Best of What's Next 2009: Jani Kahrama (Secret Exit) [Game Developer]

Hometown: Helsinki, Finland
Game: Zen Bound
For Fans Of: Yoga, Finnish electronica, Origami

Few game companies can claim they create experiences as meditative as they are addictive, but Secret Exit did just that with this year’s landmark iPhone application, Zen Bound. Thinking way outside the pod, head developer Jani Kahrama and designers Mikko Mononen and Tuukka Savolainen crafted a series of gorgeously textured puzzles that require players to paint the surface area of wooden statuettes with a length of rope. With an International Mobile Gaming Award on their mantle and the stylized silhouette-matching app SPiN now available on iTunes, the digital pop artists at Secret Exit should have miles to travel before they reach their namesake.

What’s Next? “We’re working on a game called Stair Dismount Touch,” says Kahrama, “a physics game where the player’s goal is to artistically push a person [named Mr. Dismount] down stairs for maximum damage. [It’s] the next official game in the series that started up as a morbidly funny freeware game on the PC. We’ll allow users to place photos of their friends on [the face of] Mr. Dismount and share the results as screen grabs.”

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