11-Year-Old Dominic Darby Just Won a Coding Competition After Creating His Own Video Game For the First Time

This 11-year-old is making big moves in the gaming world!

According to Black Business, Jamaican native, Dominic Darby has won the XPRIZE Connect Code Games competition after creating his own video game for the first time.

The competition, sponsored by California-based, nonprofit, XPRIZE, was a partnership between the company and video game developer E-Line Media. Supported by Endless Network, the partnership is on a mission to improve lives through technology.

Darby was named “Best in Class,” and won a $1,000 cash prize in the Junior Division.

Using MIT’s Scratch coding software, Darby’s winning piece titled, “How to Fall,” consists of a game character who moved through multiple levels while getting away from different obstacles.

 

This is the first game that Darby has ever created and it took him several months to finish the game.

According to his mother, Shellian Darby, her son first learned about the platform at just six-years-old after attending a summer program held at the University of the West Indies. She also adds that he is also partly self-taught through his enjoyment of reading books and watching YouTube tutorials about coding.

He is one of only 17 winners out of 3,000 people who joined the global competition last year.

Currently, Darby attends Wolmer’s Preparatory School and has dreams of studying and working in computer science in the future.