Capping off an emotional few months was the news of the passing of my best friend, Musa. His departure had a profound impact on me, and while I would never ever, ever exploit his memory for personal gain, it became a driving force behind my work on this project. I felt a strong urge to honour his memory and our cherished childhood together through this endeavour.

During our younger years, Musa and I used to spend hours playing Pro Evolution Soccer 2002 at my place. Back then, I didn't have a memory card, so Musa would alter the teams and formations each time he played. I was thinking to myself, “Let’s just play!” but he always did it (LOL) and, of course, proceeded to thrash me and gloat heavily!

The idea for "Swipe Soccer Series" came to me while I was working at IROKOTV in 2016, sitting at my desk. And, as I mentioned, the passing of Musa has driven me to complete this project. I aim to capture the joy and competitiveness we shared during those Pro Evo games and translate that experience into a modern and enjoyable gaming experience. I hope that players can feel the passion and love that went into creating this game.

And my advice to everyone is, come on! Check up on your friends! There’s no gun to your head! So make the effort! Call them! Text them! No excuses!

When you think of the definition of a “Good person,” Musa is that. He is not here anymore, but his memory is immortalized in our hearts and minds.

2018, on a packed Victoria line train, reading Shoe Dog, trying to absorb the words, I am thinking about the future. What can I do for my future? I am in a good job, working in the heart of London for a tech start-up making good money.

I had a colleague called Matthew (not his real name protecting identity), and I admired this guy. Having conversations with him is what I look forward to every day. Matthew could do everything. If it had not been for me working on a desktop, I would love to sit next to him and work all day. For every problem we had, it could be a broken lightbulb or an error with software, Matthew had a solution. One afternoon I walked over to his desk. He was working on the company app. And he also created a JavaScript website for a friend(keep this on the hush), and he showed it to me. It was so fascinating to me at the time it had a parallax effect coded to it. Matthew then showed me the code. I was so put off at the sight of it. The website design reminded me of a game I played on my train journeys to Monument Valley (play it if you get a chance). I showed him and said the animation you created looks just like this game, and he said "It is built most likely on unity" I looked at him in awe! He just said something amazing again, though I was confused about what he meant.

Usually, I read stories about how things were put on paper initially and would be worth a lot in the future. As I was reading Shoe Dog at the time, I recall a chapter with Carolyn Davidson handcrafting the Nike logo piece of paper. But this is the 21st century. My line manager Corin(not her real name) knew I liked Candy Crush. Due to working efficiently, I had free time in between working.

It was a high-pressure environment, and sometimes, it felt micromanaged. Looking back, I believe work should never be like that
churning out project after project is not creatively sustainable. I never complained though I was privileged to have a job.

Back to the story... I heard, “why are you crushing?” I looked back and smiled innocently. And a thought came to my head why isn’t there an African game that looks like this? I used to play a game called Oware growing up. I quickly mock up a screen of Oware in Photoshop. And then I thought hmmm, I then went home and created a mock view trying to take as much inspiration from Candy Crush and wallah I felt that this is possible.

I looked at getting the game developed. Can I do it myself, or should I hire someone? I ended up hiring a developer.
I explained the concept of the game, and the rules and boom, just like that, the dream was being conjured up. A few weeks later, I got a BETA version. I spoke to Matthew once again he said “Great! But don’t expect it to be a success”. I asked him what does he mean? He said, “Games are developed every day, and it’s a good way to learn how to code and build portfolios. People build stuff all the time especially hyper-casual games are being developed every day”. Instead of taking offence, I immediately took a new outlook, and I said to myself, I can use this game to encourage those around me, and it could be used to help boost my career prospects. Yeah! That’s the new mission. Two days later after work, I had my usual Costa meet-ups, during the meet-up I presented an early beta version of Oware. Seeing someone’s reaction positively towards it gave me a warm feeling. This was the beginning of that new outlook. But I couldn’t help but feel there was so much to be done. There were so many bugs within the BETA they needed addressing asap.

It's 2020. COVID-19 is here. I have just been released from my job due to it being acquired by a French company. Issues with the developer's personal life affected the development of the game. The world is in turmoil, panicking, falling apart, and my life. The game is on hold. Progression in career and life is on hold. I tried leveraging every contact I had in retail and tech etc. It's either businesses were closed or just not hiring. What can I do? Cry? It helps release emotions but will that change anything? Amazon Flex had me on the waiting list for months. It was so competitive getting a space you'd have to wait for the alerts to register at times. Sometimes you wouldn't even get any. At least that could keep me going. I wasn't even breaking even. I would be paying for car insurance and petrol and still not making enough to cover everything, let alone having some job interviews in between which they were hiring people with 10+ years of experience for moderate roles. Life was not fair at all. But just because the world stopped doesn't mean I should. I had a crack at C#, python and javascript. I tried. One thing that kept me going was a side project. I was developing a directory in HTML and CSS, which helped motivate me. I also tried building the game myself but found it too difficult, so I left it. I managed to get a temp role at the end of the 2nd lockdown. My career was picking up again. At least that was something staying strong. Mid 2021, I am looking to get the game back on track. I got a super-talented developer, and once again, the development of the game was on. But development paused again. I was not in a good state financially so I needed to focus on picking myself up again. Thank God for family. Men will abandon you but family will be the only ones who will stick by you. No questions asked. 2022 is here. I am building myself up again and incrementally working on the game. June, the game development is done! June? But the game was released in September? I forgot I had to do all the promotional artwork, registering, and copywriting the whole shebang. It was hard doing this solo. But it was complete.

Before release, I had a version of the game on my Android device. I attended my niece's 1st birthday, she was born during COVID season, and I had never seen her before. She has two older sisters. I hadn't seen them for a long time. It was a chance to unwind from the pressures of life and celebrate life. Arriving there, my cousins pressed me about the game. I just said it was complete. I showed them the game, and they were all congratulating me. The feeling that I had at Costa, the warm feeling inside, I felt it then. I hugged one of my nieces and told her she can achieve anything. Just be focused and be determined. I don't know if she understood me, her being young. But that was a chance to use my experience as a tool to encourage someone. I showed her the game and got her other sister and the birthday sister and had them congregate around my phone to look at the game. The eldest stood behind my back viewing from my neck, the middle one on my lap whilst holding the birthday niece was held in my arms and we all played the game together. At that moment, I knew I won. This is what it is all about.

So the date is around the end of October 2022. I currently have around 60 downloads worldwide. Thank you so much!

If you have a dream or aspiration in life, you can achieve it. Never give up. I have had my whole world crushed, disappointment upon disappointment, my dreams and plans destroyed during this period of the Oware's development, but I remembered why I started and stood by my guns. All you need is a why? a who? and the how will come. I look forward to continuing trying to develop products that can inspire the masses. Thank you so much for taking the time to read. I hope this encourages you.