Kamae.fi:n toimitus sai uunituoreiden Taido Warrior -pelien isän Amir Niknamin haastatteluun!  Miten idea syntyi? Mitä matka ideasta toteutukseen vaati ja kuinka kauan koko projektissa meni? Se kaikki selviää tästä jutusta.

Tarina alkaa…

Taido is the big passion in my life, and two years ago I had a fantastic idea: to build a Taido game for the Playstation. There was only one problem, who build such a thing? Certainly not me, I didn’t know the first thing about programming… but maybe I should learn?

A year went by, and I started learning how to code in C#. It was fun! I can seriously recommend everyone to learn how to code. There is simply something magical about creating something out of nothing.

And now that I knew how to code, I was one step closer to building a Taido game! I built a proof of concept of the game by using pictures of myself doing manji geri…. It was embarrassing, but it worked! Still, I needed some decent animations if I ever would want to actually publish the game….

Enter Dave Lewis, veteran Taidoka from Australia and artist. Not just any artist, an artist specialized in games! And when he agreed to supply the animations for the Taido game, that’s when things really started to get real.

Over the next 9 months, he supplied the animations, and I would incorporate them in the game. I knew exactly which techniques I needed in order to create a diverse and fun game. But perhaps more importantly, I knew how to implement the Sotai system.

Sen, Un, Hen, Nen, Ten… The game would have to utilise these 5 movements, by combining them with techniques. Also, the player should be able to only do the movement in order to get some kind of advantage: Sen to quickly spin back and doge an attack, Un to jump, Hen to slide forward and create some speed, Nen to dodge, and Ten to quickly move forward or backward. It all made sense!

As I was building the control system, the code development turned out to be faster than the art work. As I was too excited to just sit still and wait, I started thinking about alternative ways to use the same control system. At first, all I wanted was a basic fighting game to show people how awesome Taido is. But as time progressed, I started having other ideas.

A Tenkai game where people can choreograph a 5 vs 1 fight? Awesome! A Jissen game, where Taidoka can fight each other in online multiplayer? How cool is that! Or what about Dojo Defense: combining Taido with a Tower Defense game in which you have to defend your dojo against the robot-zombie-apocalypse? Yes, best idea ever!!!

I was so excited, all I did was work on this game for 9 months. It was hard, and there was a zillion issues, but nothing that couldn’t be solved (because software is awesome!). And 9 months later, the games were done. I was so proud!

… except that I had 3 more months of work to go. The 600+ sprites were so heavy on memory that the games wouldn’t load on older devices, Unity3D (the game engine I was using) was about to completely change their multiplayer system so I had to wait for this and then build online multiplayer for Jissen, and the backgrounds in all the games were just… ugly.

So, 3 more months of work! And so many people helped! Kevin from Australia did some voice-acting, my sister-in-law helped with the backgrounds, and half a dozen Taidoka from Finland (Thank you Nanne and Karri!), Sweden and Japan helped translate the games.

it is always very inspiring to see Taidoka from different countries helping each other! Those are the moments when I realise that Taido is more than a hobby.

And Taidoka helping each other out is exactly what we need right now! There are over 500 games being released for mobile devices per day. So the difference between making Taido famous with these games, or having these games disappear amidst a sea of 1.6 other Apps, depends entirely on how many Taidoka download the games (and share with their friends).

Ps. The most important game is Taido Warrior: Challenge. This one is 100% free, so get it now! 🙂

Thank you, Taido Finland, for your support this last year! Now let’s give it 1 more push together, and hope that all that hard work pays off.

Täällä Taido Warriorista lisää

Kotisivu: TaidoWarrior.com

• iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/app/taido-warrior-challenge/id1068438154?ls=1&mt=8
• Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.InstinctiveSystems.TaidoWarriorChallenge
• Windows: https://www.microsoft.com/store/apps/9nblggh5ggh8
• Virallinen Taido Warrior -juliste: https://taidoworld.com/gameapi/TaidoWarrior_Poster.pdf

Mitä sinä voit tehdä?

Nämä pelit ovat yksi innovatiivinen tapa markkinoida lajia! Myös sinä voit auttaa siinä!

1. Vinkkaa Taido Warrioirista treenikavereille
2. Kannusta seuranne jäseniä lataamaan Taido Warrior: Challenge. Se on 100% ilmainen sovellus!
3. Tykkää ja jaa somessa Facebook.com/TaidoWarrior
4. Arvostele pelit klikkaamalla niille tähtiä. Amirin suositus tähtimääräksi on: ”5 stars ;)”
5. Printtaa Taido Warrior -juliste salin seinälle, jotta tieto näistä hauskoista taidopeleistä saadaan eteenpäin!