[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.

[neilk]

Hey, that's great for you, but don't be too quick to criticize how someone else hacks. You deserve credit for trying something hard, but so does this person for actually releasing stuff. And remember, it's not all about programming chops - doing lots of little projects teaches you a lot about the whole process, from UI to backend, how the app stores work, maybe even what users like. If nothing else you achieve "flow" more easily with short-term hacks, and that helps keep your mind in a creative state.

Source: 40 year old programmer, started programming at 11, deeply jealous that there were no app stores back then for the zillion games I wrote.

[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 :)

[samweinberg]

It still seems like you only vaguely know what you're talking about.

[joebo]

I disagree completely. I'm over twice your age and started programming when I was 12. My birthday present for my 14th birthday was a $99 retail copy of Microsoft Visual C++ 4.0. Back then I wrote a notepad clone, cab archiver (zip was a fad, really!), and various other utilities. I remember thinking how cool it was when I was 14 to have over 50,000 downloads. I've been a professional programmer (big corp, consulting, etc) for 15 years mostly doing web and desktop applications for businesses.

I can't sit down and write a pacman clone or an asteroids game. Therefore, I can say that it takes more skill than "little to none". I am impressed.

[C1D]

I'm definitely glad to see another 15 year old taking a interest in computing but I guess the reason i'm not overly impressed is that for me- and I don't mean to sound arrogant,- this would be an extremely easy task and the reason I'm not doing something like is because I prefer Software Programming more than Gaming and I hate Windows (I'm on Ubuntu).

[Blahah]

For most 15 year olds it would not be an extremely easy task. What's impressive is that someone has gone down such a specialised skill-development route by that age. So both the OP, and you, are impressive.

[C1D]

I guess you are right, most 15 year olds at my school couldn't tell me how a bold tag looks like if their life depended on it! I didn't develop my skills over a fortnight. I have been programming since I was eight (I come from a family of engineers).

I still remember building my first VB Application (A browser), the moving on to HTML, PHP, then teaching a Python Class at my old school and now I'm proficient in Node.JS and know how to use most of the HTML5 API, so I guess it does take time to evolve your skills.

[inDigiNeous]

Extremely easy? To make 30 games in a year? Even if using a game creator software, it is not extremely easy. Opening a door is extremely easy.

[tootie]

I don't think the point is that he's produced a ton of useful things, but rather that he's completed a an awful lot of projects and has thus built a lot of useful experience for himself at a young age. At 15, I was still hand copying BASIC from the back of a magazine into my Tandy 1000.

[kayoone]

You could see it differently: The guy actually made and released 30 games/apps this year. You: zero (thats what it sounds like).

As you described you have already gone through the pain it is to release even a small project and thats what its all about here. I can spend all day telling myself "oh i can do this too, easily" or "thats such a simple/obvious idea" and still accomplish nothing in terms of released products.

So talking him down for showing his simple games and bragging about your own unfinished project wont get you many sympathies around here.

But you are 15, at that age i was mostly playing quake and talking smack all over the internet on how good i am while programming very basic dos based text apps in basic/pascal, so you are forgiven ;) Just take this as advice

[C1D]

Yes I realised that and it is hard to just trust someone based on my own opinion that's why -hopefully- I will soon be releasing some software I've been working on for a long time (A node.js blogging engine).

[jeremiep]

I strongly disagree with this.

When learning, quantity is often more important than quality. If you try to learn by building one big project to be as perfect as possible, you'll always be slowed down by the bad decisions you made early on. By building lots of smaller projects, you don't need to spend time refactoring and regression testing and whatnot, you just finish the current project and use your newly gained knowledge to better build the next.

[kyro]

This is criticism. Focus on doing what you're doing. Let others work on and enjoy they're doing. There's no reason to call him out. Post something you've created here and I'm sure you'll find as much praise and encouragement.

[hernan604]

inteligence != smartness

Some people are smart but not inteligent. And some are inteligent and not smart.

Someone might go great lengths of inteligence to create something utterly complex. While others might go the smart path and create something else. Both creations can become successful or unsuccessful. If one is complex and the other is simple doesnt mean one is better then the other.

[C1D]

I wasn't trying to put down his intelligence or smartness. Point is, the apps aren't overly impressive in my opinion and as I said quantity != quality.

[jebus989]

In fairness the OP seems to share your opinion, in a previous posting he said "I know that my apps are not that good"[0].

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

[Dewie]

> I hope this doesn't come off as criticism.

No. Just as one-upmanship.