Raising his game
> Enriched by a hands-on learning experience, Jeremy Ooi makes his mark in the gaming industry
What’s the inspiration behind
(SIM)? Two years ago, I played HerStory, a computer game where you watch a police interrogation of a young lady and decide if she committed the murder or not. It is an interesting concept because it’s unique and new, so I thought, why not create a mobile game with a similar style? We wanted to feature real people in the game to give a surreal gaming experience.
Making a computer game then porting it to mobile is problematic, as it can be clunky and take up a lot of space. So we decided to build it first for the smartphone, and it doesn’t require a high-end phone to play. The game uses a phone interface, like a real mobile phone, whereby all the player needs to know is how to use a phone and its apps. Could you share the game development process? I pitched the idea to the game’s producer Shahrizar and programmer Shahazmi, who were first sceptical about it. It took about six months to develop – three months for the prototype of the game’s mechanism and system, and the other three to get the game’s storyline. I got a team of writers from different backgrounds – Buddy Anwardi, Saqina Latif and Derek Mui – to help with the storyline.
Is there a future for SIM? SIM was released under a tight deadline, so we are doing a ‘spiritual sequel’ to it. It is neither a remake nor a sequel, but it will see more improvements and bugs corrected as well as better content. We are hoping to release the game in the second
quarter of 2017.
What are your thoughts about the gaming industry in Malaysia? Big companies in the US and Finland have a lot of exposure to intelligent content, which adds up to making good games.
In Malaysia, we have the advantage of being exposed to both Asian and western cultures, but we have not exploited this yet. In the market, this is a sweet spot and we need to take advantage of it. We have a lot of talents in the country, but we need to be brave enough to try new things.