Gaming Wizard

Using his laptop and free of cost tools from internet, Owais Nazir, a 12th standard student, developed a 3D Kill Genre game that has got listed among top 300 on Google Play. Umer Beigh reports.  

Developing a mobile application has become new craze among Kashmiris.  Most of them used online tutorials to develop applications which end up on their earning them appreciation from their relatives and friends only.

But a few youngsters have successfully broken the jinx and made their presence felt in the virtual world.

“Kill-Genre”, a three dimension android game developed by Owais Nazir, a 12th standard student at Iqbal Memorial Institute, Srinagar, is one such game that has fans across the world.

Owais has managed to earn Rs 30 thousand in less than a month’s time. Kill-Genre is his first attempt in three dimension world. “So far I have earned Rs 50000 through online advertisements,” he says.

The third person over the shoulder thrilling game of combat battle is based on a concept of a person, who fights with ‘Zombies’ in a no-man-zone ambush to find out his missing brother in a Jungle.

Presently Kill-Genre can be played on an android phone only. But Owais says, he is working make his game compatible for IOS and Windows based phones. “For that I need some time. I am thinking I will bring more additional changes so that it appeals to the larger audience,” he says.

He says it took him nearly eighteen months to complete this project. When asked what inspired him to develop a shooting game that too with Zombies, he says, “Look how popular games like ‘Call of Duty’ and other shooting games have become. People want to play such kind of games only.”

Owais who wears a geek look on his face was interested in android applications from a very early age. “I have made Mobile TV, Task Manager, File Manager and other basic applications when I was 15 year old,” he says.

But he wanted to master the art of developing applications and get familiar with programming and languages required for developing a game. “It is my passion that has driven me to achieve something out of box,” he says.

After completing his 12th he won’t apply for engineering. “I want to do something innovative,” he says.

The concept of Kill-Genre needed a proper command over graphics. He says, “My friend Wali Shah, a graphic designer from Egypt, and Crook who is from USA has helped me in getting the required plug-ins and algorithms for the game,” he says.

Owais says he has not invested anything to make Kill-Genre. “I made it on my normal i7 processor laptop.” Most of the software’s that he has used in developing this game were ‘free’ of cost available on the internet.

“I paid Wali and Crook at times where I needed help. Other than that everything else is available on internet,” he says.

He wanted to make this game supportive for all android versions. For that he has used basic 3D Software’s. But one thing that disturbed Owais was games size. “It was too big for a mobile phone. So I optimized it as much I could. Now it is only 22 mbs,” he says.

Kill-Genre is listed among top 300 games on Google Play. “Out of 5 stars my game has so far got 4.5 stars rating,” he says proudly.

In two months of its launch Owais’s game was downloaded by around 50 thousand users so far through Google Play.  Owais is confident that the number of downloads will increase. “I have received positive response from users which is very encouraging for a beginner like me,” says Owais.  Owais’s game is popular among users in USA, Russia and other Western countries as more than 70 percent downloaded are from these countries.

Owais wants to use the money which he has earned in developing more games. “Now it is my aim to built Kashmirs first Game-Developing-Industry. If I succeed doing so it will first of its kind in this part of the world,” he says.