Alex Balfanz
Alex Balfanz (born May 5, 1999) is an American video game developer, noted as the co-creator of the Roblox game Jailbreak.
Alex Balfanz | |
---|---|
Born | May 5, 1999 (age 21) |
Nationality | American |
Other names | badcc, badccvoid |
Occupation | Video game developer |
Known for | Co-creator of the Roblox game Jailbreak |
Early life
Born in 1999, Balfanz began to code games using Roblox Studio at the age of 9.[1] Balfanz's father worked as a programmer, which Balfanz cites as one of the main reasons for his early interest in coding.[2] He attended high school at the Trinity Preparatory School.[3] Prior to releasing Jailbreak, Balfanz had made several other games on Roblox, which he stated had made him "maybe a couple thousand" dollars.[3]
Career
In January 2017, Balfanz, along with a partner who goes by the handle asimo3089, uploaded Jailbreak, a cops-and-robbers game, to Roblox. On its first day of release, it reached 70,000 concurrent players, a number which shocked Balfanz.[1] It quickly became one of the most popular games on the platform, causing Balfanz to become a millionaire.[4][3] Balfanz was cited by the Observatory of Educational Innovation as an example of a success story on Roblox, which they cite as one of the main reasons for its popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic.[5]
Personal life
Balfanz attends Duke University, where he was able to pay off his college debt using funds from his game.[2][6]
References
- Browning, Kellen (August 16, 2020). "You May Not Know This Pandemic Winner, but Your Tween Probably Does". The New York Times. Retrieved August 17, 2020.
- Fang, Shannon (December 10, 2018). "How the Jailbreak computer game made sophomore Alex Balfanz millions". Duke Chronicle. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
- Huddleston Jr., Tom (September 23, 2019). "This 20-year-old is paying for college (and more) off an amateur video game he made in high school". CNBC. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
- Power, Ed (August 19, 2020). "Roblox: The booming video game that's now bigger than Minecraft". The Irish Times. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
- García-Bullé, Sofia (July 3, 2020). "Social Distancing and Video Games: A New Way to Learn and Interact". Observatory of Educational Innovation. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
- Lufkin, Bryan (March 24, 2018). "How video games turn teenagers into millionaires". BBC. Retrieved September 3, 2020.