A lift engineer and YouTube sensation who taught himself to code in his spare time has released his own gaming app.

Barking and Dagenham Post: Saving ToruSaving Toru (Image: Archant)

Jay Trott, 29, who lived in Valence Avenue, Dagenham, up until recently, spent two years creating Saving Toru in his bedroom, a Flappy Bird-inspired side-scroller, accompanied by a mystery story.

The narrative centres around Toru, who has been taken from his planet Zecron and now he is stuck in the game – the further people get through the game, the more they hear about the character’s tale.

Unlike most apps, Jay opted to do all the work himself instead of involving a team, except for a voice actor employed to read the story, and balanced it around his engineering job.

Although tempted to give up on the project at times, he insists the finished product was worth the months of hard work.

“Getting to the end and seeing the game ready to play after all that time was really satisfying,” said Jay, who now lives in Romford. “I’m glad it’s done now.

“A lot of independent-created games like Flappy Bird have become really popular, but I find them quite boring doing the same thing over and over – that’s why I wanted the story, to offer people something new through the game.

“There were plenty of times I wanted to give up, but when I start something, I have to get it finished.”

Available to download for Android and through the Apple Store, the game follows the success of Jay’s first app – a soundboard that has been downloaded 55,000 times since its launch in November 2013.

In addition to his app-creating, Jay also runs a Youtube channel with more than 418,000 subscribes, featuring gaming, anime and video editing.

Visit uzumiapps.com.