Hello World! Embarking on my game dev journey

Introduction

From dreaming of making my own games as a kid, to booting up the computer and connecting to the internet via an AOL CD (connection noises intensify) and playing RuneScape (thanks for getting me hooked, Sean) for hours on Saturday mornings to not tie up the phone line during the day, I was hooked on the idea that someday I could learn how to make games and it would be easy.

Humble Beginnings

My first experience learning about game development was a summer class offered at the local community college for kids to learn Game Maker; a drag and drop style program used to create basic 2D games, offering its own scripting language for those looking for additional functionality.

Over the next week we learned how to build a simple maze game, complete with sprites, enemies, and portals to the next level. Dragging and dropping pre-made code blocks to handle logic, we were off and running as aspiring young game developers, and I couldn't get enough.

The class concluded and we each left with 2 CDs; one containing the Game Maker software and the other, my first ever game, "Zack's Maze Game". I was so excited to go home and try to install my maze game on the family computer, which proceeded to crash and throw an obscure error that didn't make sense to me.

Instant Feedback Loops

A bitter taste of the harsh reality of programming; seeing, interpreting and trying to fix errors is just par for the course. I didn't even write any code yet, and I'm seeing errors and crashes.

The only thing to do was roll up my sleeves and delve in. I opened up my project from a flash drive and started scratching my head as to what was going on. I knew nothing about writing log files or basic debugging for that matter, I just wanted the thing to work.

After a lot of trial and error, my game was up and running, and I got the itch to make changes and add more levels to my maze.

Modern Day

After ultimately going to school for computer programming and venturing down that career path, I still tinker in the game development realm; leveraging my C# skills to make passion projects and portfolio pieces in Unity (some of which can be found in the Our Projects page on this site).

Game Maker is still alive and well with new versions releasing all the time, including free versions, a vast video tutorial and resource library, along with an ever-growing community of game makers and enthusiasts.

Looking Back

Looking back at my early game development journey, I have fond memories of sitting in the classroom as a kid, pulling in blocks, and wiring up keyboard commands to move the character on the screen.

Dreaming up characters, obstacles, enemies, heroes, and seeing my ideas come to life within the scene is what fueled my imagination. It was this curiosity and wanting to add more that kept me going and eventually set the stage to make a career out of a love for programming.