smash things, awesome! 

[RageCage]

07:26 AM on 01/18/2011

None of these "games" hold a candle to the ultimate indie game: MINECRAFT.

Yes, MINECRAFT! Learn that name, people. It is far, far better than any game available at the App Store.

[Centerman2k]

07:48 AM on 01/18/2011

I've been delaying it , but I'm checking Minecraft out after work today. I looks bizarre.

[MalteseTiger]

11:30 AM on 01/19/2011

Sorta reminds me of the Android game Alchemy

[djwfutbol]

07:14 AM on 01/18/2011

The kid is bright and I'm impressed he followed through (with the help of his mom) but the last thing I need is another mindless distraction, particularly hand-held.

I would like an app that got banks to lend and people to be hired, products to be manufactured, salesmen to sell, young people to commit, babies to be born and old people to be respected. That would be worth buying a gadget.

[born 2b different]

08:13 AM on 01/18/2011

what about saleswomen? don't they get to sell?

[pseudonymXXVI]

08:37 AM on 01/18/2011

If you want all of that go make it yourself, I'm too busy playing Farmville to do anything productive.