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[Brian Wilbur]

I hope this is the right board to post this --

I'm just curious as to the progression of TIG members through various stages in their game development career.

• Did you go to college, do absolutely nothing, and luck out on a job/a steady indie studio afterwards?
• Did you work your ass off making a hundred games for ten straight years and go into the industry/start getting paid/whatever from there?
• Did you start somewhere else (maybe in art school? Music school?) and somehow end up in the games industry?
• At what point in your life did you make your first game? How successful was it?
• Was there ever a point where you felt like you were going to give up completely and go into some other line of work?

Of course you don't have to answer hundreds of questions...these are just some things I thought up.

Right now I'm in college and I'm 20 years old. I'm going for game design (although at this point I think I should just grab the dual major in programming...) and I do have one XBox Indies title and a few other completed projects...but I always feel like it isn't enough. It would be nice to receive a lot of input from both the successful and unsuccessful, just to see at what point in peoples' lives they did various game dev-related things.

I'm also curious as to the age of many TIG Forums members (though I'm sure there's a thread for this somewhere). I'm wondering if I'm by far a youngin, or if there are a lot of people around my age.

Basically...how did you get to where you are today? Whether you are a strictly independent developer; someone who works for a minor (or major) studio; or someone else entirely...I think it would be interesting to share these stories.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i started inventing games when i was just five years old, for my younger siblings. i'm the oldest of 5 children, and a lot of the time we didn't have anyone to play with but ourselves, and didn't have many toys, so i would create games for my younger siblings out of household objects

for instance, i would borrow a bunch of coins from my mother, and invented games out of the coins. one of the games was called 'heads vs tails' where one person played heads and the other played tails, each side was an army, and if you fought in a battle the side with the greater value would flip the other side and it'd join the other side's army. the winner was when all the coins were turned to your side

i'd also invent games using cards, paper cut outs, a chess board, or just games where we'd run around in the apartment complex's hallways. i still remember the rules to many of these, although most of them i've forgotten

eventually i got into videogames and i'd create design documents for games i wanted to create one day -- i still have many of these, although obviously my designs weren't as good as the designs i could do today so i never made any of them (plus most of them were fan games).

i didn't get my first computer until i was in high school, around 1993 or 1994 (i was born in 1978, so i was 15 or 16 at the time). after i got a computer (a 486), i started coding games in qbasic and soon after that in c; my first computer games were made back then, but i never published them online until much later (the computer wasn't connected to the internet anyway, and the internet itself barely existed back then; the world wide web didn't exist at all)

when i entered college in 1997 i finally got access to the internet regularly through the school's library computers. i found the ohrrpgce community (the official hamster role playing game creation engine) and started making games using that engine. i met most of my best online friends during that time, including most of the people who still work on games with me today: orchard-l, komera, harlock, long dao. i ran a magazine reviewing ohrrpgce games, called ohrrpgce monthly, which is where i got my start in indie game journalism. i also participated in yearly ohrrpgce 48-hour contests, and created a bunch of small ohrrpgce games for those contests

around 2003 i was invited by fyrewulff and charbile (creators of one of my favorite ohrrpgce games, sword of jade) to join an ohrrpgce "company" (not an actual company legally, it was more like a group of people who worked together), rpgcreations. eventually fyre and charbile left the group to me, so i became the leader of it even though originally fyre was the leader. during this time i'd start on many huge projects and then be unable to finish them because they were too ambitious, and give up and start new game projects. the big ones of these were: ergintandal, ziggurats for red turtle, kinder der alter, and troublespot

in late 2005 i switched from the ohrrpgce to game maker, and, with fellow rpgcreations member orchard-l, released my first game maker game, alphasix, in 2006. after i released alphasix i started writing for timw's blog (which later became indiegames.com/blog) as a side editor.

i then created immortal defense in 2007, which was my first commercial game, which did better than i expected it to (sold a few thousand copies) but still not well enough to live off of, so i did side jobs like freelance writing. i also became an editor for tigsource around 2008 or so, although i haven't written as many reviews of indie games as i'd like for this site

since 2007 i've been working on saturated dreamers; i've probably spent more time (in work hours) working on saturated dreamers than all my previous games combined, perhaps because it was another overambitious design, but one which i refuse to give up on (unlike my previous overambitious projects); i don't even expect it to be as popular as immortal defense (which i only spent 6 months making) but i'm driven by perfectionism to make it the best game i can make it -- if i manage to release it this year, i'll have spent 5 years creating it

[baconman]

I wanted to take Game Design as a major in college, but I went to college back in '99/'00; when that sort of thing never even existed. So I had to dual-major and engineer a course of my own that fit; and the closest two things that fit were network/software engineering and animation (after all, a "game" is what you get when you fundamentally put the two together).

But TBH, I probably learned more from the Animation course, which I was considerably less seasoned in, seeing as I started modding PC games at 14. Although, I've always been more they type that was better at building on an existing foundation than starting stuff from scratch. Some of my early projects included scripting on Street Fighter Remake, and writing many of the official (pre-SuperNOVA) stepcharts used in DDR simulators like StepMania.

I started off making card/board games as a kid (much like Paul here, by the sound of it), especially game show recreations. I'm not really in "the industry" for that matter - I'm just a guy with a computer, sitting in my home and tinkering where I can; although something outside of my influence seems to be perpetually distracting me one way or another. Just this past month, I stopped 3 catastrophies in my friends' lives, although at the expense of my concentration and budget.

Closest thing I've done to an actual release is DDR PwrMix, which is basically like Ultramix 4's "Power Mode" done for the rest of the series. It's just a StepMania simfile pack, with 5-6 minute song mixes, all charted out, to mixed reactions. Those who like those kinds of endurance stages LOVED it; and I'm also WIP'ing a similar theme-based project. Haven't completed anything TOTALLY original, although I'm pecking at a few things.

•Was there ever a point where you felt like you were going to give up completely and go into some other line of work?

LIKE. YOU. WOULDN'T. BELIEVE. "!".

Whether it's to pay bills and keep myself from sinking below sea level again (I'm very close right now!), the sheer volume of immense (and well-executed) talent out there, to to horror stories of the gaming industry thinking that as a self-inclusive reward, that people don't need to make money... all sorts of things make me feel that way. Now, realize that I'll never give up *completely* - lord knows I don't know how to - but there's times when it feels like I'd be better off just making this sort of thing a hobby; and there's very little "professional" potential left (outside of self-profession) and somebody will certainly always beat me to that punch.

It also doesn't help that feeling that way drives me to push more of my attention to "more important" stuff, rather than hammering and completing projects. The fact that half a dozen of my friends' lives are inches from total destruction right now isn't helping things, either. It's always something or another, it seems. But then, I also can't really see myself passionately involved in many other things. I'd write a philosophy or fiction book, if it wouldn't be more entertaining to play than to read.
__________

I'd really love to make a game that has the fun approach of Mario Party, the random eventfulness of SMB3, the gamefulness of an arcade compilation or Totally Tiny Arcade, and the property-attaining approach of Monopoly/RISK. (/total afterthought)

[Theophilus]

I'm only 15, and I haven't been doing this very long, but you said you wanted to hear from the experienced and inexperienced, so here I am.

I started when I was 13. I received a computer for my birthday. On a bored afternoon, I looked into game development, how they were made, etc. I found Game Maker and started doing totorealz out the yin-yang. I made a few games but none of them I released.

That all stopped when I was held up for a year after some irresponsibility on the internet (13 + computer in my room? You make the call). I had started hindering myself.

A year later, I had re-installed Game Maker on a different machine and I nearly mastered it within three months. I couldn't really do serious development because I was not allowed on the computer all the time, it was the shared family computer.

I had purchased an external hard-drive so I can bring my files over two computers. I started to do some nice development with the help of some particular Portable Apps (OpenMPT for music, Inkscape/GIMP for graphics).

I've always had an issue of not finishing the games.. Still happens.

So over this summer, at the age of 15, two point five years since I first picked up GM, I am just finishing games. I won't be making them to the best of my ability; just quick, simple games that are polished. Fun games, but simple games. Games that I can finish in two-three weeks. I plan on finishing about 4-5 games this summer.

I would love to get into independent game development as a fulltime job. I think I'll find/start a studio to work with when I come of age. In the meantime, I'm practicing. Getting inspired by all works of art, including movies, photographs, etc. StumbleUpon is great for this. I also love learning. I collect textbooks. I have mostly math and game design/programming, but I'm looking for psychology textbooks as well.

[ANtY]

both the successful and unsuccessful

That's me

Born in 1993

Started playing games when I was about 4yo.

Got Internet in 2006 (before this I didn't know anything about making games)

Dropped by my cousin, he showed me MMF2 in 2007.

0.5 year later I started a browser game project with my 'lovely' class mate.

We gave up on this project, he asked me about doing some graphics for platform game, I did them but he didn't make the game.

Thousand of projects before 2009 with that guy and he always fcked everything up.

In 2009 I did some not-finished platform games in Construct (I knew nothing about programming so I couldn't polish them)

At the beginning of the 2010 with the same friend (I started the project and after 2 weeks I asked him if he wants to join) I finished game called TANKS RMK (remake of Battle City), but it was really crap, he didn't want to polish it and I knew that he will leave soon so I decided to publish it on a little, Polish GameMaker's forums.

Later on in 2010 I started next project in GM, remake of one of my Construct's platform games. He joined after 2 weeks again but he left me after one month. I finished it alone after 6 months. It was called Strange World: Castaway but it wasn't as good as I'd like it to be but I couldn't do more by myself.

Before 2010's summer I did first approach in making game in c++.

In the summer with the same guy we started new big project, we have an artist and everything, it was multiplayer turn-based game. We went to open beta stage, ppl liked it but after end of summer he left... AGAIN

Then I finished SW:C as I wrote earlier.

Then I made 2 mini-games in c++.

3 unfinished projects with the same guy here.

In December 2010 we started work on Glorious (multiplayer turn based strategy) again with some other ppl but I decided after week of doing nothing by them that it doesn't have sense and it's better to do something smaller.

We started smaller multiplayer game - tower defense. But this time artist left after 2 weeks so my friend didn't have time to leave me.

I started a top down shooter with other artist in c++. Then the same friend joined (I trusted him again) and the he left again (by him leaving a project I mean disappearing for 2 weeks and then asking if I'll play with him in some game).

In January 2011 one guy from Polish GM's community asked me for doing graphics for a casual game for cash. I did them and then he disappeared (but he was still active in the community).

Then I started a much better remake of TANKS RMK, then he again joined (it was in GM) and after 2 months of hard work guess what, he left!

I started a tower defense game with an artist from that GM's community but he disappeared after doing 2 sketches, now he is back on forums...

In April I started project in c++ alone for a little compo - mix of match-3 and rpg - Puzzle Masters. I was going to last 2 weeks, he was making a game with help of the same artist that left our project in December for the compo. It ended up that he disappeared for a week when the compo has ended. I kept working on the project, after a month I found an artist, he disappeared after 2 days. I found another one and he is still doing graphics. Project got a little bigger, the same friend wanted to help me with programming when he saw art from that artist which I found.
My code was a mess cause I'm still not good at programming so I thought that he will help me with coding, he said that we need to rewrite it, I agreed. It's hard to me to program in his ultra-objective code and he is saying everyday that "TOMORROW FOR SURE I'LL WORK", "NO, SERIOUSLY!!" and he's doing nothing. He is only playing fcking games  
I don't know what to do, eh... (I saved that not-rewrote version on my hard drive). In addition artist isn't replying 2nd day but he was always like that so I'm not so worried.

WHY IS INDIE WORLD SO FCKING CRUEL!!!!

Also I'm doing art for a little flash game atm.


ps. it's kinda long but I had to write it  

[Taiko]

I made a bunch of strategy games with my Legos when I was little.  Also I used to play the Star Wars CCG and would make my own cards.

During high school I tried to learn how to program but nothing really stuck.  It wasn't until college that I first was able to really think like a computer scientist.  Our introductory language at Georgia Tech was Python, so I naturally slipped into Pygame.  Made a few Breakout clones, foolishly tried to make an mmo, started setting my sites smaller and finishing the things I was attempting.

I'm definitely a lot better about programming - still have a ways to go on good game design and art.  Right now most of my games are made in Python, although I've branched out to C++, Objective-C, and a little bit of Java.  One of my projects for the summer is to master HTML5/Javascript.

Now I'm in grad school and am getting exposed to even cooler algorithms so I can make more impressive games.  I think I'm ready for my first "big" project.

[genka]

By slacking off

[starsrift]

My sig pretty much tells it all. My father is a radio/electronics tech (product of UBC & BCIT) and got into programming himself, and got me into programming, from my single digit years onwards. He's still much more of a hardware guy than I am and I've vastly surpassed him in coding skill, since. I attended university to major in compsci, with a not-quite-double-minor in creative writing and philosophy, but I am largely self-taught - the university just rounded out some glaring gaps in my education (data structures, more than anything else!).

That said, I've released barely any games to the wild and I'm more of a hobbyist. I'd like to be successful and make games for a living, but it wasn't a priority for me in the past. Making my living off of game-making is starting to become a priority as I'm getting older and starting to realize I may live to see my 40th birthday, which previously was a fairly open question with a doubtful answer. At the same time, I'm reluctant to move into a position where I'd have a tendency to shut myself up in my apartment for months and only come out for food - I've been in that position before and it's just not healthy.

[Relix]

• Did you go to college, do absolutely nothing, and luck out on a job/a steady indie studio afterwards?

I'm Uni student in CS, going on my first summer job soon, which happens to be programming job, sadly not gaming related.

• Did you start somewhere else (maybe in art school? Music school?) and somehow end up in the games industry?

I graduated from business college, but it was boring and my dream of making games got me into CS next.

• At what point in your life did you make your first game? How successful was it?

Spring 2009, it was Space Invaderish game made with Java. Made it as a practice as I had been coding for two months at that point. About 10 people played it to my knowledge, only one complained so idk, I guess it was succesfully in that sense.

--

Been gaming as long I remember, wanting to make my own games since I was four. When I as seven, I wrote a desing "book", it's over 100 pages long, contains tons of pictures and stuff. I tried Game Maker around at the age of nine I think, didn't really like it, it killed my dreams momentary.

I started making a "real" game with my friend in the summer of 2009, I coded the engine with C++ and then my friend who was supposed to make the graphics called it quits. So I had to start learning pixeling myself, I'm not really fond of it - pixeling myself, I like pixel art - just to clarify to avoid being flamed again. In 2010, I decided I've learned enough of pixel art to start making the game assests, which have changed a bit. In january, I planned that I'll spend the summer making the game - then I got the job without even applying to it, so that kinda crushed my plans. Not big fan of studying either, Uni is great demotivator when it comes to programming for hobby.

In short, I hope I can make this one game I've wanted to make since I was seven - I'm still using the same desing book for the characters, places and monsters. The current desings have been greatly influence by Capcoms games tho, I grew up with Megaman and I'm not afraid to show it. If I manage to make it, I dunno if I want to get into the game indstry or not.

And it looks like I've to learn to make music myself too. >>

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

you misspelling design consistently as "desing" is unnerving -- de-sing? it doesn't even sound like that

[Relix]

Oh.

Nobody has ever said that I've been misspelling it. Whelp, in my defense, english my third language so...it happens.

[s0]

I first started developing games around 2004, made a few crappy ASCII-based games in BASIC, two of which are still floating around various German freeware portals.

My first contact with other game devs was as a member of ZFGC. I liked following other peoples' projects there (most of which were abandoned in their early planning stages), but only made one Zelda fangame myself (it was complete shit).

I took a break from game development around 2006 to pursue my other passion: music. My interest picked up again in mid '08 and discovered that amateur games were now called "indie games" and that TIGSource had exploded onto the scene.

The rest, as they say, is history.

[Hangedman]

Codang:
BASIC adventure games in 1994
RPG Maker 2000 games in 2001-3
Learned some C++ and Java in 2005-7, never really used it
Joined TIGS on a whim in 2009
Found GM in 2009, hated it, found Construct, loved it, had problems with it, but it's okay
Tried Flashpunk (AS3), only getting the hang of it now

Art:
Thought I could draw
Got frustrated
Got discouraged
Got inspiration
GOTO 10

Schooling:
Nothing to do with games or coding and I kind of like it that way. Uni grad, headed to college next.

[SundownKid]

I'm a college student with a Communication major, and if I wasn't a video game fan I would have gone into writing or film, but I really want to get into the game business as an indie. I used to solely play games, but I figured I could use the time to make them instead. I started a year ago and since then, my skills have developed to the point where I can make passable vector art and not just design/write games, which makes it a lot easier to get something started.

Technically, I designed and programmed my first game in high school computer science class, it was a top down tank arena game that was pretty fun. But, I haven't really released a game recently, though I have a few in progress and hope to release one soon.

[Alistair Aitcheson]

Born 1987, started coding with Blitz Basic in 2001. My first "full-size" game was Alf the Elf, a Zelda spoof that had some neat ideas in it and was also near-impossible to play!

I worked variously on Blitz Basic games (predominantly

and Alf the Elf II, which was considerably better than the original) until about 2006.

I studied a Master's in Maths at university, during which time I joined Warwick Game Design, where I produced a few hobby projects in teams, mostly prototypes, took part in game jams, and learnt XNA.

Since graduating last summer I've been running my own one-man indie studio. I work predominantly in Objective-C with Cocos2D to develop iOS games. My first commercial release, Greedy Bankers is out now, and I'm currently working on the iPad version.

[deadeye]

I played the hell out of Atari 2600, when I was but a wee amoeba.

Later, the warm Cambrian seas held a rich, diverse range of arcade machines that I was eager to get my newly formed fins on.

As I finally made my way upon land I began to see a whole new world of gaming possibilities ahead of me.

I first learned BASIC programming on a TRS-80 Color Computer that I fashioned out of twigs and mud.  

I read every BASIC programming book I could find.  That is, when I wasn't busy running from hungry velociraptors.

Some time in the 80's BASIC (and the dinosaurs) died out, and the first primitive mammals began mass producing the Nintendo Entertainment System.

My caveman friends and I were satisfied with the NES and it's successors for a long time.  Too satisfied, perhaps, with playing to be interested in creating.  Then one day lightning struck a nearby tree.  I marveled at the blaze, and it ignited something within me that had long lain dormant.  Taking up a burning branch, I ventured out into the darkness.

My first efforts alone were miserable.  I found an old computer that had somehow survived the BASIC extinction and began to roughly chisel what might be considered, by a very generous anthropologist, a game.  Alas I struck too heavily, and it shattered.

I was getting desperate.  I was cold, and hungry, and uncertain of my fate.  A lone antelope happened through the canyon below me, and I tried dropping Game Maker on it's head.  In the right hands such a weapon can be deadly, but I had no patience to master it.  My prey escaped unscathed.

I ventured into a Multimedia Fusion nest to steal it's eggs, but they were bitter, and did not satisfy my hunger.  Still, they sustained me for a time.


Some time has passed since then.  I have a new weapon now, Construct.  It suits me well, though I have only felled small game with it.  I find larger prey to be difficult to tackle.  I have also found a hunting companion.  He wields Unity3D, and I practice with it daily.  Who knows... together we may yet take down a mammoth.

[Amanda Williams]

I was an IT for 6 years, and took art classes on the side. I was always an artist, but chose a stable career path when the opportunity presented itself. I eventually took part time work somewhere else and continued to work on my art skills.

My first real job making art in the game industry was with Tiger Style. I did an art test for them, made a few levels, and eventually became the main environment artist. It was really hard work, but I realized how much I loved making games when it ended.

I started working in the game industry because of developer friends. They encouraged me to learn to model in 3D in my free time, but I decided to take the longer road and enrolled in many fine art classes, plus some graphic design and video game art classes. I never thought I'd make 2D art for games, but I found Tiger Style's vision for Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor irresistible and I preferred to draw. I haven't looked back.

Spider had a successful year when it was released. It was a finalist for two Game Developer Choice awards, and won IGF's best mobile and best iPhone game for 2009.

"Was there ever a point where you felt like you were going to give up completely and go into some other line of work?"

Being independent/freelance can be really hard on the spirit, but I've never thought about giving it up completely. Getting an unrelated part time job, sure.

[Brift]

I'm a 34 year old disabled veteran.  I just got my Bachelors degree and I'm looking to go on to graduate school in a game design field.  I am a composer of music and an aspiring programmer.  That being said I am relatively new to game creation and I'm still working out the plethora of information on the subject.  I have worked through the tutorials of a few of the basic programs like construct and gamemaker, and I hope to move into 3d one day.  I'm organizing a game design concept on my newly created blog if your curious.  http://hexwars.blogspot.com/2011/06/what-language-to-program-in.html
I realize the idea is now public knowledge, but I really doubt anyone will make it first.  I also have some of my compositions on soundcloud. http://snd.sc/lnCPjl which will give you a sense of my music background.  I hope I have what it takes to actually make a decent game.

[Alistair Aitcheson]

@Amanda

You worked on Spider? I just got that this weekend and am really enjoying it! The illustration is really lovely!

[Player 3]

I could've sworn I posted in a thread exactly like this. Whatever, here's another introduction.

The name's P3. I've been playing games for most of the seventeen years of my life. Always had the dream to create, but not the ambition...or the skills. I tried Game Maker and bought it when it was at version seven back in seventh grade. Never could get the hang of it, and gave up.

Then I tried learning some assembly to make a game either for the NES or the Atari 2600 VCS. 6502 assembly. Couldn't wrap my hear around the opcodes and logic gates, so I gave up on that too.

Trying to learn me a C++ with very few resources and tools. Still somewhat unsuccessful, as even the library doesn't have many C++ books; just some Java and ActionScript. I'll stick to ActionScript once I get Windows again.

For now, I'll be an artist, doodling my way into the industry. So far, it's been quite easy and nice. Doubt I can make a living off of that unless I get a full-time job with a major developer, but I can try this on the side, along with the future plans with AS3. Did I mention that I can use The GIMP pretty well, but not about using many of the filters and tools to make art?