Love of Coding Leads Dedham Resident to Launch Award-Winning iOS Mobile Game

What started as a simple exposure to computer coding in high school blossomed into a passion for development and eventually led one college student from Dedham to a launch an award-winning game app for the iPhone and iPad.

Over the course of 18 months, Dedham resident and Massachusetts Institute of Technology junior Ben Reynolds spent hundreds of hours polishing and adding content to “Got Light?” for iOS devices, an effort that began several years ago. The final app offers 28 levels of free game play, while the full 73 levels are available for a $1.99 in-app purchase.

Reynolds, son of Dedham resident and former Dedham Selectman Paul Reynolds, taught himself to code in high school and is currently heading into his junior year at MIT, focusing on computer science.

Continuing on his love for coding that he learned in high school, Reynolds took those skills into his college years, eventually leading to the development Got Light? Reynolds entered the first-annual MIT iOS Game Development competition as a freshman, an event at which more than 25 teams of one to three students participated. It was then that Reynolds created the first version of Got Light? and soon thereafter walked away with the Grand Prize: a cash prize of $6,670, a new iPad and multiple job offers.

Reynolds subsequently went to work as a programmer for mobile game developer Gameloft, while continuing to develop Got Light? in his spare time. Then, in late 2013, startup MakeGamesWithUs offered to publish the app. Reynolds was also offered a faculty position with the company’s Summer Academy to teach iPhone game programming to other students and aspiring game developers.

“This type of practical education is lacking from the traditional education system,” MakeGamesWithUs co-founder Ashu Desai said in a statement. “Having built and shipped a product at an early age can really impact your outlook on life. We hope to inspire people to invest their time in both computer science as well as entrepreneurship.”

Reynolds heads back to MIT this September to resume his studies in computer science and undergraduate research at the MIT Media Lab.

For more information, visit GotLightGame.com or follow @GotLightGame on Twitter.

To view a video of Got Light? click here.

PHOTO CREDIT: GotLightGame.com

Got Light? Game Trailer - Full Length from Ben Reynolds on Vimeo.