Home made video game makes it to the Time top 10

Hunted Forever was created by Evan Miller, a 21-year-old student from B.C. The flash-based game introduced in October has quietly won over computer gaming aficionados.

“Hunted Forever,” a flash‐based game introduced on King (www.king.com) in October 2008, has quietly won over computer gaming aficionados. In the few weeks since its debut, the game has been played more than 2 million times and hosted on more than 1000 web sites. The stylized game created by a Canadian university student was also listed among such high‐powered titles as “Grand Theft Auto IV,” “Gears of War 2” and “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed” in Time magazine’s list of the top 10 video games of 2008.

The only computer flash game among the picks, “Hunted Forever” was created by Evan Miller, a 21‐year‐old student from Vancouver, who developed the game on his home PC in six weeks. This is a far cry from the years often required to create more hyped console blockbusters, such as wildly anticipated “Spore,” which ended up two positions lower on Time’s list at number 10. All but one other title, which was created for the iPhone, were console games.

“I was reading through this gaming blog, like I do normally, and I’m going over the top 10 games looking for the ones I expected to see on there, and all of a sudden I said ‘wait - that title looks really familiar,’” says Evan Miller, a fourth-year student in the interactive arts and technology program at Simon Fraser University. I was thinking, how did they manage to mistype some other game that badly? Then I realized. I spent the next couple of hours in a state of shock, pretty much - not being able to believe it. I was so dazed I didn’t even tell my parents until the next day. With this game I get to stand side by side with the big names I've always looked up to, and that's really crazy," says Miller, who has kicked off his career as a developer before moving from home. "It goes to show that when you care about the games you are making, even if you don't have all the resources in the world – you can still create an experience that is just as compelling."

With a classic pop‐art look that gives a nod to graphic designer Saul Bass, “Hunted Forever” features a silhouetted hero dashing, diving and climbing through an eerie, industrial landscape as he avoids bombs and laser blasts.

“This shows that great games can come from anywhere, that you don’t need an army of developers at a large company,” says Riccardo Zacconi, CEO of King.com. “On a good week, we receive a hundred game proposals, which shows that there is tremendous talent outside of the studios. Evan and the success of ‘Hunted Forever’ is a testament to how King works with developers worldwide to reach the largest possible audience.”

“Hunted Forever” can be found on King at http://www.king.com/game/hunted_forever