After controversial Harambe Kong, Boise video game maker debuts Cecil the Lion game

When Tyler Saling first had the idea to create a video game based on the shooting of a Cincinnati Zoo gorilla, he was mostly joining the viral conversations around the ape, named Harambe. The animal was shot and killed in 2016 after a child fell into the gorilla enclosure, sparking a global outcry.

But in the process of creating Harambe Kong, an arcade-style game in which users play as Harambe and attempt to avoid children while collecting fruit, the 39-year-old Boise man had a change of heart.

“It did start off with, ‘Hey, let’s do something to get attention,’” Saling said in an interview. “I found some self-discovery, that I was more serious about this than I realized.”

Creating the game, which caused some controversy when it was released in Boise in 2017, sparked Saling’s interest in animal welfare. Now he has released a second game based on another animal death that caused uproar around the world: the killing of Cecil the lion.

In the new game, called Cecil Run, users play as Cecil, a lion who was shot and killed by an American bowhunter after being lured from the Zimbabwean sanctuary where he lived. Cecil flees from a volley of arrows and bombs, collecting hunks of meat to restore his health all while avoiding canyons and other obstacles.

Ominous drumbeats urge players on, but Saling said — just like in reality — there’s no way for Cecil to survive the game.

“At some point with arcade games, you have to lose,” Saling said.

Since Father’s Day, the arcade game has been available for free in the upstairs lounge of Boise Brewing, 521 W. Broad St., where the Harambe Kong game was previously.

Collin Rudeen, owner of the brewery, said hosting the arcade game is a way to support small business in Boise.

“We thought someone locally making their own arcade games was pretty cool and wanted the opportunity to showcase it,” Rudeen said. “(Saling’s) intention is to be fairly shocking. It’s also kind of fun and funny in a dark way.”

What Cecil Run, Harambe Kong say about animal rights

For Saling, the games aren’t meant to poke fun at the incidents they’re based on. Instead, he hopes they can serve as an opportunity to educate players about animal-related issues.

“There was such an emotional trigger with the killing of Cecil,” Saling explained.

He said Harambe Kong is a criticism of zoos (“They shot the prisoner to protect the intruder,” Saling said), Cecil Run broaches the topic of trophy hunting, and Saling said he has a third and final game planned that touches on the use of animals in circuses.

“I don’t think I gave animals enough credit (before making the games),” Saling said. “Realistically, this is about more than just one story, more than just one hunt, more than just one gorilla.”

So why base the games on a single event? It’s not a jab at the humans involved in the incident, Saling said, though a photo of Walter Palmer, the dentist who killed Cecil, and Palmer’s hunting guide appears on the side of the Cecil Run cabinet.

“If I wanted to slam someone, why not make Blake Fischer’s Baboon Hunt?” said Saling, referring to a former Idaho Fish and Game commissioner who stepped down last fall after sharing photos from an African hunting trip. The photos, which went viral and caused international outcry, included one of a family of baboons that Fischer shot.

Plus, Saling said he’s not anti-hunting.

“If hunting is done correctly, it can be a spiritual experience,” he said.

Saling said another reason he chose Cecil’s story is because of the way it meshed with gameplay.

“This story works very well with the genre, which is endless runner,” Saling said.

Like Harambe Kong, which was modeled after the original Donkey Kong arcade game, Cecil Run is a throwback. The new game is based on Moon Patrol.

Creating Boise arcade games

Saling isn’t quite a stranger to the video game world. Previously, he created a series of educational video games for children but has since worked a variety of jobs, at times drawing on his background in filmmaking.

Still, he wasn’t actively working as a game designer when he decided to create the first installment of what he calls the “endangered arcade.” He has released the games under through his own software company, called Digital Berserk.

“I was going to make one last game,” he said.

Then came the question of how to do it. Saling started writing code for Cecil Run in January, creating the game part-time while working at a call center during the day.

“In terms of total hours (it took to make the game), it’s not that much,” Saling said.

He wrote the code in C#, a popular programming language. Through Unity, a game engine that serves as a software framework for multiple gaming platforms, Cecil Run was brought to life.

Inside the arcade cabinet, the game is on a computer running Linux. If Saling needs to update the game to fix a bug, or if he wanted to play Harambe Kong or another self-made game using the cabinet, he can do so easily with a thumb drive.

Saling said creating Cecil Run and Harambe Kong has piqued his interest in producing games as a career, though he said he’ll be satisfied even if that doesn’t pan out.

“Money is not really the goal,” he said. “If I have a collection of games for my personal use, that’s not so bad.”

Will Cecil Run create controversy or change?

When Harambe Kong was first released, some players said it went too far. In the month that Cecil Run has been at Boise Brewing, owner Rudeen said he hasn’t heard any negative comments.

Saling said the game certainly isn’t G-rated, but the point is not to drive people away.

“I want to tread this tightrope of being edgy without being completely offensive,” Saling said.

Aaron Christensen, a friend of Saling’s and fellow video game designer, said it’s not unusual these days for games to address tough topics like mental health or eating disorders.

“There are a lot of games that come from a place of human emotion,” Christensen said. “(The animal rights issues) are unexpected topics to be hitting with a game.”

Saling said even if the games don’t see much attention, he thinks the conversation around animals in captivity is moving forward.

“These causes are getting enough attention that change is happening,” he said.

This story was originally published July 28, 2019 at 1:24 PM.