Forsyth County man finds real-life success through game he developed as teen

While his classmates at Forsyth Central High School were fretting over final grades and college applications, Will was turning virtual tornadoes into real-life success.

The Cumming native, whose game handle is Willzuh and uses only his first name for privacy reasons, is one of the masterminds behind a Roblox experience that is taking the gaming world by storm and making him more money than he could have imagined.

Will — who partnered with gaming friend Marcus from Ohio to create Twisted — hasn’t made his first million yet. But at 20 years old, the 2022 high-school graduate is on the brink. He’s expecting he and his friend will make hundreds of thousands of dollars this year off Twisted, far more than most Roblox’s game creators earn.

“The first year, it was really just a passion project, and we didn’t make a lot of money,” Will said. “Over time, as we updated the game and grew the community, it spiraled into this huge business thing that we can now work on full-time, which is really awesome.”

Since its release on Dec. 30, 2020, Twisted has racked up more than 31 million total visits. Every day, about 84,000 people get their virtual adrenaline rush chasing a tornado in the make-believe Midwest town of Hazelton.

Will’s fascination with twisters started early. He was only 3 when the Discovery Channel started airing a show on the exploits of storm chasers that became a must-see every week for Will and his mom.

In 2008, a supercell thunderstorm passed through Atlanta, spawning a tornado with up to 130 mile-per-hour winds, killing one and injuring at least 30. Though he was just 4 years old and miles away in Forsyth County , Will remembers seeing the remnants of the storm system the next day when his area was pelted with baseball-sized hail.

His weather obsession once had him considering a career as a meteorologist. But the math that would be required just wasn’t his thing.

“I’m really glad that this whole game development thing allowed me to sort of work in my interest area without having to know all the math and science,” he said.

Will dove into gaming on Roblox when he was 9 or 10. That’s also when he met and started playing games with Marcus, whose game handle is Siryzm. The duo regularly played together on Roblox’s existing tornado games, but those, they said, weren’t very detailed or exciting.

At about age 14 or 15, he and Marcus decided to create a tornado game together. They built on Roblox because anyone can play and create on that platform for free (with paid accessories to enhance the experience).

As the Twisted game gained traction, Will said he began to see a career in some type of online business.

Credit: handout

Credit: handout

His parents were skeptical when he told them.

“They thought I was kind of silly,” Will said. “But now that I’m making money, they’re taking it a lot more seriously, and they’re very supportive of it.”

Working with Roblox “changed my life 100%,” he said. “That opened a whole avenue of game development and online business I never would have thought of pursuing.”

Will has not ruled out going to college eventually, but for now, he works from home on Twisted. Marcus is doing the same in Ohio.

With the time and money his success has afforded him, Will now chases real storms in the Plains region, including Iowa, Nebraska and Illinois. Hotel stays and gasoline cost plenty of money, “something I never really had” as a kid, he said.

On his storm-chasing trips, Will takes dozens of photos that he and Marcus use to make their game “look more like the real thing.”

Will said they’ve updated their game 20 or 30 times since its launch, trying to keep it fresh for players and stay ahead of the competition.

“We’re always working on upgrading the product and making the game more fun for people,” Will said.

The two have revamped the map of the area where the tornado could strike. They’ve added more vehicles and equipment that players can use to enhance their experience. The players pay for these extras with Robux, the currency of Roblox. They also earn Robux based on how long they can stay in the tornado and perform tasks such as measuring wind speed.

Will said he and Marcus should pull in about $350,000 this year from Twisted.

“I think it’s really cool that this game has allowed me to pursue my dream,” he said.

MORE DETAILS

About 164 million people, more than half of which are American children under 16, are active monthly users of Roblox, an online game platform and game creation system developed by Roblox Corporation and released in 2006. Users can program and play games that they or others have created.

Roblox reports that in the 12 months that ended June 30, the company paid its global creator community $803 million, up 18% in the previous 12 months. In the past year, more than 7,500 of the 5.5 million U.S. creators on Roblox made more than $650, according to data furnished by the company.