MAGIC Spell Studios welcomes Lual Mayan

The MAGIC Speaker Series resumes on Thursday, October 10 as we welcome Lual Mayen, the founder of Junub Games.  Lual has a rich story from growing up as a refugee to becoming a game developer. For 22 of his 24 years of life, Mayen lived in a refugee camp in northern Uganda. A few years back, Mayen saw a laptop computer at a registration station for the refugee camp. He told his mother he wanted one. She saved money for three years to get the $300 to buy it for him. He discovered Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and the joy of playing at an internet cafe. He regularly walked three-hours to get to the internet cafe to charge his computer and play games. As a child born in a violent war, Mayen thought about how to create a game that could inspire peace. He taught himself to make games and formed his own company, Junub Games, based on the realization that games can be helpful for peace and conflict resolution. He started making a video game in his country, so video games could divert their minds from destructive activities. His first game, Salaam (an Arabic word that means peace), is about protecting communities from being destroyed. It was a 10-megabit mobile game that could only be distributed via Bluetooth, but it went viral. A conference organizer at "A Maze" discovered it, tracked him down, and asked him to speak at a conference on games in South Africa. Last year, Mayen appeared at "The Game Awards", where he was named a "Global Gaming Citizen" in conjunction with an award sponsored by Facebook in front of 27 million people. Mayen is currently working with Facebook to publish Salaam as an Instant Game. This talk is free and open to the public and will include a Q&A session and a reception from 3:00-3:30PM in the Atrium. This talk is co-sponsored by The Strong Museum.For more information, please visit this link.  To request access services, please contact the Department of Access Services at https://www.ntid.rit.edu/das