India: 13-year-old Manipur boy develops coronavirus-themed mobile game, 'Coroboi'

A 13-year-old student from the city of Imphal, in the Indian state of Manipur, has developed a coronavirus-themed mobile phone game and social media cannot stop showing the youngster support.

Baldeep Ningthoujam’s game is now available for Android users.

According to the description of the app on Google Play Store, “Coroboi, a boy from India (Manipur) is stranded and wants to return home. Wearing Leirum Phee (Manipuri traditional cloth) and a mask, he will run towards his goal. He will be earning points during his journey. If the police caught him, a fine of 5000 points will be deducted.”

While talking to Indian media, Ningthoujam said that he wants to become an ethical hacker in the future.

“I want to be an ethical hacker and learn more about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other technologies. My uncle had suggested to me to develop a game on COVID[-19]. So I became interested. The development of the game [was] completed last week and it was launched on Friday (August 21),” he was quoted as saying.

“It is new to me, so I browsed through YouTube and read articles for 3-4 weeks to fully understand it,” he added.

Within three days of its launch, the game has gotten over 10,000 downloads and various comments of people showing support on the Google Play store.

Posting a screengrab of the game listed on the online store, tweep @THESADHU1 wrote: “A class 9 student from Manipur developed a mobile game ‘Coroboi’ based on COVID[-19] guidelines.”

Sharing a news article about Ningthoujam's game, Twitter user @hasans645 posted: “That's amazing work and the best use of time by the young lad. My good wishes to him for his future endeavours. #Coroboi #technology #COVID__19 #innovation #ArtificialIntelligence”