Orlando Inno Under 25: Game developer attracts millions of users

Carson James Aldrich thought he would pursue a career as a musician or a U.S. Navy sailor when he started to make video games in his free time.

What started as a hobby his freshman year of high school grew into an indie game studio. By his senior year of high school, Aldrich decided to drop out and pursue game development full-time.

The 19-year-old's company, Oviedo-based Aldrich Callen Studios LLC, pulled in more than $4 million in revenue last year.

Aldrich's early success in game development earned him a spot in the 2022 Orlando Inno Under 25 cohort.

The annual honor recognizes five Central Florida entrepreneurs and technologists age 25 or younger who are making waves in the business community. All five honorees will be recognized on Orlando Inno's website, as well as in Orlando Business Journal's Oct. 14 print issue.

Here's more from Aldrich on his company and what's ahead.

What does Aldrich Callen Studios do? At our core, we're a game development studio for the Roblox platform. Our specific skill set is taking great intellectual property like the Warrior Cats book series and bringing it to Roblox's immense social fabric for a young audience to enjoy. Our focus always is on player-driven gameplay; we deliver an immersive sandbox and give our users the tools to meet new people and tell their own stories.

What were your company’s greatest accomplishments of the last 12 months? In late 2021, we launched the full release of our flagship game, "Warrior Cats: Ultimate Edition." Since then, we've brought in millions of unique users every month to enjoy the experience and elevated the game to be top 100 on the Roblox platform. It's turned our indie studio into a full commercial game developer/publisher, giving us the resources we need to pursue next-level projects in our industry. 

What’s your top work-related goal for 2022? Roblox carries two immense advantages over traditional studios: a substantial “social fabric” that allows users to connect between Roblox games and create a snowball effect of discovery, and the unmatched speed of project deployment we can achieve using Roblox's engine. Our goal for 2022 and onward is to harness these two advantages and rapidly iterate our product so we may be at the forefront of what consumers desire from the gaming and online world.

Who is your best career mentor? My biggest mentors were the online communities I took part in and played games with throughout my entire childhood. Playing games and living in the game world since I was young helped me develop an intrinsic understanding of the industry that I heavily referenced and built upon when starting our studio.

What are your hobbies? A lot of my spare time outside of work still is spent inside the gaming world. I play a lot of games in my free time, both online and offline. Outside of the online space, I enjoy activities that let me de-focus for a bit. Golfing is probably my favorite out of any activity.

Carson James Aldrich

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