🎮 Games

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⭐ What inspired you to start creating your own video games?:

   Ever since I was a kid I had fantasized about making my own video game. 

   Every kid at one point or another as a creative being must have taught at some point; what if I was in the game with Super Mario, or what if I was Super Mario, or why is this barrel over here and not over there, or if I were the one who made the game I would have given this character the ability to fly or this other super power, or I would have added this weapon or that weapon with this awesome feature and that awesome feature; and so on and so forth.

   Such thoughts must have crossed every kid's mind while playing a game at least once or twice or perhaps every single time they play a game.

  However, that is not enough to make a kid decide to choose making video games as a career or even make it a hobby. 

  I guess my earliest thoughts being cast to the possibility of game making as a career was as a kid in primary school.

  I was a student of Bereton Montessori Nursery & Primary School in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. 

   At the time it was the school the richest people in the city sent their kids to. I later understood what a financial strain and sacrifice it was for my Mum to send all three of her kids to that school. 

   She believed the early years of learning for a kid was most important and would determine the rest of the trajectory of the kid so she would have nothing but the best schools for her kids Elementary and Primary School education.

   Anyway, in that school unlike other schools in Port Harcourt or Nigeria as a whole at the time; the teachers used to organize excursions or field trips once in while where we were taken to factories to see how things were made. That was a privilege many other kids in Africa at the time didn't have or even know that existed. 

   There were also rare occasions where the school administration would call someone in to explain their job to us to the entire assembly or to just the Primary 5 students (who were about to graduate in a year and move on to Secondary School).

  Anyway, this one time. Remember this was in the very early 90's in Nigeria, Africa. A young guy who was younger than the folks who usually showed up; came with a computer. 

   Now know that even though this was a school for rich kids at the time many people have never seen a computer in real life before and only one or two had one in their houses at the time. 

  Anyway, he talked to us about a career in making video games and told us he used his computer to make video games. He also briefly played Prince Of Persia (the early PC version that is so old school every Flash game has better graphics than it). However, back then it looked like the coolest thing in the world. It's only recently after I decided to search for it on YouTube I saw how bad the graphics really was.

   Anyway, at the time it looked like the coolest thing in the world and that's the first time I ever taught about a career in video games.

  However, I threw away the idea as a kid because my reasoning was that would only happen if I was in America. I'm in Nigeria. Dreaming of making video games for a living is for Americans in America. That's what I taught. So I threw that thought out of my mind after a few weeks from that demonstration the school put together.

⭐ How did you transition from being a gamer (or your previous role) to becoming a game developer?:

  Back around 2005, I used to go around the neighborhood and go to other strategic places around the city preaching the gospel. I would approach people; talk to them about Jesus, or invite them to my church fellowship, and give them a custom flyer I made that looked like a mini book that had a free short sermon, a salvation prayer, and the fellowship's location and meeting time on it. 

   Around that time, I would set personal goals of how many people out of all the people I talk to would actually follow through and also show up in church.

   Soul Winning was all that was on my mind (and still is one of my top primary concerns in life as I'm convinced the only way to help people in any meaningful & lasting way is with the gospel. And the only way for your living to have any true meaning & worth is for you to help others. So if you're not winning souls or building souls with the gospel; you are helping no one so your life is empty and meaningless and void of purpose).

   Anyway, this made me constantly think of innovative ways to preach the gospel and constantly task myself to come up with creative outside the box ways to win an entire generation to Christ even without the public being aware they are being preached to.

   One of the things I saw an opportunity in at the time was video games. 

   Video Games presented an opportunity to packaged any message anyone wants inside it and teens would consume it as long as the message is wrapped away good game play. The message doesn't even have to make sense or be good & positive; kids & teens would consume it. 

   So video games and movies as well occurred to me as mediums to use turn an entire generation to Christ.

   That's what turned me from a video game player to a video game maker.

⭐ What’s the story behind your first game—what sparked the idea?:

   The story behind my first game is that it was created to learn how to make games. 

   I was following along with a tutorial I found online on how to make games.

⭐ What's your Creative Process? Can you walk us through your process of designing a game from concept to completion?:

   For a mini - game. I'm just targeting a game that will be played on Androids, iPhones, and Html web browsers on laptops. 

   I'm basically making the style of games that dominated the Flash Game era that is easy to play and easy for one person to make.

   The creative process starts in my mind. I think first of a strong gameplay concept. It has to be something that excites me to play. I must be excited enough to want to see the game exist and to play it myself. If the gameplay concept is not strong enough to get me obsessed with it in my head, it probably would never look good if I go ahead and make it and no one would be excited about it. 

   My next step in the creative process is to create a new docx file on my phone, then using a template I created which is basically my game design blueprint that covers everything that should be covered in the game design stage of a game; I begin to map out what I want. Sometimes also using paper or drawing apps a lot of the time.

   When I'm through with that. I go into concept drawing of what the characters would look like and what the environment, game weapons, game items, and the game user interface would look like. There's a lot of readjusting & redefining at this stage.

   After I have decided on what the characters and everything else would look like in the concept stage; I create the sprites or 3D models. In some cases I'll download 3D models to add to the game.

    After that, I'll import that into the game engine I'm using and programming begins.

   However, for a bigger style game like an Assassin's Creed or Grand Theft Auto; that would require a team of employees that I currently don't have.

⭐ What tools, engines, or software do you use, and why did you choose them?:

   Right now I many use Gamemaker because of its ease of use.

⭐ How do you balance storytelling, gameplay mechanics, and visuals in your work?:

  I believe that video games is all about gameplay. The storytelling just helps to give meaning to the gameplay and link gameplay stages together.

⭐ What’s the most unexpected lesson you’ve learned about game design so far?:

   Life itself is like a game.

⭐ What was the biggest hurdle you faced when creating and publishing your first game?:

   Wondering if I would ever finish making the game.

⭐ How do you handle the pressure of wearing multiple hats as an indie developer (e.g., coding, art, marketing)?:

  By not being afraid of pushing myself and not being afraid of admitting my limitations. 

  As long as I'm making only mini games while wearing multiple hats; I can handle it. 

   However, if I were to try to make a Massive Multiplayer Role-playing Game for example while wearing multiple hats; I'll be only fooling myself.

⭐ What’s been your proudest moment as a new indie game creator?:

   To be honest, I don't think that moment has come yet.

⭐ Who do you see as your target audience, and how did you tailor your game to them?:

   My future target audience for the company is the mainstream gaming audience. However, right now that I am mainly making mini games; my target audience is the casual gamer.

 

⭐ How have players responded to your game so far, and has their feedback surprised you?:

   Nothing stands out as yet.

⭐ Have you connected with other indie developers or communities for support or inspiration?:

   No, not yet.

⭐ What made you decide to publish your game independently rather than working with a studio or publisher?:

  Are you serious? There's no other way to go. And I would have it no other way.

⭐ How did you approach marketing your game with likely limited resources?:

   By using social media and trying to go viral like everybody else with limited resources. 

   That's worth more than millions of dollars of marketing money many times over.

⭐ What platforms did you choose to release your game on, and why?:

  Android and PC because that's what's readily available to me.

⭐ What are your future goals? What’s next for you—do you have plans for your next project already?:

  Of course I have plans for my next project already.

   My future goal is to generate enough money in ad revenue to get a team so the company can move beyond making mini games and become a major player in making huge games in the mainstream gaming market.

⭐ Are there any dream collaborations or goals you’d love to achieve in the indie gaming world?:

  I'll like to collaborate with anyone who believes in my vision of distributing games for free that have the message of the gospel in them, and paying the team that made the game via ad revenue and/ or other monetization means.

⭐ If you could add one wild, impractical feature to your game just for fun, what would it be?:

   The ability for characters to jump from one game to a totally different game of a completely different franchise. Like certain checkpoints in the games are portals to teleport to other worlds and the other world is a totally different game the game player chooses.

⭐ What’s your favorite game that you didn’t make, and how has it influenced your work?:

   My favorite game I didn't make is Jet Li's Rise To Honor on the Play Station 2. That game brings back memories and I really enjoyed playing that game. 

   The gameplay mechanics was also the first of its kind of that style that I played. It was easy and relaxing but not too easy that it's too easy it you know what I mean.

⭐ Any quirky routines or habits you’ve developed while working on your games?:

   Quirky routines? No. Routines or habits. Yes. Too numerous and boring to mention.