When NC junior Ashu Ebot-Tabi pushes his Magnet school work to the side, he spends time brainstorming creative ideas to pitch for Marvel video games. Taking inspiration from past Marvel video games and his gaming fantasies as a young child, he builds storylines and plots to shine light on characters that typically reside on the sidelines in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  

“I mainly got ideas for this after seeing the success of the Insomniac Spider-Man game. I wanted to make games based on Marvel characters who I feel would not traditionally get a game of their own; not only getting people to just play as them, but also telling the kind of story that I would want these characters to be in,” Ebot-Tabi said.

Ebot-Tabi meticulously writes and organizes the details of multiple game pitches and ideas into two sections: gameplay and story. Through analyzing the characters and their unique abilities, he determines what type of story and setting would fit them best, all while creating and suggesting engaging plots for players to enjoy.

“For gameplay, I look at the character and think ‘what kind of gaming genre would be the best fit?’ For example, for my Nick Fury game, I have decided that since he’s a spy, I feel a stealth game of Metal Gear Solid would be the best fit for him. After I nail down a specific gameplay style, I think about the kind of environment that I want them to be in, and how their abilities can thrive in that environment. I also add in collectibles and extra content,” Ebot-Tabi said.

Ebot-Tabi brings in ideas and characters from the early, classic Marvel comics and combines them with modern Marvel features in his game pitches. He places these characters into the modern, popular environments that Marvel characters, such as Spider-Man and Thor, face in video games and movies.

“For the story, I was inspired mostly by the early 60s and 70s era of Marvel comics, when they really started to find their footing. I wanted to see how I could take those types of stories and modernize them, but in the same way make them feel like they could exist in the same universe as Marvel Spider-Man,” Ebot-Tabi said.

He continues to brainstorm ideas for video games starring characters such as Wolverine and Dare Devil and plans on sending these detailed pitches to Insomniac Games, a popular gaming company; Ebot-Tabi pours his thoughts onto a single document and organizes them to become easily navigable for story advisers to follow. He hopes to receive feedback about his ideas from the company, and possibly flow some creative juices with smaller, lesser known characters at Insomniac Games and Marvel.

“I’m only three games in, so right now I’m having ideas for a game on Silver Surfer, one for the X-Men, one specifically for Wolverine, and two DareDevil games. When I’m done with all of this, I plan on sending my pitches to Insomniac Games and look forward to hearing about what they think about these games, if they would be interested in pursuing these ideas, and maybe if they have ideas for me potentially as a story adviser,” Ebot-Tabi said.

Basing his gaming storylines off fresh, new ideas, Ebot-Tabi plans on showing off less-popular characters who each carry abilities unique to the world of superheroess and villains in Marvel comics. He wants to create a defined line between his pitches and the popularity of widely-known Marvel characters, shining light on characters who have not received the chance to share their stories and their abilities to the fullest potential.

“I think it’s important for these games not to be bound by the success of the movies. In general, I feel they’re too dependent on the characters they have starring in their movies. They’re not willing to take any chances with the smaller characters, and by doing this, I feel I can show them that there’s more to these characters than just the money they can bring in from movie studios,” Ebot-Tabi said.