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Another feather has been added to the crown of Wasik Farhan Roopkotha, a teenage Bangladeshi computer sensation, as an arcade game developed by him was released recently from Google Play Store.
“The tech giant Google has recently approved the game called ‘Space Collider’ and it has been downloaded over 1500 times from Google Play in the last couple of days,” said Roopkotha’s proud mother, Cynthia Farheen Risha.
She said the game published from Roopkotha Studio can be played in smartphones alongside computers and it took a place among the top-down space shooter games with 4.8 ratings.
“Simultaneously, the personal computer (PC) edition of the game is being popular in the list of itch.io day by day.” she said.
Risha said the game has over 300 reviews on Google Play Store, most of which are positive.
Android 4.1 and above support the 77-MB game, and crossing Bangladesh’s boundary, the game is being downloaded in Europe, America, the Middle East and even Africa, she said.
The 13-year-old wonder boy Roopkotha said the game has been developed in Unity platform using the C# programming language, with a focus on protecting the Earth from waves of alien invaders and incoming asteroids.
“I developed the game so that the new generation gamers love the world instead of cruelty.” he said.
Roopkotha said he has developed another game named ‘Defend the Earth’ recently.
“The Windows version of Defend the Earth was published on itch.io last night and it is nearly ready for release on Google Play,” he said.
Risha said her son has made over 30 games so far on the online development platform Roblox since 2014 using the Lua programming language.
“Roopkotha started developing games in Unity few months back,” she added.
Risha said her son is now more interested in developing games than playing. She also said the Defend the Earth will be a series game. Space defence will feature the first series, while the second series will be featured by Mars.
In 2016, the UK-based War of World Records Foundation recognized Roopkotha as the youngest IT expert on Earth.
In 2012, Roopkotha was placed in the annual cartoon book of the UK-based globally-acclaimed TV show, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, as the world’s youngest computer programmer.
The Golden Book of World Records and WikiWorld of Books also recognised him as a wonder boy with the ability to carry out programming at only six years of age.
Many international newspapers, news agencies and websites like the BBC, the New York Herald Tribune, Washington Post, California Observer, European Sun, State News, World Tech News, World News Agency, Deccan Herald, Deutsche Welle, Hindustan Times, Times of India, IBNLive, The Children Post ran stories on him and recognised him as the youngest computer programmer in the world.
Dozens of TV channels at home and abroad have aired documentaries on Roopkotha that included Xinhua, Reuters, NDTV, AXN, Zee TV etc.
Aside from these recognitions, he also has a chapter dedicated to him in “English for Today” and Home Science textbook of grade 8.
The reference book of Cumilla University, summer coding of Nigeria, RIIT Daltonganj and Adova soft of India also included his name for academic research, BSS reports.
The story of Roopkotha, Bangla for ‘fairytale’, has overshadowed even (a) fairytale.
The born genius unbelievably started computing when he was hardly seven months old, and learned writing on computer at the age of only two, said Risha.
“Roopkotha began typing on the keyboard before he even spoke his first words,” she said.
Risha said her son’s curiosity about computers had started a couple of days after his birth.
“He would look at the computer monitor with eyes unblinking and refrained from eating until the computer was switched on,” she said.
By the age of four, she said, Roopkotha started using various console emulators such as Project64, Dolphin, VisualBoyAdvance and DeSmuME. At the same year, he started programming in C and C++.