Star Apps: Jordan Casey

Jordan Casey is no ordinary 13-year-old. The Irish prodigy is a self-taught iOS iphone app developer and also the founder and CEO of Casey Games, an indie games company that he launched last year late.  Some of his successful titles include Alien Ball VS Humans, Greenboy Touch, and Save The full day, the official game for National Children's Day in Brazil.

He's currently working on several more games and speaking at international conferences such as Cannes Lions, European Pirate Summit, Gamecity7, TedxYouth New Delhi, The Tablet and Smartphone Games Summit, BETT 2013, and most recently, TiEcon Conference in Silicon Valley. He speaks to Download now.com about his recent successes, his upcoming releases, and his early start as an iOS developer.

Jordan Casey, 13-year-old application developer                                                                                                                                    How did you teach yourself to code?

I taught myself to program when I was nine. I used to play an online game and saw that some of the users were making Web sites about this game. I thought this would be a fun hobby so I went to a store and bought a book about how to program Web sites. After a year of Web development I was thinking of different projects I could do and so I just thought, "games."

Most people don't know what they "want to be when they grow up" till much later. How did you know, at such a young age, that you wanted to be an application developer?

Because, I was doing it as a hobby, at first; and like a kid who does as a hobby soccer, they want to be a soccer player when they grow up. I was at a startup conference, in September, and a person there was really explaining the whole game industry and why I should start young. This inspired me to build a startup.

What was the first game that you ever played and downloaded?

I got my PS2 when I was five. I was addicted to the Crash Bandicoot series really, and then it went to Mario. When I was nine I became really into Club Penguin (which is the game that inspired me to get started on programming).

You've spoken at such prestigious conferences around the world. Are guests surprised when they see a young man walking up onstage? What is it like for you to come face to face with all these older, industry leaders?

Jordan Casey wows the crowds at a recent conference.                                                                                                                                   I guess they are a little surprised, because it's not something you see at all conferences. But at first I feel as though some persons don't take me too seriously, so when I talk I plan to give it my all and prove them wrong sometimes; and when I talk, they appear to take me a bit more seriously.

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