UOIT games user researcher contributes to PewDiePie-inspired video game

A Game Development and Entrepreneurship researcher at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) has contributed to the creation of a video game for YouTube celebrity PewDiePie.

Many video gamers will know exactly who PewDiePie is. His real name is Felix Kjellberg, a 25-year-old YouTuber. Many of his videos are game reviews, but sometimes they’re about his opinions and other aspects of his personal life. His channel has become wildly popular; he has 40 million fans, and in 2015 he became the first person to reach 10 billion YouTube views. He is also the author of This Book Loves You, Amazon's Best Young Adult Book of 2015.

In December 2014 PewDiePie announced he was going to collaborate with Montreal, Quebec-based independent development studio Outerminds Inc. to launch a video game. Outerminds spent nine months working with PewDiePie and his fans on the project. Outerminds is one of the game development companies to launch with the support of Execution Labs, an early-stage investor that works with burgeoning game studios. UOIT’s Dr. Pejman Mirza-Babei, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Business and Information Technology, is collaborating with Execution Labs as Director of User Research, overseeing user research and playtesting for projects developed at the Labs.

The resulting retro-inspired 2D action-adventure game, PewDiePie: Legend of the Brofist, rose to the top of the App Store and Google Play charts just hours after launching simultaneously on iOS and Android.  

“Our involvement with Execution Labs demonstrates the significance of collaboration in today’s game development profession, where several experts work together to create and build games,” said Dr. Mirza-Babei. “Faculty members and students from our Game Development and Entrepreneurship program continue to work with many of today’s leading contributors in the video game industry who utilize our expertise.”