I am a conformist, so I’m doing one too 🙂
I think I actually got started with gamedev fairly early, like when I was 12 or 13. I bought this software Axis Game Factory and also Pocket Code for mobile, and made a couple little things in those, but never took it anywhere.
Fast forward to when I just turned 15, and I was talking to someone, and he told me how he goes home and makes websites for money. That intrigued me, so I did some research. Over that summer, I had messed around with HTML and even a little python, but still never really did that much. It wasn’t until I found PyGame that things started to get rolling.
We’ll actually, I never got PyGame to work. I had tried but failed. However, still finding interest in games, I made the best google search of my life. “How to Make a Video Game”.
I found some WikiHow’s on how to make a game, and saw a list of game engines like Unreal and Cryengine. It so happened that I clicked on Unity, and chose to use it because I thought the website was pretty. Lucky me. So I started looking up some tutorials on how to make a game, which is where I found Brackeys and this wonderful community. For about the next 6 months, I didn’t do all the much besides recreate some tutorial games, but never made anything of my own. That spring break, I decided to set aside some time to make a game for myself. So I did.
I deemed the game “Camera Vision”, which was pretty much an exploration game using cameras spread across the map. In the end, it was pretty bad. I never got the camera movement right, it was short, had bad sound, and ultimately brought me a lot of frustration. I actually consider it a “half game”, as it was about half the concept I had envisioned before. Though despite all the trouble I went through that week, I learned one thing. I love making games.
So I started to learn more, and started to make my REAL first game, Tourestrial. It was an idle game like Cookie Clicker, and took me a couple of months to make. It was small, but actually very successful. It currently has over 4000 plays, lots of great feedback, and I made enough money off it to buy a candy bar! The Brackeys community was also very supportive, and you guys brought a smile to my face seeing the positive feedback and screenshots. Thank you to anyone ever who has played my game, it means the world to me.
After that point, I was sold on game development, and aspired to make it my career. I really wanted to be an indie, but was naive at the time at how much work it would take.
That summer, I had made another game Ambrosia, which was a flop. I ended up just pushing it out because I didn’t want to put up with the messy code and overly ambitious idea anymore. To be an indie, I really had to be dedicated to making games, and really I didn’t spend that much of my time on Ambrosia. I could have made a game twice as good in half the time, but I still didn’t get that yet. Still, I learned a few things.
Then comes my third game, Up and Above. I think it was ok, better than Ambrosia at least. I didn’t get all the mechanics I wanted in it, but it wasn’t buggy and the process went a lot smoother. I felt like I was getting better too, and I was.
In this time I also did a lot more research into Indie Game Development, and really saw the work that went into doing this as a career. I was not spending nearly as much time doing game development as I should have. I spent a lot of time playing games, and not enough making them. I still loved it, but I wasn’t working hard enough. So something had to change.
This brings us to right about now. I recently got a new computer setup, which is more like a work environment. No games on this computer, not as many distractions, and I can ultimately focus on game development more, which I am really happy about. I actually spent the whole day after school the other day making a new logo, where as before it would have taken me weeks! Now I am extremely focused on game development, and am actually spending more time making then playing.
I am currently working on my 4th game, which will be a TD game with Teddy Bears. Yeah I know, but trust me it’s a great idea. I’m actually starting a game dev blog about it too, if you want to check it out. Hopefully I can make it a bi-weekly or even weekly thing, to not only help me with my writing abilities, but also to keep me motivated. I really want to be an indie full time, and I feel like if I hit the ground running now, I will reach my goal.
So that’s where I am now. I can not thank all of you guys on the forum enough. You guys have kept me motivated and even entertained (You know I’m talking about you Prelol and Pork), and make me feel so welcome everyday. I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon, and I hope you guys don’t either.
Thanks for reading! I’m just gonna try to list of some names of people on the forum I want to thank, sorry if I miss your name, doing this by memory. Thank you Dion, Job, James Ball, Snowy, Invasion, Prelol, Pork, BlackBox, Miziziz, Zoe, Kalaskyrss, Fabi, and frankly everyone else on the forum. Also thank you Brackeys for having this forum. It’s the best community on Earth 🙂
