Meet Greg Lobanov of Dumb and Fat Games: Drexel undergrad and indie game designer

A screenshot from Pollushot.

First, let’s get that name out of the way.

“Dumb and Fat” stems from an inside joke. Greg “Banov” Lobanov, the 20-year-old designer behind Dumb and Fat Games, said his friend make a joke video calling him, yes, dumb and fat, and he took it on as part of his Internet persona. Lobanov says he likes to laugh at himself.

He also likes designing games.

Check out Pollushot, a pull-and-shoot game for Android and iOS published by YoYo Games. Launched last year, Pollushot has nearly 500 reviews on the Android and iTunes app store. Lobanov, who uses GameMaker to make many of his games, says YoYo Games contacted him about designing a game because he was well known in the GameMaker scene (GameMaker is now owned by YoYo Games).

His next project is Phantasmaburbia, a role-playing game based on Philly’s suburbs, where Lobanov grew up. It’ll be his first commercial P.C. game but has no planned release date yet. He’s currently waiting for the soundtrack to be finished. It’s inspired by games like Zelda and ’90s-era Earthbound, he says.

Lobanov, a self-taught game designer, is an incoming Drexel University junior and lives in University City. He’s majoring in Digital Media. He says Jason Covenant is his go-to music guy, but other than that, he mostly works on his own. If he’s not working on a game at home, he might be at Chestnut Hill Coffee, his favorite coffee shop to work at.