{"id":6869,"date":"2020-06-26T14:30:42","date_gmt":"2020-06-26T14:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/ng\/?p=6869"},"modified":"2020-06-26T14:30:42","modified_gmt":"2020-06-26T14:30:42","slug":"9-year-old-nigerian-genius-basil-okapara-jr-build-over-30-mobile-games-with-no-computer-training-passion-for-games-began-at-age-four-ready-to-place-game-titled-frog-attack-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/9-year-old-nigerian-genius-basil-okapara-jr-build-over-30-mobile-games-with-no-computer-training-passion-for-games-began-at-age-four-ready-to-place-game-titled-frog-attack-on\/","title":{"rendered":"9-year-old Nigerian Genius, BASIL OKAPARA JR build over 30 mobile games with no computer training * Passion for games began at age four * Ready to place game titled \u201cFrog attack,\u201d on the Google play store shortly * \u201cThere was this day he was on the tablet, as usual, he was so carried away with the game he was playing that I got upset with him. Out of annoyance, I said to him, \u2018you are always playing games, can\u2019t you think about building your own games so others can play yours too?\u2019 I was angry when I said it, and I did not know he took it seriously\u201d-Father,of boy, Okpara Sr *BY KEMI OLADELE\/TECH REPORTER, LAGOS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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9-year-old Nigerian Genius, BA<\/strong>S<\/strong>IL OKAPARA JR build over 30 mobile game<\/strong>s with no computer training<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Passion for<\/strong> <\/strong>games began at age four<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Ready to place<\/strong> <\/strong>game<\/strong> <\/strong>titled <\/strong>\u201cFrog attack,\u201d<\/strong><\/em> on the Google play store shortly<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

* <\/strong>\u201cThere was this day he was on the tablet, as usual, he was so carried away with the game he was playing that I got upset with him. Out of annoyance, I said to him, \u2018you are always playing games, can\u2019t you think about building your own games so others can play yours too?\u2019 I was angry when I said it, and I did not know he took it seriously\u201d-Father,of boy, <\/strong><\/em>Okpara Sr <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*BY KEMI OLADELE\/TE<\/strong><\/em><\/strong>CH REPORTER, LAGO<\/strong><\/em><\/strong>S<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

HE I<\/strong>S A NIGERIAN TE<\/strong>C<\/strong>H GENIU<\/strong>S. At the age of <\/strong>nine year<\/strong>s when many of his mates are lying idle at home on weekends watching television,<\/strong> <\/strong>Basil Okpara Jr has <\/strong>consistently been<\/strong> building games.<\/strong> <\/strong>While most kids his age are spending all their time playing, this boy kept perfecting hi<\/strong>s skills to learn the art of technology. Today, he has built over<\/strong> <\/strong>30 mobile games.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He does this from the comfort of his home located in <\/strong>Lagos State, <\/strong>Nigeria\u2019s commercial centre, using a free programming application.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This app, called Scratch 2, <\/strong>enables users to create games, animations, and stories online or offline. Basil has used it to build over 30 mobile games. Recently, he was building a hide and seek game involving a bat that has been programmed to hide until the player can find it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basil\u2019s love for games started when he was only four years, according to his father, Basil Okpara Sr.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c<\/em>I bought him a tablet when he was 4 years old because I saw that he was always grabbing phones to play games with. He played Candy Crush and Temple Run a lot,\u201d reportedly said <\/em>the father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His interest in games changed to just playing them to wanting to build them at age 7 after his father scolded for playing too much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okpara Sr said: \u201cThere was this day he was on the tablet, as usual, he was so carried away with the game he was playing that I got upset with him. Out of annoyance, I said to him, \u2018you are always playing games, can\u2019t you think about building your own games so others can play yours too?\u2019 I was angry when I said it, and I did not know he took it seriously.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From that day, Basil started to care about wanting to learn how to make his own games. His interest prompted his parents to buy him a laptop. They later registered him at a five-day boot camp organised by Codefest International for children aged 5 to 15 back in March 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The camp, which offers access to virtual reality, computer programming tools, robotics tools and Internet of Things (IoT) tools, helped him learn the basics of building games<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Basil Jr word: <\/strong>\u201cI learned how to build games at a boot camp. Now, I build to keep me busy when I am bored.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The titles of his games are based on what they are about. They are still in their raw form, can currently only be accessed on computers with Scratch 2 but one of them will soon be available to the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to his father, the game titled \u201cFrog attack,\u201d <\/em>will be on the Google play store sometime in August. Basil, who hopes to be a scientist when he grows up, joins a growing number of African children doing exceptional things with technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These innovative youngsters include two Nigerian 12-year-olds who recently built robots that help with housework and Acrobot, a Ghanaian all-girls high school team who won the 2019 Robofest competition by programming robots to stack boxes in May.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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