A short history

Me and games go a long way back… I will try to make this long story into a short history.

I was born in the 80’s behind the Iron Curtain, a time and place when computer games were still in their infancy and the economic reality of my home country did not really promote gaming in any form.

Yet, my father managed to bring a computer from one of his trips abroad when I was five. A genuine Atari 800 XL with games like River Raid, Zorro, Bruce Lee, Joust, Boulder Dash to name just a few. I became hooked and games were on my mind ever since.

Throughout my years I have seen the transition from 8 bit to 64 bit, from simple pixelated games on Atari, through the first steps into 3D with Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake, up to the glorious future of games like Crysis and all that followed. I witnessed the birth of genres… like that of Real-Time-Strategy during the 90s through Dune and Warcraft. And I witnessed their slow demise by the hands of MOBAs in the late 2000s. I collected screenshots of Diablo unique items in a folder so I could show them to my friends. And then I played Counter-Strike when people thought arena shooters were the future. And then I beta tested World of Warcraft when most people laughed at the thought of paying a monthly subscription for a computer game.

Yes, I have seen the good, the glorious and the bad side of gaming history through my own eyes. These memories shaped me, they shaped my tastes in games and in a way this made me who I am today. And who am I?

I am a 37 year old husband, father of 3, a small business owner,  gamer and a wannabe game developer. I have a degree in English learning methodology and I am an IT technician. My academic interests include motivation, self-learning and life-long learning.

By day I run a small translation company. I translate mainly software and technical texts, review translations of other people, train translators and manage some aspects of translation projects.

But by night I learn. I code, I draw pixel art, I make 3D art, I design my systems and I craft my imaginary worlds in the hopes of one day sharing them with the world. And I try to fit all this with a full time job of being a father and a husband.

This site will document my journey to becoming a developer. I will post my learning experiences, share my art and code and show my designs and plans for the future. I will also share my insight into what I believe is good game design. Which is highly subjective, but after all those years I know what I like. And what I like very often coincides with what other people like too. However, the older the games industry becomes, the less of what I like I get from the large game producers.

This is going to be hell of a ride for me. But I hope it will be an interesting and motivating one. And I hope that you will not want to miss any of it!