The author of the game 'Pho Anh Hai', which is receiving special attention from players, doesn't like playing games.

The owner of the game Brother Hai's Pho Restaurant said that he doesn't play games because it takes too much time and his computer is too weak to download the game. He only watches content creators play games.

"Brother Hai's Pho" restaurant in the game Brother Hai's Pho Restaurant - Screenshot

After about 5 days of posting, the game Brother Hai's Pho Restaurant (Pho Anh Hai) became the center of attention on social networks, receiving special attention from many young people at home and abroad because of its high entertainment value and trendy elements.

The phrase "Pho Anh Hai" has also become a "hot" keyword, entering the top most searched keywords in Vietnam.

The game has been positively reviewed and praised by famous streamers such as Kubz Scouts, a YouTuber with over 6.3 million followers; Hat Snow Player, whose YouTube channel has over 1.84 million subscribers... for its entertainment value.

The author of the game Pho Anh Hai talks about the reason why the game is causing a stir on social networks - Video : NGUYEN BAO

Success after more than 200 personal game projects

Brother Hai's Pho Restaurant is a game independently developed by a male student of K66, School of Information and Communication Technology, Hanoi University of Science and Technology.

In the game, the player will play the role of Mr. Hai, carrying out the task of selling pho (at number 10, Dan Phuong, Hanoi) and watching the dog so that it is not caught by bad guys when it runs out on the street.

Players have to face a series of funny and sad situations. From watching the pet dog named "Cau Vang" who can slip off the leash at any time when strange guests come to the shop, to many action scenes like in movies when "Cau Vang" is caught.

Talking to Tuoi Tre Online , male student T. (name changed) - author of the game Brother Hai's Pho Restaurant - said that this is a game with a budget of 0 VND, made from September 10 and completed after about 1 month.

Before Pho Anh Hai, T. had started to love game programming since 10th grade. He had completed about 200 game projects, but had not made any special mark.

Pho Anh Hai was made by T. from an old laptop. The investment budget for the game was 0 VND, because T. used resources that were widely shared on the internet, brought them back to edit or create new ones himself.

In the game, players must take care of "Golden Boy" to avoid being stolen by dog ​​thieves - Screenshot

"I posted Pho Anh Hai on October 23. The first five days after posting the game, no one played it, but after waking up one night, the game suddenly became famous on social networks. All my previous game downloads were only about 10,000, but Pho Anh Hai, as of the afternoon of November 5, had reached 650,000 downloads and more than 1 million views," T. said.

Sharing the reason for "anonymizing" his personal information when his game became famous online, T. said he was afraid that being too famous would affect his psychology and cast a big shadow on his future work. Meanwhile, at present, T. just wants to focus on studying and improving his knowledge.

Make games but don't like playing games

Although he is passionate about game programming, T. admits that he does not like playing games because it takes a lot of time, and his computer has a weak configuration and cannot download games to play. In his free time, T. watches content creators play games to learn and experience.

Regarding the idea for Pho Anh Hai, T. said that he wanted to make a game that was fun, bringing things he liked and popular trends online into the game, creating attraction and surprise.

"What attracts players to Pho Anh Hai is that at first glance, the game is very Vietnamese, easily attracting Vietnamese people. Pho is also a famous dish internationally. When clicking on the game, players will see 'meme' details that are very popular online, helping to keep players engaged and deeply immersed in the story," T. said.

The author directly experienced the game Pho Anh Hai on an old laptop - game design equipment - Photo: NGUYEN BAO

Developing the game Pho Anh Hai alone, T. said he did not encounter many obstacles. However, problems arose after packaging the game. Accordingly, the itch.io platform only allows uploading files under 1 GB, while the game Pho Anh Hai weighs up to 1.6 GB.

Then T. found a way to reduce the size and successfully uploaded the game. This also caused an error for a small number of players when downloading because it was not compatible with the computer configuration. T. is currently looking for a way to fix this error.

T. said that before the game Pho Anh Hai became famous on social networks, the male student, like many other students, had sent out many CVs to apply for jobs and collaborations in many places but was rejected. "Luckily, that free time helped me design a game that made my first personal mark," T. said.

After Pho Anh Hai became a hit online, T. also received several offers to cooperate in game development, but the male student said he was considering them.

Glad to inspire many game makers

T. said that at school he did not learn game programming, he accumulated knowledge and skills from free resources on YouTube; participated in forums and proactively shared his difficulties to ask people for help.

"After Pho Anh Hai, I received a lot of compliments and encouragement from everyone. Some emails were thanking me because they were inspired when experiencing the game. Before, they thought making a game was very complicated, needed a team and communication, and they didn't expect making a game to be so simple.

I shared with them how I learned on my own and how I solved the difficulties when making games," T. said.

NGUYEN BAO

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tac-gia-game-pho-anh-hai-dang-duoc-nguoi-choi-quan-tam-dac-biet-lai-khong-thich-choi-game-20251105174410376.htm