We had a chat with Rob Howland, who has modernized language learning techniques through a video game called Influent. Let’s hear what he says about his game and the video game industry.
Azfar Rayan: Hello Rob! Everyone in the gaming industry is familiar with the name Rob Howland. How about sharing a bit about yourself for those who still aren’t?
Rob Howland: Ha! Apparently I’m big in Japan but for everyone else, I got a scholarship from the Japanese government to do video game research at the University of Tsukuba in Japan and I wound up making a game called Influent that teaches languages. It did really well on Steam and I opened a skate shop in Osaka called The Mint with my best friend Bug Barnes and also started making a new multiplayer game called Armed and Gelatinous with my other best friend Spooky Prusakowski. We wound up building 8 handmade arcade cabinets for it and it’s now playable in five major cities in the US.
Azfar Rayan: When did you start playing games, and how did you get involved with making one?
Rob Howland: I started playing games when I was maybe 6 or 7 when my parents got a NES for me and my little brother so we could play together. We got obsessed with Super Mario 3 and played it all the time. All the kids in our neighbourhood would get different systems like the Genesis and SNES so we’d go over to their houses after school and play new games all the time. My dad eventually got a PC for work and I started playing games online and when Counter Strike 1.6 came out when I was in High School, I figured out how to make custom levels for it. I made a replica of my High School and everyone at school was amazed, even the teachers.
I’m lucky they didn’t take it the wrong way and expel me! I never thought about making a career in games and was just doing it for fun until I needed to go to college and found out about game programs. I applied to the Art Institute of San Francisco and somehow got into their Game Art and Design major where I learned everything about 3D modeling. After graduating, I got that scholarship to do research in Japan and taught myself how to program with Unity and made my first game, Influent!
Azfar Rayan: Why Influent? What motivated you to make a game for language learning?
Rob Howland: Part of getting approved for the scholarship was finding a Professor (Sensei) to sponsor my research proposal. I worked closely with Hoshino-sensei to publish a research paper on the topic. My Japanese was terrible at the time and we struggled to communicate but in the end I understood that he wanted me to make something beneficial to society. He handed me a Unity license and I began learning how to use it.
It didn’t occur to me that I should make a language game until I started putting flash cards on all my appliances in my apartment. I had been making my own flash cards for a couple of years to study the language and I was getting kind of bored with them but then it hit me that I could recreate my apartment in 3D and add audio pronunciations and a progression system with challenges and I immediately got to work on it.
Azfar Rayan: Did you find it challenging when you started making Influent? How did you cope with them?
Rob Howland: It was definitely a slow process of learning how to code and understanding how to develop a whole database that you can easily interact with. Thankfully Unity had an online community and lots of documentation so I could look things up most of the time. I also needed to figure out how to get audio pronunciations in the game and thankfully my Sensei found a student from another laboratory who was willing to record them. We were given an empty classroom where I set up a microphone and recorded her voice for the game and that process set the stage for how I would eventually record all 23 language packs.
Azfar Rayan: Did you find individuals to join your team when you had the idea of making this game or did you simply hire people to execute your plans?
Rob Howland: My girlfriend at the time who was living with me in Japan is a very talented artist. She was able to help convert my prototype level into the beautiful apartment it is today. I hired another contract artist that reached out after the Kickstarter campaign succeeded and he also made a bunch of the objects in the scene.
I met Lifeformed at a Hanami party in Osaka and we became friends. I was already a fan of his Fastfall album and asked if I could use his music for Influent and he was stoked. He’s also got a track on the Armed and Gelatinous OST. I hired another guy via the Kickstart named Magnus Nygaard that did all the sound effects.
Azfar Rayan: What was your team’s reaction when you shared your vision for a game that would have 21 different languages to teach?
Rob Howland: It was actually just one at a time and honestly I didn’t have that vision at first. I only added Spanish when my neighbour in Japan, Martin, asked if I would add it. He offered to do the pronunciations so we tried it out and viola! I didn’t think about adding other languages at first. I was only interested in making a Japanese language learning game. But over time, it just naturally grew out sideways with more and more people in my network asking to have their native languages included. The community has driven a lot of the development in that sense, especially people from the Kickstarter wanting to help with translations and pronunciations to get more languages added.
Azfar Rayan: Do you have any mentors or people from your past that helped inspire you to get involved in this project?
Rob Howland: My Game Design professor at the Art Institute, Dexter Chow was definitely an inspiration in wanting to design and build my own game. His class was easily my favorite and it pushed me to follow through with my dream of becoming a game designer. I was also inspired by Hideo Kojima to make video games because of how his games broke down the 4th wall and blew my mind like with the Psycho Mantis battle.
Also I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Kazuhito Shiratori for making all of this possible. If it wasn’t for meeting him in a chance encounter at SIGGRAPH in New Orleans, I never would have been able to secure my scholarship and move to Japan. ありがとうございます！
Azfar Rayan: Other than the latest Android launch, is there another project you’ve worked on recently?
Rob Howland: Armed and Gelatinous is still underway! Been working on it for like 6 years now, mostly because we pivoted to the arcade platform for 2 years and then the whole pandemic really set us back. We’re back on track now though and expect to release it this year! It’s a fast-paced multi-player couch-competitive bullet-hell space-shooter.
Azfar Rayan: What are your top 3 favorite games?
Rob Howland: Metal Gear Solid, Super Mario 3, and Okami. Fight me.
Azfar Rayan: When you are not making or playing gaming, what else are you up to? What are your hobbies and interests?
Rob Howland: Skateboarding is my other big thing. I also love kicking around a footbag with the homies or solo. I was a hippie in a past life.
Azfar Rayan: So, what does the future hold for Rob Howland, and where can we expect to find you?
Rob Howland: Digitally, you can find me on Instagram via @robatato. IRL, you can find me at the local skatepark doing kickflips on repeat or at my local arcade Ground Kontrol playing Killer Queen or teaching people how to do the dash attack on Armed and Gelatinous.
Azfar Rayan: Anything for your fans at GamesCreed?
Rob Howland: Thanks for playing Influent and look out for Armed and Gelatinous, coming soon to a couch near you!
Many thanks to Rob Howland for taking his time to answer my questions and doing the interview with us. We wish him all the very best with his game Influent, which has recently launched on iOS and Android. Keep up with Rob Howland by following him on Twitter.
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