I am a Fist Full of Shrimp
The Intro
This is my first time blogging, or really, my first time putting myself out into the world in any form of media. I’m writing a blog to dive into the world of game development. The first time I picked up a controller for the original NES, I was hooked on games. From pre-school up, I always said I would make video games…
So what the hell happened!? I traveled upwards and got a Biology degree. I continued upwards and practiced for the MCATS to go to medical school. I took a 180 and ventured downwards, going back to school to become a Software Engineer. Traversing further downwards, I moved from my hometown to find a software engineering job. Now I have been bouncing between going left, working at a startup that lost funding, and going right, applying to hundreds of companies with no end in sight. I have effectively followed the Konami Code as a career guide by going up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right. To finish my stupid analogy, the only thing I have left to do is press B (Blog), press A(take Action), and hit Start to being an indie game developer.
I have pushed out 350+ job applications, done numerous technical phones screens and made it onsite to industry giants like Amazon and Bungie. Each interview process consuming anywhere from 12 hours to 20 hours! Everyone of these ended with the same generic rejection letter, except one. They were at least nice enough to leave a voicemail reading out their generic rejection letter. Those numbers and having worked at a failed startup are the only things that I have to show for three years of work.
That stops today!
I am tired of having nothing tangible in my portfolio. I’m even more tired of trying to ignore my childhood dreams. Young me deserves better than what I’ve given him. From this day forward, I will be an indie game developer. I don’t know if I’ll make money and I don’t care (I do care… I want the money. I’m in this for the money.). I just want to make games and be part of the community that makes them.
My Blog’s Focus
My blog will focus on three things: Learning Unity, contributing to open source projects and the current projects I’m working on.
Learning Unity
I have chosen this game engine because it covers a few criteria that I was looking for. First, it is a high quality free engine that is cross platform. It will allow me the freedom to develop whatever game I want for whatever platform I want. There is also an enormous community using Unity. This means that the things I learn and blog about can reach and impact a wider audience. Lastly, I just like it. The other engines are just as good and I may jump into Unreal one day, but for now, this is the engine I have chosen. While I develop games, I’ll write about things I’ve learned in Unity and dive deep into subjects to better understand what’s going on under the hood of the game engine.
Contributing to Open Source Projects
What if I could learn from others, gain better development practices, and help the game development community all in one go? Boom! Contributing to open source projects is the way to achieve this. It’s a way to meet new developers who are experienced and passionate. When I post about my contributions or how I find projects, I hope it will inspire others to join me and find their own communities to contribute to. It’s like donating blood, we know we should do it and the net benefit will help so many… That reminds me. It’s been a while since I’ve donated blood. I should probably do that.
My Current Projects
Hell yeah I’m going to talk about my own projects! This is my blog, why wouldn’t I!? My current goal will be publish a game every month. This is a pretty crazy goal and I know many of the games will crash and burn, but that’s where learning is done. My first project will be called Pixel Pub. A memory match game where multiple bar patrons request some kind of food and you have to memorize who wanted what. I thought a memory match game would be relatively easy as a first project and I am certain I will be completely wrong as the project evolves.
Who Am I Trying to Reach?
This blog is meant for those who are out there creating and learning. I want to help the game development community and join the other developers who blog, make tutorials, and give guidance. Hell, maybe I’ll even start streaming one day so you can watch me struggle in real time! We’re all in this together so I’m looking to help do my part while I learn with the rest of you. As I write these posts, I look forward to meeting you through comments and email. With dialogue comes growth, so let me know what you think!
My Road-map For The Next Year
A blog post every week and a game every month! That will leave me with 52 blog posts and 12 games after a year. A blitzkrieg of game development and hyper learning is the overall goal. By this time next year, I will have something better than the statistics from all the companies I’ve applied to. I’ll have a portfolio filled with successes, failures, and blog posts detailing all of the lessons learned along the way.
Well there you go. That’s a Fist Full of Shrimp. I’m an indie game developer who is just starting out and looking to learn as much as possible within a year. I’ll repeat a message I heard from Miziziziz, “I hope we all become millionaires one day and can make games the rest of our lives”.
If you made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read it. I hope I’ll be of some help to you along the way. Cheers!
Good luck future me, I’ll see you in a year… Wow, that picture looks like it belongs on a funeral pamphlet.