Facebook sponsors nearly one billion VND for unemployed father

Once unemployed and struggling to earn money for milk for his child, Mr. Tu - a part-time mobile game programmer in Ho Chi Minh City - has just received nearly one billion VND in funding from Facebook to start a business.

Originally a web programmer and having worked for several companies, Nguyen Thanh Tu decided to quit his job in 2011 because he wanted to have the opportunity to develop his personal ideas. After more than a year of self-discovery, his first game Shark Journey, released over the past 3 months, has attracted more than 10,000 downloads on the App Store and nearly 5,000 downloads on the Google Play Store. This game has been well received by many players in the UK, the US, Thailand, Indonesia and several Middle Eastern countries.

Shark Journey is about a lost shark looking for its school. Players must control the fish through the Joystick interface in the corner of the screen to find the key to return home. During that time, the fish must eat small creatures to survive and avoid being eaten by larger species. Mr. Tu said that during his days of unemployment, his main job was to take care of his children while his wife went to work, so he often took the child to the koi pond. However, the child called the koi fish "shark", meaning shark, so he decided to develop this game. At that time, he had to do everything himself from programming, graphics, to sound, publishing and advertising for the game... In addition to the technical difficulties because he was a novice, Mr. Tu said that the biggest challenge was that his ideas were not well received. At that time, all family expenses, from taking care of children to relationships with the family, depended on his wife's income.

Anh Tu wrote the game himself while taking care of his children while unemployed.

“When I developed this game, I had no supporters. My wife did not want me to make the game because of my background in web programming, so we often argued. Sometimes my wife did not give me money for breakfast and lunch so that I could think about starting a business,” Tu said.

However, because he could not give up his passion, Mr. Tu took advantage of 2 to 3 hours every day when his child was sleeping to sit and program. When the game was released, the user growth was very good at first but then it plummeted. He started to monitor every feedback, take care of the graphics, add languages, adjust the difficulty and rearrange the advertising positions... to attract more players. Along with that, he took on seasonal jobs such as installing aluminum and glass doors to earn money for advertising for the game.

Up to now, although it is a small game, the gameplay is simple and not famous, the product has brought Mr. Tu a stable income. He said that the game's daily revenue is enough to cover all the expenses for his child for the whole month, from milk to medical treatment, tuition and other needs of the whole family. Although he did not disclose the specific number, but according to the SensorTower system, in August 2016, the "lost shark" earned nearly 5,000 dollars in revenue. "Now my wife supports me with both hands," Mr. Tu excitedly shared about the current situation.

At the same time, he also submitted Shark Journey to the FbStart program and just received a support package of $40,000, or nearly 1 billion VND to start a business. The support package includes tools and services from Facebook and partners such as Amazon, UserTesting, App Annie, MailChimp... His game was highly appreciated by the program for its impressiveness and potential for future development. Currently, the programmer born in 1982 is planning to use the funding. He also has a personal investor in Norway and has started looking for partners to form a small studio with 4-5 people.

According to VNE