I was always fascinated by video games. Not just by how fun they are, but also in the small details that make them what they are. I remember back in the days when I was young I used to play Super Mario Bros over and over again! I got so good at this game to the extent that I used to speed run the game and try to break my record every time. I didn’t have a stop watch back in the days so I used to start at the hour and see how long it will take me to finish the game end to end without any shortcuts! I was 6 or 7 years old back then!
Then after some time, I got my first PC, it was packed with games. I don’t really remember most of them but the games that consumed me were Quake and Doom. Oh, the thrill of seeing a 3D game for the first time; to me that was a miracle! Something out of this world! I always said to myself that this is it! Video games cannot get better than this. I would spend hours and hours playing these two games trying to finish them. Back in the days, we didn’t use the mouse to aim n the FPS games, it was all in the keyboard.
Then I got my PS1 and a whole new era of video games opened its arms to me! i never thought that you can tell a story in a video game! I remember player Resident Evil 3, Crash trilogy and other games that had some great stories! I would get very emotional because of how the story turns out or really frustrated at a character. From this moment, my love to video game was cemented!
I never saw myself as a person who would develop video games. I always thought that making these games was too complicated and advanced for me! I would always think to myself that I am no match to do things like that! I had some great stories to tell, and I do have the passion towards video games, but making them was not a thing that I would put myself through because I was afraid that I might fail. I had this thought because I took a computer graphics course back at school that was based on OpenGL and C++ and boy that was one tough course! I barely got out with a B, and I was proud of it! I couldn’t imagine myself going through all this again for making games!
In 2018 I discovered Unity; and after watching few tutorials, I saw that it was not that hard to make a game on that engine! I decided to give myself a chance and give it a try. I started with a course called “The Ultimate Guide to Game Development in Unity” that was offered in Udemy by Jonathan Weinberger and I found that it was not that hard. You just needed to understand the API of Unity and get used to it and things will start to click from there! I remember the feeling I had when I finished the space shooter game that was the product of that course. I was over the moon! I actually made my first video game. I shared this game with all my friends and they all didn’t believe that I actually made a video game. This is when I decided that this would be the kind of work that I want to do for the rest of my life.
Today I am working on developing my first video game, Insanity. I started working on this game earlier this year, and I am planning on participating in the Ultimate Game Jam with that game! Honestly, I do not care if I win or lose in this Game Jam. I do not care whether this game bring me a lot of money or not. I do not care if that game does not get viral. All I care about is that this is my first video game that I started on my own from scratch, and now it is published to the public. I finally made it; I finally was able to do something that I thought I would never do! Today I am preparing my game for its alpha version; and soon, the game will hit the market. I can’t be more thrilled than I am right now!
So, if you are reading this post right now and having these second thoughts; if you are being haunted by that thought that you are not good enough for this field, or does not have the knowledge to excel in it. Think again and read this post one more time! If you love the field and passionate about it, then my advice to you is to never give up on yourself!
Regards,
Samir Georgy
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