“It all started when I was 7 years old and my father brought home a PlayStation from the United States. I can still remember my first games: Tomb Raider 4—the Egyptian one—and Crash Bandicoot. This was my very first gaming experience,” recalls Hovsep Stepanyan, a tech aficionado and game development workshop leader at TUMO.

The idea to turn his love for gaming into a career didn’t occur to Hovsep until he was 11 years old and played Metal Gear Solid for the first time. “This game completely changed my attitude towards gaming because its goal was to avoid fighting at all costs. It was a new way to tell a story,” says Hovsep.

According to the gamer, videogames are an evolution in the art of storytelling. He explains that audio and video added a new dimension to stories, giving birth to cinema as a storytelling medium. Now, videogames allow people to not just follow an unfolding story, but also participate in its telling and even change its course. One of the two key factors determining a videogame’s success, in Hovsep’s opinion, is an interesting story. The other key factor is gameplay, which he has been profoundly studying and teaching TUMOians since 2013. “I remember the first time I heard about TUMO, I applied right away and came for an interview,” Hovsep recalls about the beginning of his TUMO journey. “It wasn’t so much an interview as it was a meeting of gamers, where we discussed our latest discoveries.”

Game development teams require people with various skills and backgrounds, like graphic designers, programmers, artists, photographers and more. Hovsep, a true gamer and game developer, enjoys other hobbies too. When inspiration strikes, he likes painting and photography (Check out his Instagram here). When it comes to gaming though, his inspiration is boundless.

FUN FACT

Hovsep has an extensive wine collection, including some very old collector’s edition bottles he has decided to never open.