Take A Stroll With Me...

So, I've been learning how to make games now for a little under 4 years. While I always had wanted to be a game designer, I never had put much serious thought into it growing up.

​Instead, what I did was dedicate many years to music. I got my first instrument at the age of 15, which was a Squire bass guitar. 

Yup. This was it.

For the next few years playing bass was basically all I did. It was fun. This eventually lead to me joining my first band, The Pegleg Pirate Squad. 

This is all that remains of that online. A teaser video I made in high school.

As with most bands, it didn't work out. Oh well.

Years would pass and I taught myself some basic guitar. Later on I would join up with some cool dudes and make a band called Watch Your Step! where I would play some guitar.

We might have been a bunch of dirty punk boys, but it was a lot of fun. Once again, it didn't work out.

After a couple more years of floating about, I decided to give the music more try. This time with The Nash and myself back on bass.
I was going through a pretty shitty time in my life and things quickly got out of control and ultimately I decided that maybe music wasn't what I should be doing. So... what? 

I remember it started with a conversation with my brother. Somehow we had gotten on the topic of game development, and how many developers recommended having a portfolio of projects, rather than a degree, when searching for jobs in the industry. This lead to my discovery of the game engine Unity, and many long nights of following online tutorials after work.  

So, yay; I was learning to make games, but holy shit is it hard to do with no real instructor, no direction, and no technological skill. Needless to say, I often found myself doubting myself, asking myself why was I doing this, and trying to figure out if I really enjoyed going through all the stress. 

When I would really start to think about why I wanted to do this it always brought me back to the same place:

Somewhere around the age of 7 things went to shit in my family, and slowly video games transitioned from something that my parents would use as a treat, to something they used as a distraction. By the age of 9 or 10 the only life that existed was the one inside the TV screen. What was once a five member household became three, and that's being generous. Countless nights were spent staying up until 5 or 6 in the morning playing N64 with my brother, often while drinking coffee neither of us knew how to properly make. Castlevania 64, Jet Force Gemini, Pokemon Stadium, Hybird Heaven, Ocarina of Time, these were my reasons to get up in the morning. Or maybe it was Monster Rancher, or Chrono Cross, or Digimon World. Don't even get me started on Lunar: Silver Star Story; that game fucked up my entire world. What I'm trying to say is video games were extremely important to me, and kept me from getting into too much trouble. 

When I needed an emotional crutch, or an escape from a depressing reality, I had video games. Now that I'm older I feel it is my responsibility to give back/pass it on. 

Does anyone know if Games as Therapy exists? Because I think that should be a legit form of help.


Seriously though, Lunar. That game. <3