Recently we wrote about Kopi Tiam, a time-management game which features local cuisines from Singapore. I had the opportunity to follow up with the game's creator, Afzanizam Zahari, to find out more about its development. It turns out that Afzanizam is a teaching assistant at the Sapporo City Board of Education, Japan.
While he majored in Biology, he also has a strong interest in mobile game devlopment. This interest has led him to create Kopi Tiam and a handful of other mobile games in his spare time. He was nice enough to answer a few more of my questions:
How would you describe Kopi Tiam?When was the game created? And what inspired you to create it?Kopi Tiam is the first time management game where you have to cook, prepare and serve a variety of local asian cuisine from Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. You can also learn more about the foods featured in the game. A word of caution though, the game is totally addictive!
Are you working on this game alone?Kopi Tiam game was first conceptualized in December of 2011 and went into development in early January. It was completed and went to market in late March of 2012.
The idea of Kopi Tiam came about because I saw a niche that needed to be filled. I love time-management games and I have been learning and trying to make them since late 2010. I realized that most time-management games are Western-centric. I thought it would be wonderful to see games that have elements that are familiar in this part of the world we call Asia.
How many downloads have you seen so far? Can you tell me a little about the paid version as well?I have been working on my games by myself and I find it very fulfilling. I'm still searching for a good game development partner that I can work with to speed up the development process.
Besides Kopi Tiam, what are your favorites games you have created so far?Kopi Tiam has been downloaded more than 80,500 times from Google Play Store, and more than 125,300 from the iTunes App Store thus far. I can't tell you the exact figure for the paid version but suffice to say that the conversion rate from free to paid version for the Google Play Store is about 3 percent and from the iTunes App store it is about 10 percent.
Do you have any future plans you wish to share with us?Besides Kopi Tiam, the other game that I enjoyed developing and playing is Cataline HD which available in the Google Play store and the iTunes App store. The game is very relaxing and set in a beautiful environment where everything is made of fabric and tapestry.
I'm currently working on my next game which I hope to release in a few months time. It is a spin off from one of the VIP characters from within Kopi Tiam game. The game is a time management type; however this time it is not based on food. The niche market for this game will be much narrower as well.