In a much-needed reminder that people are pretty bloody wonderful, actually, two identical twin brothers recently helped their parents pay off their mortgage. While I'm sure most of us would love to give our parents a gesture like this if we could, it's not everyone that rakes in £200,000 a year from playing and developing video games.
Ben and Matthew Horton, 20, used the £100,000+ they each make every year after they made the incredible decision to drop out of school at 16 and start developing video games. The two started making money at the tender age of 13, after creating an online game in Roblox that charged players £5 to unlock extra features. Hey, if a company like Activision Blizzard can get filthy rich off microtransactions, why can't two smart lads from Norfolk?
Matthew set about producing more ambitious trailers for their games, while Ben honed his programming skills. Together their business has grown into something I'm not sure either of them could ever have predicted. The two live together in Crawley right now, but there are plans in place to maybe move to LA one day. They do say Los Angeles is the Crawley of California.
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"We have applied for a visa. It would allow us to be where our audience and other developers are," Matt said, as reported by our friends over at LADbible.
The brothers were always big into the LEGO games on PlayStation 2, and it was when they discovered Roblox and its suite of tools for learning how to develop games back in 2010 that they were finally able to realise their own vision.
"It gave access to wacky, interesting creations by hundreds of people," Matt explained. "It was a new thing which was fascinating.
"For the first three years after finding Roblox, we just played the games. Then in the 2013 Christmas holidays, we started experimenting with creating our own game and that really kick-started our career. Roblox has free guides and templates, so anyone - be they aged 10 or 70 - can create games."
Matt added that the coronavirus pandemic has at least had some benefits for them. "Engagement with our games has increased by 30 to 40 per cent during lockdown," he explained, which mirrors a trend we've seen throughout the industry over the last year.
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Ben said that their parents - Mark, 51, who works for the council, and Caroline, 51, a children's services manager - weren't sure what to make of it when they learned how their boys had managed to make so much. Then again, I'm sure they were thrilled that it wasn't through anything too shady.
""They were definitely sceptical about where this money was coming from," he laughed. "I think they thought we were just playing games, but actually we were developing them and learning these skills. Now, though, they are very supportive.
"Our dad is not really tech-y, but he likes to write, so he's a great person to brainstorm ideas with. Dinner conversations when we lived at home would involve the three of us bouncing ideas back and forth."
Featured Image Credit: PA Real Life