With Kodu, budding developers string together simple and intuitive cartoon icons that define the rules of their game world, rather than using complex programming language. The result: Anyone from seven to 70 can create a game in minutes. Kodu was first unveiled in January 2009 at the International Consumer Electronics Show, and released that spring on Xbox LIVE Community Games. Since its release, Kodu has been downloaded more than 200,000 times, according to Microsoft.

The inspiration for Kodu came from MacLaurin’s daughter. A few years ago, MacLaurin noticed his daughter, then 3 years old, watching his wife browse her Facebook page. He flashed back to his early experiences with a computer, comparing the passive experience his daughter was having to the coding he did to interact with the machine. It was a sad realization, he said.