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Trials and Tribulation of Alex’s non-Existant Game Career

I remember back in middle school talking with friends about what we wanted to be when we grew up (the same Turbo Boss Battle crew you know and love, yes we've been friends THAT long.)  I remember that I wanted to make video games for a living.  That idea came and went over the years as I struggled with middle and high school issues such as "being cool."  In high school I was introduced to programming in an introductory computer programming course.  I promptly spent the rest of my high school math and physics career programming stupid things on my TI-83. For example,  a 3D box that bounces around the screen for a few second until a picture of a dick appears - classic. 

When deciding on what I wanted to study in college it was between communications and computer science.  I accidentally ended up at an engineering school so I went with programming.  I really liked programming because when the day was over, you had something interactive, something you can show to people and say "check this out, I made this."  Even stupid homework assignments usually resulted in something to feel proud of.  Then again, maybe math majors feel proud about having 8 pages worth of Greek symbols that no one can read or appreciate except other math majors. 

Unfortunately, I'm not someone who loves programming so much that I feel a compulsive urge to do it all the time, so I never attempted to make much more than what I produced for my homework.  After my sophomore year I took a shot at making a game with XNA, and in 3 weeks time, working about 7 hours a day, I made a pretty decent Bejeweled rip-off. I learned a lot, and it was really exciting to show people who were not only a little interested, but refused to give me back my computer because they were playing it.  Then I started working again, 40-60 hours a week, and the game got shelved.  It lives on my hard drive now, collecting virtual dust. 

During my junior year in college I took a game design course. It was focused on board and card games, but touched briefly on video game design.  I found that designing games is where my true love was.  However, as most people know, or should know, game design is not something you just walk into and expect to be paid.  But, with a degree in programming, I had a skill so I decided I would try for my old dream of making games. 

I applied to lots of game companies before graduating college, just like many others did. Those who succeeded in getting those jobs, I congratulate you.  My admitted laziness clearly held me back from getting a job, something I regret.  However I still love video games, and I've learned a lot in the past year since graduation (sorry this has become a coming of age story).  More than anything though, I've learned in the past year to motivate myself enough to successfully complete projects.  What projects you ask?  This blog.  It is now 4 months strong, and I'm proud of it.  It started as a little dream, and it because a reality. 

I have never made pong... just a variation on it.

While I'm not done with blogging, Paul and I have added a new video game project to the table.  This time, we are MAKING a game.  I still have to do the programming, but at least I have a 50% share in the design of the game, which is infinitely more than I would have had at a large company.  I get really excited thinking up new ideas and discussing them, I almost called Paul at midnight when he was probably sleeping one time because I came up with a great new game play concept and didn't want to wait till morning. (Asleep at midnight? Ha, never! - Paul) 

Currently I'm simply learning the ropes of the language and tools, but even the simplest tutorials make me happy when they are done.  Tell someone you made an interactive thing, and they are instantly impressed.  It's a good feeling.  Now I just need to keep this motivation going.