First of all, I just want to say that like you who is reading this. I’m sure you are also a gamer like me. Its in our blood to play games and acquire achievements in trying to finish a quest in a game that we are playing.
“I am a gamer not a player, player’s gets chicks, while a gamer gets achievements.”
Unknown author
I love playing games when I was a kid. It was a good way for my mother who was busy taking care of her four children and earning income for the four of us and my father who was very sick. The gaming console family computer really helped my mom to keep me distracted because I was always following her around.
The only way that she can leave me behind in my aunts house without worrying is when my auntie would have a family computer console in front of me, my mom being the bread winner and who became a widow when my father died when I was still in grade two. She really needed help in trying to distract me to not following her around. There were four of us and she usually leaves me and the 2nd to the eldest in our aunts house.
She would usually leave me at my aunts house every weekends with a promise to get me after work. I am a very proud mama’s boy. So, it was really difficult to get me out of my mom’s care. The only way to really distract me was with the help of my kuya Mon’s family computer console. (In Filipino kuya means big brother – the husband of my cousin)
I remember during kinder II, I tried to escape twice from my aunt’s house just to get back home to my mother. Some tricycle driver’s who knew our family during the first time of my escape was a total failure, this is due to my family being known in our place, because, my grandmother had a small sari-sari store (this is like a grocery store in other countries).
The tricycle drivers knew my father and brought me back to my grandmother. This is where I learned my lesson. The second time I tried escaping, I remember distracting them, then trying to get off the fence or wall by climbing the guava fruit tree inside of the house garden of my aunt.
I was successfully able to escape and then tried to walk my way home because the last time I approach tricycle drivers (this is a mode of transportation in the Philippines from where you would see a motorcycle that has a side car) and tried drawing a map to our house. They betrayed me by bringing me back to my grandmother’s sari-sari store.
So, the second time of my “prison break”, I was wise enough to go and try to just escape by means of walking from the house of my aunt to our house which will require you to walk in the MC Arthur highway. I even remember that when I was already near the area in the cemetery. There were adults who approached me and asked me. “Little boy where are you going”. The good thing is that as a young boy, my father always told me never to talk to strangers. My mind during that time was really set to getting back home to my mom. So, I just continued my adventure to get back home when my mom forgot to pick me up in the house of my aunt.
I remember the stories of my nanny crying and my other family members looking for me and then hearing the news that I was already back at home.
I just wanted to share that story because, it is related to how computer games were the only distraction that my mother can utilize to keep me out of trouble.
I enjoyed playing computer games a lot, I played a variety of games in the family computer console such as Circus, Donkey Kong, Contra, Ninja Turtles, Goonies, Beewings, Arkanoid, Twinbee and many more.
I even remember an instance from where my grandmother that had an old apartment had their electrical connection failure due to them leaving me alone in one of the empty rooms. My imagination suddenly worked and an idea sparked when I saw an outlet for the electric fan and I had a 50 cents coin with an eagle that I inserted into the outlet because I was imagining the computer box arcade from computer rentals in our town that had a coins slot, from where I would usually play the game “Legend of Kage” in the family computer console.
The whole apartment of my grandmother lost its electricity because of what I did when I inserted the 50 cents coin with an eagle inside the electrical extension for the electric fan inside one of the rooms in the apartment units.
I remember that my two hands where burned after the incident and how my father laughed at me, a lot, because of getting my hand burned due to being such a naughty little young boy with a wild imagination. He even kept that melted coin as a remembrance.
I carried with me this passion in gaming, up until my secondary studies from where I would usually play Nintendo games. This would range from games like Super Mario, Lion king, Aladdin, Super Mario Kart, Slam Dunk, Yuyu Hakusho, Mortal Combat, and many more. I also usually play with my cousin who had a SEGA console and usually we played together when we were kids.
When my mother bought me Playstation 1, I played a variety of games especially RPG games. Resident evil, Final Fantasy VII & VIII, Wild Arms II, Chrono Chros, Spiderman games, Batman, Castlevania and other games like Dragon ball and many more.
With all these in mind, I think this is the reason why I got interested in getting into game development. I know I am a bit late due to the fact that I got misdirected and didn’t have the proper guidance when I was taking up my computer science degree in college.
We didn’t have any game development course program in our course outline. I didn’t get interested in developing games when I was in college. I was more into playing them instead of starting to get into game development.
I loved playing PC games such as Red Alert and War Craft. I also played online games such as RAN online and Ragnarok in computer shops when I was in college.
The game development career path really didn’t get into my system way back then, which is one of my greatest regret in life and if I can only bring back time. I would have really focused my attention into coding and game development during my younger years.
When I heard about the 100 days of code challenge. I also encountered the 100 days of game development challenge. I was already at my Round 2 to 3 of my 100 days of code challenge when I found out about the challenge and I decided to start working on creating games.
I was at the time trying to work on building my portfolio and skills in web development and I believed that by building game projects, I will able to improve my programming skills. The 100 days of game development challenge was quite an interesting challenge for me. I decided to start and keep track of my progress and continuously posted on my Twitter account about the progress that I have so far accomplished as I started learning game development.
One of the very helpful learning resource that I’ve found is the Youtube tutorial of Chris DeLeon founder of HomeTeam GameDev formerly known as Gamkedo. I was searching for Javascript tutorial back then and was looking for a good resource to learn and I was lucky enough to find his video tutorial “Coding an HTML5 Canvas Game with JS in 5 min 30sec”
It led me to my journey into learning game development and I also took up his free course in UDEMY https://www.udemy.com/course/code-your-first-game/ then enrolled in the UDEMY course How to Program Games: Tile Classics in JS for HTML5 Canvas.
The course and HomeTeam GameDev really taught me a lot both in techniques in game development and the game development process. I would highly recommend the club for beginners like me who is a career shifter into technology who wants to further improve their game development skills as a programmer and indie game developer.
Currently as I write this article about 100 days of code / 100 days of game development. I am at my 100daysofcode Round 4 Day 96 and 100daysofgamedev Round 1 Day 71.
I hope you enjoyed my story about my journey into learning and getting into game development as a career. I am currently working on my first game project with HomeTeam GameDev and really enjoying my learning experience with the community. I would highly recommend that you go and check their activities and program if you are also like me who is a beginner in game development.
Thank you for reading this article. Good luck with your journey as a future game developer.
“Gamers never Quit. We simply RESTART”
Unknown Author
rodprogramdev 