App whizzkid brings out festive sequel

THE Irish whizzkid who made history when he became the world’s youngest app developer has again stunned the IT world with the creation of a second app.

Thirteen-year-old Harry Moran, from Cork, became the youngest app developer after creating PizzaBot.

The second app, PizzaBot Season(ings), is a sequel to the first app, which was based on a pizza trying to rid a kitchen of pesky salami slices.

The game, described as a modern-day Space Invaders, is available from the iTunes Store.

Harry said the sequel was more glitch-free and that he decided to make the enemy cranberries instead of salami, to fit in with the festive season.

The first app PizzaBot was ranked No 2 in the games category, No 2 in the paid apps category and was topping the paid games category, ahead of the monumentally successful Angry Birds and Call of Duty.

Harry became interested in creating apps when he joined the programing class, CoderDojo.

“I started doing a club that teaches people how to code and write programmes to get computers to create stuff. It was very difficult but I really enjoyed it.”

Harry is one of triplets and also has a 10-year-old sister, Ellen.

His mother Elaine said she was astonished at how successful the app had become overnight.

“We were completely surprised by the reaction. We knew he was interested in games but not how serious he was. There is a lot of logic and creative reasoning involved in this and it’s not the same as playing games.”

Harry has attended courses at the Centre for Talented Youth in Dublin and, after gaining an interest in gaming technology, he taught himself the coding programme Objective C, which enabled him to develop the app.

Harry also has a blog, HM Computing, which offers technology and software advice.

* PizzaBot and PizzaBot Season(ings) are available from the iTunes Store.