Hello, this is my first post, and originally I wasn't going to even join this community, but I thought it would be a good idea. Especially because the people at Reddit ignored my post completely.

Being a Minor (I am about to be a sophomore in high school), I have about three years of coding experience. I also have been composing music, and I have many friends who do many other things that happen to coincide with game development (I will get to this next).

Currently, me and two friends are wanting to start a development company. I have had a good amount of experience in Unity, and I am well versed with JavaScript, as well as learning C#. I have a friend who does a lot of art and pixel art, who also is well versed in JavaScript (no experience in anything other than Pocessing.js) and a friend who has the same if not more experience with JavaScript, as well as advanced GameMaker skills.

In terms of technology, coding levels, music, art design, and pretty much everything else that actually creates the full game experience, we are set and ready to go. The problem is legal issues.

My parents are not too fond of me starting a company now, because they think school is more important (I go to a special program at my school, which is similar to STEM mixed with avid, but includes all classes, which I could easily do this for projects), and legally, none of us are old enough to actually create a company (I have researched into LLC's, DUNS Numbers, Apple Developer, and a lot of the other publishing/marketing stuff we'd need for a company and actually publishing the apps). I know, if we continue, we will probably need legal advice from an actual attourny (especially because laws vary by state so a lot of information might not be correct on the internet), but I was wondering if any of you either have experience starting a company/software development company as a minor, or if any of you know anything that might help us on our endeavor legally so we can have our own business. We already have options of people who are above 18 who will help us with this and will more than likely help us with being the legal organizer of the company, but other than that, we are a little blind.

If you have any information that would be helpful, that would help us so much!

Illegal Seagulls LLC (Hopefully at least!)

At your age you are extremely unlikely to develop a product that can be commercially viable.  Perhaps in a few years when you have some additional experience you could do it, or if you had more resources available to you, but that isn't the situation you describe.

From your description you are best off focusing on your education.  You and your friends can certainly build games on your own, and I recommend it if that is your interest, but still focus on the education.

7 hours ago, IllegalSeagulls said:

Currently, me and two friends are wanting to start a development company.

Starting a game company without games is like opening a empty shop.

Use your free time and make games, ask your parents or guardians to help with the marketing.

Then by the time you are old enough to own a company you will have a bunch of games to use for the company.

7 hours ago, IllegalSeagulls said:

any of you either have experience starting a company/software development company as a minor,

Not as a minor although at 19. My company was a software company, I made one program and thought I could make software and sell to the South African mines.

It worked at first, made a lot of money the first month, then all my customers had the software and the global market had better software. The money I made dried up very fast, after all I was a registered company and had a company bank account.

The Tax and the banks took all the money I made before I could create a new software. The worst part was that there had been no reason for me to register as a company. I could have sold the software as a individual and still have made the same money.

My advise is this: don't open a business account or register as a company unless you have to. For every perk you gain there are very expensive costs.

There is no reason you can't sell as just one person.

7 hours ago, IllegalSeagulls said:

My parents are not too fond of me starting a company now, because they think school is more important

They are right. Everything you learn at school will help you make games.

From language for writing the text you need for your games to math the very core behind making characters move around. You need it all and right now your parents are paying for you to learn it; later it will just be one more cost you have to pay as a company.

Thank you everyone for the kind and helpful replies. Although they weren't the replies I was looking for, stepping back and going over everything, I think they were the responses I needed. I agree that I need to make good games before thinking about publishing, and that school is important. I think I am probably going to go into personal publishing (As an Individual on the App store), and just work and collaborate with my friends on games if I need to. Being a minor, it is very hard to find the right information on the internet about business, law, and other things I would need before publishing anything commercially, because everything is geared towards adults, who don't have legal limitations with this kind of stuff. There isn't much to cater to us in terms of information to helping us understand the market, or legal stuff. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, I don't know, but it is nice to see such a nice community who can help give information to someone who otherwise wouldn't be able to access it.

Hopefully, going towards the Individual Development doesn't deter me from creating games, and I hope to come to this forum often because of the great community it seems to be!

Thanks Again,

Illegal Seagulls (Not LLC... for a while at least)