Feature Pathway: Game Creator, Roman Holoman
For our very first feature in our Pathways series, we are introducing Roman Holoman. We had the amazing opportunity to speak to Roman in Downtown Atlanta, Georgia. Roman graduated from Georgia Southern University and he is currently living in suburban Atlanta, Georgia. He is the creator of the new mobile game Final Detonation. During his college years, he changed his major twice, once from Computer Science to Information Technology then from Information Technology to Computer Science because he hadn’t figured out exactly how he wanted to use his skills. After graduating, he secured a job in the tech industry, but he was not fully satisfied.
During his time in college, he knew that he wanted to create a game so he eventually took it upon himself to get involved in tasks and organizations that would expand his knowledge of what it takes to build a game. It may have taken him a bit longer to get his degree, but he ended up getting his monies worth from college because he is now doing what he wants. Growing up, Roman loved playing video games. Some of his favorite games were Tetris Attack and Pokemon Puzzle League. He loved playing these games so much, he wanted to create something similar, so he used his favorite games as inspiration for building Final Detonation.
Building a game has literally always been Roman’s dream. “I took a nap at work, on the clock,” he laughed then he continued to explain where the extra inspiration to build the game came from. “I had a dream about making a game and when I woke up, I retained all the information. The inspiration from the dream got me where I am now.”
Creating the game was not an easy task. It took years before Roman knew what kind of game he wanted his first game to be. Then, it took another year of dedication, research, and discipline to make it happen. Learning programming languages can be difficult to grasp for most people, especially to those who don’t have patience and dedication to practice outside of class time. It was also difficult for Roman.
“I do not like programming at all,” he said. “I found an engine that allows me to program without knowing the languages. I came up with a good logic, and that’s half of what programming is.” Although building games takes skills that he is not fond of like programming and networking, he was able to use his creativity to make it an enjoyable experience.
Many of Roman’s ideas were inspired by older games. He compares his puzzle game to popular games like Candy Crush Saga and Bejewled. When asked what makes his puzzle game different from those, he mentioned that Final Detonation has “detonations”, bomb power ups inspired by Collapse from Gamehouse Games.
The game can also be challenging and rewarding, as it has a timer that you must pay attention to in order to activate the detonations, voice responses that you hear when new chains are created to let you know how well you are doing, and you are able to collect Nova Crystals by playing in Detonation Mode or getting achievements. You can use Nova Crystals for power ups and skills. Users are able to adjust the game difficulty in the setting menu and the start up screen, making the timer slower or longer. You are also able to change the voice actor that you can hear when you create chains in the settings menu.
“It was very hard. I took my first Java test and flunked it. For the next 7 years, I swapped to IT.”
Roman epitomizes taking the time to find out more about yourself and doing what makes you happy. If there is something that you want to do, then do it. Don’t let anything be a limitation or an excuse to not do it. He had a goal that he literally dreamed about and he put forth the effort to make it a reality. “Making it was everything that I wanted. No one else, just me. Voice actors, detonations, there are no deadlines. Everything that I wanted came out. Everything that I like was in that game.” It definitely shows when we are passionate about things because others can tell that a piece of the creator is in the product. Others can tell that person worked hard on their product and that’s what many people will see when they play Final Detonation. It’s a fun game that is entertaining and it can be addicting once you get the hang of it. Final Detonation starts with a very detailed tutorial for new users.
When Roman spoke with some of his coworkers about what he wants to come from this game and where do he see himself after this game he responds, “At first I wasn’t really thinking of making money. I had no intent to make money off of it. I just want people to like it.” He feels like doing this to make money isn’t genuine because the end result should be your satisfaction and happiness from what is created. “Do it for the right reason. Make sure they’re good reasons and not ulterior motives.”
Final Detonation can be found in the App Store for iOS and in the Play Store for Android. Like the page on Facebook for updates on the game. We hear that Roman is now in the works for building a 2-player mode into the game. You definitely want to check out this new puzzle extravaganza!
He has recently revealed a secret strategy in the game. “On the Title Screen, try to catch the stars that randomly show up for a secret.” — Roman
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