Most High School Kids Are Playing Mobile Games, But This Kid Develops Them

Most high school students are content loading iPhone apps designed by other people. High school freshman Connor Rodriguez wasn’t, however, which is why he created an iPhone app that’s now for sale through the iTunes store.

Available for $0.99, Flying Fatress is a simple but highly addictive mobile game. The objective is to bounce the scantily clad Fatress on beach chairs for sodas and donuts, but be careful because vegetables will ruin her snack.

Rodriguez, 15, is in his first year at the Dunn School in Los Olivos, California, having graduated from Aspen Country Day School in Aspen, Colorado, last year. He taught himself how to make iPhone apps for Apple using a textbook and YouTube training videos. Much trial and error was involved in creating the mobile game, but it was worth it in the end for him, particularly because of the satisfaction he got when Apple agreed his iPhone app was worthy of a price tag instead of making it free like so many thousands of others. Making some extra money has been a nice result, too, of course.

“I like making iPhone apps and enjoyed doing something that customers would like,” Rodriguez said. “It’s something I could create on my own terms. Flying Fatress is a funny mobile game and it was an original idea, which was important to me.”

A Flying Fatress update, Version 1.2 of this mobile game, is pending, and Rodriguez hopes to expand his burgeoning empire by making apps for others in addition to himself. Of course, this is all done in his spare time when he’s not hitting the books.

Flipping burgers or diving for digital donuts to make some extra dough? Which would you rather do if you were in high school, work at a mindless job or develop iPhone apps? Could this be the future of teen employment?