Often thought of as being dominated by adults, the gaming industry is populated with child developers who bring fresh perspectives and contributions to the market. While their peers were playing tag, these young minds were playing their hand at something a little bigger.

Here’s a look at some of the kids who prove that age is not a barrier to success.

Shubham Banerjee

Inspired by his desire to help blind people read and write, Shubham Banerjee founded “Braigo” and developed a low-cost, open-sourced braille printer using Lego Mindstorms. He did this when he was just 12 years old. A braille printer can typically cost around $2, 000, but with “Breigo” this price was sliced into a more affordable $350.

Shubham has been recognized for his innovation by organizations like Forbes, Intel, and others. He is also a highly sought after keynote speaker by corporations and conferences alike.

Thomas Suarez

Thomas Suarez learnt how to code with Python, Java and C when he was just 9 years old. He used these skills to build his own app, “Earth Fortune”, which was released into Apple’s App Store. Thomas then designed other apps, like “Bustin Jieber”, and even founded his own company, CarrotCorp, which sells four apps on the iOS platform. He has since co-founded Teleportal, a spatial computing company that builds 3D creator tools and dynamic object technology.

When he’s not developing his own apps, Thomas gives guidance to other children who want to build and share their gaming ideas through an app club that he started at his school.

Alex Balfanz

Alex Balfanz started using Roblox Studio to code games when he was 9 years old. When he was 17 years old, he created the game “Volt”. A year later, he released “Jailbreak” to Roblox. This was the game to make Balfanz a millionaire, as it became the most popular one on the platform, reaching 70, 000 concurrent players on its first day of release.

Alex is also a YouTuber, and his content relates to Roblox building and scripting content, showcases of new “Jailbreak” content, and custom musical pieces.

Nick D’Aloisio

At 15 years old, Nick D’Aloisio developed an iOS app called “Summly” which summarizes news articles using AI to improve their readability on mobile devices. He later sold his app to Yahoo for a reported $30 million, a sum that any Australian slots online player would kill for. He then continued to work for the company for a few years where he lead the development of their news app.

Nick also became an advocate for young people in the tech industry and has spoken on numerous occasions about the importance of encouraging young children to pursue their interests in technology and entrepreneurship.

These young and bright minds have shown that children should have a stake in the gaming industry. Investing in their contributions is quite literally an investment in the future of the industry itself, since children who are encouraged to pursue their interests in gaming at a young age may grow up to become the industry leaders of tomorrow.