For Anna, success had an unfathomable, life-changing impact.

Within a few months, the game had become one of the most played on Roblox. She did not sign up to make money, but during a Skype call the game-makers offered the teenager 10% of any profits the game made in the future. Flattered by their interest, Anna became the fifth member of the nascent team, contributing art, design and programming to the game. When she wasn’t at school Anna was rarely off her computer.Īs she became more proficient, Anna’s work caught the attention of some experienced users on Roblox, game-makers in their 20s who messaged her with a proposition to collaborate on a more ambitious project. Using Roblox’s in-built tools – child-friendly versions of professional software – Anna began to learn the rudiments of music composition, computer programming and 3D modelling. There was one alluring difference: Roblox hosted Anna’s tiny world online, enabling children she had never met and who maybe lived thousands of miles away from her home in Utah to visit and play.

She used Roblox much like a child from a previous generation might have used cardboard boxes, marker pens and stuffed toys to build a castle or a spaceship and fill it with characters and story. Anna* was 10 when she built her first video game on Roblox, a digital platform where young people can make, share and play games together.