GLEN HENRY STAYING POWER
GLEN Henry is the founder and projects director at Spritewrench Studios, a Kingston-based game development business focused on developing narrative games. The idea to create his own video game someday always excited Henry.
During his final year at university the In The
Game movie came out, which showcased other creators globally creating their projects, all by themselves, in a small team. Henry realised that it wasn’t necessary to leave Jamaica or join a huge 100-man team to create something similar. It was the start of his journey towards becoming a gaming entrepreneur.
Inspired by the movie, Henry started creating small games and projects and participating in game jams (contest entailing making video games from scratch. He released under the name Spritewrench — a combination of the words ‘sprite’, which refers to the art assets that go into the games and ‘wrench’, playing on the idea of building. Eventually, Henry formally registered his business as Spritewrench Studios.
Ideas for Henry’s games are drawn from multiple sources. As a lover of games he plays recreationally and, through these gameplays, often finds a particular system attractive, pushing him to think of ways he can build on what he sees. He also pulls from his personal experiences in business, enabling him to convert mundane aspects to create his games.
Cultural representation is essential to Henry, whose games are not stereotypically Jamaican and give a broad understanding of what the Jamaican experience is — more than a flag, dreadlocks or ackee and saltfish.
Henry aims to continue being an innovator through the community he has built with the Jamaica Game Developer Society, a hub for sharing experiences and knowledge. “Jamaica is behind, especially as it relates to creatives and creative education. We’re making strides now, and we’re getting the backing that we should have always had,” said Henry. He would like to bridge the education gap for the future of tech so that more people are aware of the jobs that exist within game development. So far, Henry is working with the JGDS to bring experts from abroad to speak on their areas of expertise. Henry would love to see the education sector create job fairs around animation and game development.
Additionally, Henry has several hopes on his agenda, among them the establishment of a Caribbean-wide publishing house specifically for games. While Henry is enjoiong his newfound success, his hope is for more creators to enter the industry and not hesistate to push the envelope. Henry also encourages more participation in game jams and small hackathons to gain the experience of carrying a project from ideation to completion, thereby gaining the most value.