Kaseko Iyanda

Game Design: Lucky Newt and his lucky creator!

Put on your blue gloves and head to Luckypad Lagoon! A new game is in development by North Atlanta’s very own Ethan Iyanda. Along with heading the new Animation Club, Iyanda works on designing and coding his various ideas into a real working product. Making an entire world around a game takes characters, backgrounds, controls… and creativity! Animation brings all these ideas together, and visualizes a story’s progression. From the drawing board to the computer, a simple pencil drawing can turn into something much more with just a few pixels.

Iyanda himself learned how to animate on youtube by himself in 8th grade after hearing about a game design and creation competition in the previous year. However, it wasn’t until high school that he found other peers who have a passion for animation. That’s when Iyanda made North Atlanta’s animation club, where they currently  watch videos and courses on animation and share their past projects. Currently, five members reside in Mario Padilla’s room on Fridays, but Iyanda plans on expanding it! Once they get more support, he plans on adding club meetings on Tuesdays, and a character design club later on. Iyanda hopes to cultivate an environment that can inspire others with the same drive and passion as him. “After repeatedly watching the Lion King when I was little,” Iyanda said, “I’ve always wanted to bring my drawings to life.”

Right now, Iyanda is bringing those 8th grade drawings to life through his developing video game around a crew of salamanders: Lucky Newt. Lucky Newt is a 3D platform game where the player can walk, run, and jump on walls while the perspective changes with them (think of the game Run from Cool Math). Through the website, Unreal Engine, Iyanda created characters from animals who aren’t often discussed, despite being endangered. Nedley Newt is the main character of the game, and is joined by Amelia Axolotl, voiced by Alehiza Soto-Arreola, and his older brother, Murphy the Mudpuppy, inspired by Iyanda’s actual older brother. Iyanda is also stirring up concept art for another game based on the myths and lore of pirates, diving into the real lore that’s not always the focus. Both of these games are a part of Iyanda’s very own company, The Ethan Iyanda Company giving him total control over how his games are put out. “It’s more freeing to have your ideas put out there the way that you want,” Iyanda said.

In just a short time, Iyanda was able to synergize animation and coding to produce his very own game. He created an animation club, two games in progress, and his very own company. His passion for animation has skyrocketed since he put it into action, showing his progression in animation as his games’ stories come along. From pencil to pen, from paper to tablet, Iyanda’s world building is only getting bigger. Whether it’s battling Calypso or Salazar, Iyanda’s story is still unfolding through the pixels of his pen.

All released games can be played on luckynewt.com