IT kids. Ani Hovhannisyan

It’s a proved fact that love for technologies begins in childhood. Today students go to school with smartphones and do their homework on tablets.

There are many teenagers in Armenia now, who not only use smartphones and tablets but also try to create something on their own - a game, an app or a program.

Itel.am continues its new series, presenting Armenian teenagers who’ve been interested in technologies since early childhood and create products in this industry.

17-year-old Ani Hovhannisyan decided to combine the professions of game developer and journalist. She modeled a 3D horror world in English style on her own at the game development workshop in TUMO Center.

Ani believes that her participation is important in a different project too, where she modeled 2 game worlds on her own. “The first one is a sunny, fairy-tale world with beautiful colours, and the second has the character die and get into a cruel and dark world full of tombs.”


Ani Hovhannisyan

In another project, Ani and a friend of hers created a world working on Unreal Engine, which includes an Armenian castle with the banners of the Arshakuni dynasty.

Future journalist and game developer

I’m interested both in creating and reviewing games. That’s why I chose journalism after I graduated from school. I study at Yerevan Branch of Moscow State University.


Ani Hovhannisyan

Both journalism and programming are in-demand professions, especially considering the fact that there are next to none game reviewers in Armenia.

There’s always the option of studying abroad and returning to Armenia, but I’m not sure about it yet. I know, for example, there are some grand universities specializing in game development in Japan.

You need to be very calm to become a good specialist in game development, as sometimes nothing works because you forgot to put a period or a comma in the 64th line of the 5000-line code. The other necessary condition is the ability to think logically and creatively.


Ani Hovhannisyan

I want to expand game development industry in Armenia

I want to expand game development industry in Armenia, and I will come back even if I ever go study abroad.

Blitz questions

- Would you prefer to play football in the street or a computer game at home?

- I love football, so I’d prefer to play football.

- Imagine computers and smartphones disappeared from the face of the Earth. What would you do?

- I will go back in time to the past and bring technologies to the future.

- What would you spend your first million on?

- I think I would buy a lot of games and play them all day long.

- A vacation in the Silicon Valley or on the Maldives?

- Silicon Valley.

- What famous IT person would you like to dine with?

- Creator of Silent Hill horror game Keiichiro Toyama. We would go to a Japanese restaurant, and I would ask how he manages to write such wonderful scenarios.

Narine Daneghyan
Photos by Emin Aristakesyan