Gawang Pinoy video games

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always had a fondness for videogames! It’s a hobby that has always fascinated me and up to this day, I find myself regularly getting hooked to different kinds of games. From my humble beginnings with my first generation, monochrome Nintendo GameBoy all the way to the powerful iPhone 5 that I own today, I’ve definitely grown with the times and spent a good chunk of my life in front of a computer screen but most importantly, I enjoyed every bit of it.

Now, being a gamer and having a weekday teleserye is no mean feat! Both of them require a lot of time so I’ve had to compromise a bit. Obviously, mobile gaming was the best route for me as I had to let go of my videogame consoles (PS3, Xbox, etc.) but since then, I’ve been a big fan of mobile games. On my iPhone, I would regularly scour the app store for games that might catch my attention or titles that I would hear people talk about. It’s the perfect platform for me because it’s portable and the games don’t always require hours of attention.

This leads me to my story of how I discovered Streetfood Tycoon. It was early in 2012 and I was heavily into the time-management games (for example, Diner Dash and Lemonade Tycoon). One day, I came across a promising and quirky-looking game titled Streetfood Tycoon so I quickly tried it out. It was a great gaming experience right from the beginning. I could dive into the game with ease and there was barely any learning curve to get over. The gameplay had me serving food from my streetfood cart. I had to get the customers’ orders correct and served fast enough before they became impatient. What really caught my attention though were the names of the food and customers. Kwek-Kwek and fishballs suddenly popped which are primarily Filipino. Also, the customers had names like Moony Pookyaw and Pee Noy. At first, I thought it was coincidence but as I played more, it finally hit me… This game was made by a Filipino!

It was a proud moment because there’s just a handful of purely Filipino-made games and even less that revolve around a Filipino theme or culture. The geek in me immediately researched about the game and I found out it was developed by Erick Garayblas of Kuyi Mobile. He’s a one-man team and his games are 100-percent Filipino. Just to put into perspective how successful his game was, here are a few quick facts:

Streetfood Tycoon has been downloaded over 4M+.

Used to be No. 1 in various countries all over the globe.

Chosen as Best Mobile Game of 2012 in last year’s Philippine Game Dev Festival.

Fast forward to today and I’m proud to say that there will be a sequel to this all-Filipino hit! Streetfood Tycoon: World Tour will be out on the app store this coming Jan. 24! I’m extremely excited and hopeful because all signs are showing that it will become a big hit yet again.

Given that I’m such a fanboy, I decided to collaborate with Erick and help him spread the word. After all, I’m all for anything made in the Philippines. In effect, I’ll be tying up my blog www.mikaeldaez.com with Streetfood Tycoon: World Tour and we will be giving away two iPad Minis with the original Streetfood Tycoon and Streetfood Tycoon: World Tour pre-installed! So if you want a chance to win it, then please visit my site for details. Otherwise, please continue to support our locally-made games and download Streetfood Tycoon: World Tour when it comes out on the 24th. There’s so much creative talent in our country and it won’t even cost you a peso to download it and show our support.

(For more details on the giveaway, visit: www.mikaeldaez.com. Follow me on Twitter @mikaeldaez.)