The Inspiring Life Story of a Blockchain Game Entrepreneur!
How One Man’s Passion for Gaming Led to a Groundbreaking Blockchain Platform.
Hannibal Soares is the co-CEO and co-Founder of the legendary BoomBit Group. Read the compelling tale of how a love for the 80s and 90s video games ignited a passion that led him to build the first-ever Mainstream blockchain gaming platform.
Early Life in Portugal
Born in Portugal and growing up in Lisbon, Hannibal studied in a French School, the Lycee Francais Charles LePierre. At school his main interests were gaming, music, graffiti art, skating and surfing.
Gaming as a Child
At an early age playing legendary Spectrum 48K classics like Chuckie Egg, Bomb Jack, Manic Miner and Jetpac nurtured a love of gaming,
“My older brother had a ZX Spectrum 48K and I spent hours playing those games and hoping those tapes would load properly!”
GameBoy and Nintendo
In the 90s, Hannibal was an avid fan of Nintendo and Super NES games, hooked on Tetris, Super Mario and Zelda as one of the first GameBoy owners. It was a time when a career in gaming was not so certain.
“It wasn’t until 1998 when Starcraft first came out that I realized I would love to be involved in the gaming industry… In those days gaming was not really a career path you could aim for like it is today.”
University, Raves and Becoming a DJ
In 1998, he left behind his childhood city of Lisbon for the University of North Wales, Bangor to study Banking & Finance; a massive change for him. Undeterred, Hannibal embraced the flourishing UK rave party scene and began DJing in numerous parties with his first Technics decks.
Working in Investment Banking and Brokerage
In 2001, Hannibal moved to Frankfurt after graduating, to work in Investment Banking where he helped coordinate the launch of the Euro. Also, he worked in the exciting world of trading floors and brokerage firms. In 2004, he was headhunted and relocated to London to launch a new trading desk.
By 2011, now with his first child, 16-hour working days didn’t feel conducive to family life and he felt a creative calling instead.
DJing, Producing Music and Coke Zero
All the while, he never stopped DJing and his love of producing music, with some success. Coca-Cola signed a deal to use one of his group’s songs for a music video, but fatherhood meant the life of traveling and performing was out of the question.
The Beginning of Mobile Gaming
After buying his first iPhone in 2010, he saw a huge opportunity in the AppStore due to Apple’s mass distribution channel.
Inspired, Hannibal took an online course with Trey Smith (‘Buildbox’) who he classes as ‘a great teacher, mentor and a mobile gaming pioneer’.
Next, Hannibal put a team together with a graphic designer in Argentina (still with BoomBit today!) and a developer in Russia. Despite language barriers and working full time in a bank, his first game, ‘Pirate Walk,’ was published by Christmas 2011.
Quitting Banking for Games!
Even though he had a senior position in Investment Banking after a 10-year career, Hannibal took the leap and went full-time in gaming. He describes it as ‘the best decision I’ve ever made in my life’, despite numerous people thinking he was ‘completely mad!’.
‘And BoomBit was Born!’.
Not long after, Hannibal met his co-founder, Marcin Olejarz and in 2012, they teamed up for a flick football type game before the UEFA European Championship in Poland and their game reached number 1 in over 80 countries.
Parking Cars!
In the early years, BoomBit had tremendous success developing car driving games, specializing in parking simulators,
“Most of those games reached Top 10 in the USA every single time!”
Over the years and with a keen eye on gaming trends, BoomBit launched ‘over 200 games from Casual to Mid-Core and everything in between’ reaching a staggering 1.1 billion downloads.
Blockchain Gaming Issues
Hannibal and BoomBit first wanted to develop a blockchain game back in 2018, but the technology wasn’t there. Nowadays, he believes that the quality of many blockchain games is not great and the lack of blockchain technology experience is a high barrier for game developers,
‘Many blockchain games today have hardcore GameFi mechanics crammed into some sort of basic gameplay which is simply not fun for the average gamer’.
The BoomLand Blockchain Gaming Platform
Hannibal’s vision is to launch the first-ever mainstream Blockchain gaming platform with fabulous games, rewarding players with cryptocurrencies and the ability to trade/lend NFTs in a self-sustaining, player-owned game economy.
Hannibal has had a remarkable life journey nurtured by the games of his youth. He truly believes that blockchain gaming is set to light up the future.
Contributors
Editor
Richard Ibbotson
Writer
Jamieson Lee Hill
