AAA Gaming Institute’s Capacity Building Initiative
A major part of what we do at AAA Game Institute is Capacity Building. For that reason we have had 2 interns over the past month who have been deep diving into Gaming with us, and have learnt the skills necessary to make games. We did an Interview session with these 2 developers – and in particular, we asked them to tell us more about what would they like to tell the rest of the community out there in terms of their experience and motivations. These 2 developers are Amir Abdulaziz and Issa Suleiman.
Our Interns
Question and Answer Session
Question: What fascinated you about gaming?
Amir
From my childhood I have always been fascinated by video games… especially Role Playing Games because you have total control over the character and you are never forced to follow a script.
The interest turned into a mission when I realized in my first year of being a software developer at AAA Platforms that i want to be a game developer.
Issa
I have been a gamer since childhood, I’ve always found it fascinating to explore new worlds, challenge myself to be better in multiplayer games and learning how to solve puzzles in story games. To me gaming is like a movie that you can actually take part in and do crazy things you wouldn’t do in a normal world.
Question: Why did you want to become a Game Developer?
Amir
I became a game developer because it’s the only career I will ever be truly happy doing. It’s the thing I wanted to be since I was a kid.
Issa
In some of my gaming community I have always been the go to person when it came to giving out information, I have always had a passion in knowing more than just the game and I actively seeked out other information about a game. When I was introduced to gaming development I knew I this is where I wanted to be. I want to understand all the complexity involved in making games and in time be able to make my own world.
Question: How is your experience so far with the AAA Gaming Institute?
Amir
Its been crazy enough – I was able to build and design the whole game.
Issa
It’s been a great experience so far and I am excited with all the challenges that have been thrown my way. Learning and putting some of my experience into practice has been a riveting journey.
Question: What do you think is the potential for Game Development overall?
Amir
The bottom line is – game development is surely an exciting and rewarding career, yet an extremely competitive one too. You should come prepared for a challenge and give yourself a good reality check before entering it.
Issa
There’s a lot of untapped potential when it comes to gaming in general in Kenya and development is a part of it. Once this market takes a hold and grows the possibilities will be endless to how much it can grow.
In Conclusion
It is without a doubt that a lot of folks who want to develop games have a deep passion for it. At AAA Gaming Institute we are exploring ways to create opportunity spaces for folks who have a deep passion for it – and we want to be a major contributor to the development of the Gaming Space in Sub Saharan Africa. In this regard we will be working on a series of programs that we will be communicating soon about. On our side though – we are happy to have had folks like Amir and Issa become a part of our family at the AAA Gaming Institute. We hope to accomplish a lot more in the months to come.
That said, we would be glad to have Partnerships that can help us broaden the scope of our Capacity Building Initiatives.
Open Source Game Developer 