Carmel teen creates smartphone game endorsed by PETA.

Skylar Thomas sits in a back booth of an unusually busy Starbucks at Carmel’s Crossroads shopping center. It’s the last day of the AT&T Pro-Am, as well as Valentine’s Day. But the holiday and major event are not on Thomas’ agenda. Instead, the 16-year-old Carmel High sophomore has his mind set on a mission to spread awareness for animal rights, via an app.

“Even if 100 people play it and only one decides to be vegan, that’s worth it.” Thomas says of his creation, Saviors, released on Apple’s app store Feb. 1.

The iPhone game puts players in the bleak gray setting of a factory farm where they must run through aisles, rescue chickens from cages, and throw orange balls of “education” to defeat employees trying to block the path.

Thomas created Saviors to teach players about animal cruelty, but in a fun and friendly format.

“Some people don’t want to see the truth,” Thomas says. “So I had to make the content cuter.”

When it comes to the truth behind food-industry methods, Thomas has been aware of the unsettling facts since he was a child. His parents, who rescued stray cats and skunks alike, inspired him to become a vegetarian at age 5, and he has since transitioned to veganism.

At an age when most children worry about what games they will play during recess, Thomas began to question the differing treatment humans extend to their pets and farm animals.

At age 8, Thomas self-published two books through Kidpub, one of which, The Necklace, revolves around characters who use their superpowers to battle pollution.

During an author event in Connecticut, where Thomas was living when he was 10, he spoke with Jonathan Safran Foer, writer of bestselling food industry exposé Eating Animals, which influenced Saviors. In an email exchange prior to Saviors’ release, Foer said he would give the game his full support.

It was the first of Thomas’s encouraging encounters with famous figures. While living in Los Gatos in 2011, he ran into Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak while waiting in line for a new iPhone.

Wozniak advised Thomas to learn about app developing. “He pulled out his business card,” Thomas remembers, “He said, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing, and call me in a couple years.’”

Soon Thomas was learning the fundamentals of web game design by studying YouTube tutor Skip Wilson’s programming lessons and emailing Wilson for guidance.

Colin Matheson, webmaster of Carmel Unified School District, admires Thomas’ willingness to take on challenges. “He seems like some instant genius, but he’s really dedicated,” Matheson says. “Learning without taking formal computer science classes is a struggle.”

Thomas released his first iPhone app, in collaboration with Wilson, in 2014. Tic Tac Rainbow is a tic-tac-toe game where players can pick the color layout.

Saviors, his second app, is more ambitious in both design and message. From learning to use new programing software (mainly Apple’s Swift) to composing the game’s soundtrack on the Garage Band music program with the help of his father, Saviors would test Thomas’ determination and patience more than any previous project.

Before releasing Saviors, Thomas sought backing from the largest animal rights group in the world, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Thomas contacted PETA 2, the organization’s youth program, and entered into a contractual agreement.

He can use the PETA logo in his game and receives promotion online; half the profits from in-app purchases (buying more lives) go to PETA.

Early app reviews praise the game for how fun it is, but some, like Matheson, value the message more.

“I love that it has an environmental theme,” Matheson says. “It helps break the stigma that tech people don’t care about things outside of their work.”

Saviors has been on the app store for less than a month, but Thomas isn’t taking any breaks to celebrate. More than a dozen project ideas bounce in his brain.

“My biggest dream is founding a startup,” he says. “Starting with nothing, building something amazing.”

He’s CEO of TroubleMaker Technologies, his app company that published both Tic Tac Rainbow and Saviors. The website features a dynamite stick logo that plays off of TroubleMaker Technologies’ initials (TMT) and a link that directs users to a PETA article on becoming vegan.

“My next projects will be more science-centric,” Thomas says, “like virtual reality.” He hopes to intern at Oculus VR, a company that designs virtual reality headsets. One dream: a virtual-reality version of Saviors.

SAVIORS is available on Apple’s App Store.