NightMorning : Building games and a future franchise.
NightMorning : Building games and a future franchise.
In 2016 alone, Malaysia has created many headlines and achieved a formidable milestone in exactly one year. In July, Streamline Studios declared their collaboration with Square Enix for Final Fantasy XV, which will be available on the market 29th Nov this year. Malaysia is becoming a hub for game developers to create noteworthy games for their audience. In GameFounders we have one of the rising stars in the gaming sector, the team NightMorning, a very well-rounded group of guys with a passion for creating games and making a name for themselves in Malaysia. The company was founded in May 2016 by Dave, Abu, and Faris.
Q1. How did you guys become NightMorning and what does NightMorning mean?
Dave: We were all part once of WIGU games and it stands for “When I Grow Up”. I was the producer, Abu was the designer and Faris was the programmer. At that time we were all working on a game similar to the next Game of War where it was government funded. When the funding stops by April 2016 we were all out of a job. We had two options; either find new jobs or start a new company. Abu had the same idea and I brought the idea up with him.
Abu: This was right after a talk in GameFounders that Dave came to me and we decided “yeah let do this” and start a company together. We contacted Faris on an idea to develop our own games in our own company called NightMorning.
Dave: It is a fun catchy word, as I was flipping through the channel on the T.V, I heard this phrase NightMorning, and it stuck in my head for a long time. There is no epic story behind it, as it is just a catchy phrase and it could mean anything to anyone. In this world, we create our own meaning to words, and those words are meaningful to us and no one else. To Abu, it is the time of the day where we do no work at all.
Faris: What time is it? it is NightMorning.
Q2. What is the game you are focusing on right now and what is the concept of it?
Abu: At the moment we are focusing on NEZ. The idea came from a TED talk that I watched which stated that gamers can actually track objects better than non-gamers. The talker showed a demo which was interesting and I thought it was fun and we could make a game out of it. NEZ was a side project, a prototype actually that we started sampling and showing it to people. The response was good and we decide to make it a mobile game online for everyone. People like to feel smart and they like to show their friends that they are smarter than them. We are planning to build a franchise with it as we are developing different games using that same core concept. The game is out now on both ISO and Android and also the sister version UBA which is more kid friendly. 
Q4.How long did it take to create the game?
Faris: The prototype took two days and the further refinement took another two days and it took three weeks to polish the game to make it visually appealing so that the levels of the game don’t feel too long or too short.
Q5. How did you guys know about GameFounders?
Dave: We heard about GameFounders for the 1st time when they were planning to open the office in Malaysia. We attended some of the company’s events which were super awesome. The moment we formed our company, we applied for Game Founders’ Asia Cycle.
Faris: I was told about GameFounders by my former lecturer, he notified me that there is an organization that coming to Malaysia.
Q6.What do you guys want to learn from GameFounders?
Abu: We want to learn everything.
Faris: For me personally, I have a programming background so that part is more or less covered but the other aspects of game development were quite vague to me. Before joining GameFounders, things like marketing and user acquisition was not even in my vocabulary. These are the aspects of game development that I want to focus on more and GameFounders helped me to understand and learn more about them.
Dave: How to run a business. All this time we have been making games and we want to make a successful business. Gamefounders had that impression as in the application it stated that they are looking for serious companies who looking to be successful in the game industry and we are serious about it.
Abu: It is important to note that they didn’t say game developers but a company. My background is finance, yes we do like to make games but we need to pay bills.
Q.7 If you were not a game developer, what would you be?
Faris: Tutor and eventually a lecturer.
Dave: A Dj
Abu: Travelling novelist