XTiming Interviews #BreaktheBias Part 1
XTiming Interviews is a new series telling the stories of various gaming industry leaders who have impressed us! Hopefully you can learn something from their stories, and support them by following and playing their games!
For our first interview, we talked to Kalia Aristidou, Co-Founder of Kalmapp. Her story is inspiring, and quite frankly, just cool! So, check out her answers to the questions we asked below.
Q: Did you always know you would work in the gaming industry?
What an interesting question! Since I was a kid, I spent most days in my mother’s flower shop and occasionally she would close the shop and we would go to the sea together. So, my childhood was either in the flower shop or swimming in the sea. When I was a teenager, I decided to study Oceanography so I traveled to Greece. After my graduation I returned to Cyprus and started to write a book for divers about the Zenobia Wreck. I realized that instead of creating a book and spending all that money to print, and wait for someone to buy it, it would be better to create an interactive application for divers. You know, going digital instead of selling a printed version. I applied for a Master’s Degree and realized that I should be studying video games. I’ve now stayed in the video game industry for almost 10 years.
Q: Have you seen any examples of women in the gaming industry on TV, magazines or online when you were a child?
I think it’s a bit sexist to say that this role model is for women and that role model is for men. I don’t like this approach. I think we don’t need role models that we don’t know in real life. I didn’t have to read about some successful people in the gaming industry, because my role model has always been my mom.
She was always a role model to me because with zero education she started her own business and was really successful. For me this was something I admired from a young age creating and becoming a self-made owner. Every time I worked in a company, I tried to behave like I was an owner and at some point, me and my sister decided why don’t we use this passion of working like owners to actually be owners of something. We then founded our own studio.
Q: Why did you choose mobile games?
Mobile game development itself is a really creative process. My first project was pretty indie and very unique but it didn’t find the right audience. The process of mobile game development includes a lot of analytic work to attract a big audience. The biggest challenge here is to have a high-quality product and be successful at the same time.
The advantage of casual mobile games is that you can reach an audience that didn’t’ come from an era when everyone had a digital device. When we made our first game, I showed it to my mom and said:” this is sudoku, try it out!” She had never played sudoku before, but she did it! She intuitively understood how to play and that is the concept of casual games.
Q: What do you play in your free time?
I don’t like games where I just kill time, I like games that have a good impact on my brain. I don’t’ allow myself to play those kinds of brain killing games except Bubble Bobble.
I don’t have a console or PlayStation, but I have that retro wooden arcade machine in my playroom. When you play those classic arcade games you realize that all current casual mobile hits have a background in these games. Game designers at that time were artists, and made really unique things. That’s why my favorite game is Bubble Bobble. The design of this game is amazing!
Q: Do you think it's easier for a novice developer to work in a company or make games by herself and collaborate with publishers?
No, don’t start to do your own thing right when you graduate. When I finished my master’s degree I started to work on my own. Tasks that shouldn’t take that long, for me took a long time, because I didn’t have experience. First you need to go to a company and gain some experience. The most important thing is to understand that video games are not just a hobby, they’re a business. And like all other businesses it has its own process. You need to learn the whole process from writing a code to game release. If you know zero about the publishing process, business development, marketing and starting your own business then this could be suicide. You need to have a plan and a marketing budget. You can’t make money out of nothing.
I also worked in a casual game company for 2 years and learned a lot about business development, things nobody taught me in university.
Q: Do you have any advice for students wanting to enter the field?
My advice is to find a job similar to your interests. If you want to be a programmer, find a job as a junior programmer and study from the people who already have practical experience. Don’t just follow your dream, follow it later. Right now, you need 2-3 years of experience to understand the industry before starting your own project to understand the whole business model. Find a job that is similar to your dream and learn as much as you can. Start a career, switch companies but most importantly, learn. Check companies’ projects and if you like them you need to learn how they did it. If you like the company and they don’t have a suitable position you can try to start in any position in the field that you are interested in.
If you want to support Kalia and her sister, you can try out their games here: https://kalmapp.site/