How ex-banker built computer games on Internet tutorials

Daniel Macharia, creator of Navana game 9PHOTO: FILE)

When we are busy playing Candy Crush, Temple Run, Talking Tom or other popular games on our smartphones, we hardly spare a thought for the effort it took to create the apps. After all, it's play time, isn't it?

Yet for you to enjoy your favourite game, it took painstaking work by a developer to land the app on your phone. Creators like Daniel Macharia, who toiled day and night for six months to come up with the first multi-level game in Kenya.

But before the light bulb for the game, Navana, flickered, Daniel had gone through jobs in two banks after graduating from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in 2011 with a Bachelor of Commerce degree.

“I was employed at StanChart for a few months and then moved to Kenya Women Microfinance Bank as a credit officer. I worked there for a year," says Daniel, 28.

But he got disillusioned with the job and quit, going into various ventures that included importing tablets from Dubai and China. The business fell at the first hurdle with his money going down the drain.

Then in mid-2014, his eureka moment arrived: He would make a video game.

He decided to name it Navana, a corruption of ‘nirvana’, which is a Buddhist term that refers to total happiness.

With a rudimentary computing background from high school, he would use the Internet as his tool to learn programming because he had no money to go back to school.

“I utilised online tutorials and free e-books to teach myself,” says Daniel.

But he then found it difficult to get someone to design the game’s graphics.

“The designer charged Sh200,000 which I didn’t have because my savings had been depleted. He later lowered the amount to Sh20, 000,” says Daniel. “We started work on the game and he delivered the designs for the main character and the background.”

Now it was up to Daniel to work on the coding. “Every sound, scores and movement depicted in games is based on code. It’s very challenging,” he says.

To lighten the load on himself, he used an open source framework where most of the coding is already done. He completed the first level in June. For purposes of feedback, he launched the game to a select few.

“My friends commended my effort but said the game was difficult,” Daniel explains. With positive feedback, he completed all the levels.

In August 2016, Daniel published Navana: Safari ya Amani, a free eight-megabyte adventure game to Google Play Store. With 11 levels, he says it is an improvement from other local games that only have a single level.

“It was inspired by Super Mario Bros, which I played as a child. My game, though, has an African setting with lots of traditional artifacts,” he says.

Daniel markets the game on social media. “The reception has been positive but I’m yet to make any money from my creation. It’d be hard to ask Kenyans to buy the game since they’re used to free applications on the Play Store. But my creation gives me happiness,” he says.

Surprisingly, Navana has recorded download success in Europe, he says. 

To market the game, Daniel launched a comic book that expounds on the game’s story line.

“I carry out activations at various locations around Nairobi, including malls and fun parks, to make the comic book and the brand familiar with my target audience, which is children between the ages of five and 13.

"I have been in contact with some school owners and they have expressed their desire to help me with distribution of the comic books in their schools,” says Daniel

His long-term plans include developing games for the Play Station. He’d also like to try his hand in Augmented Reality.