…than never to have tried at all.
My name is Ken McGowan. I’ve been programming most of my life, but for most of that time I neglected the main reason I set out to learn programming in the first place: making video games.
I’m working to remedy that, and I’ll use this blog to post my progress as I go. In doing so, I’m hoping to find some other nascent gamedevs and game lovers in the process: to compare notes, share ideas, commiserate, and so on.
Games hold a special significance for me. They represent an amazing synthesis of nearly everything else I love: story, graphic arts, design, music, animation, architecture… you name it. They hold the potential to go beyond entertainment, to create shared experiences that convey deep truths about the human experience.
Maybe that’s a lofty ambition, but hey, it’s honest. I still enjoy the occasional light, fun game, but I’m looking for games that do more. I want to find games that become a part of me, the same way great books and films have done. If at all possible, I want to make those games.
So, given where I sit on the learning curve, I guess I’d better get busy.
Exploit Agency 
March 20, 2015 at 11:58 pm
I can relate to that quite well, I am a developer myself, but in a typical business area, so not even closely related to games. But yeah, I guess the reaaon why I was actually interested in programming was in the beginning also games. I kind of regret that when I started studying here in my country there were no studies like game development… only now they are starting to appear.
But I also haven’t given up the dream, although right now I am first trying to get a grip on game writing and narrative design. On which engine/language will you develop the game? Because that’s the big question for me right now, and as I mainly want to tell a story and make a nice rpg I am currently even thinking (don’t laugh) about using the rpg maker, because I think that learning how to professionally write and learning how to program games would be too much for me.
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March 21, 2015 at 12:31 am
Yeah, I remember looking around for game development programs back when I went to college, and there was absolutely nothing. A few schools had comp sci programs with an emphasis on graphics, but that was about it. I ended up going down a really different road, but I kept looking for ways to tie it all back into games somehow.
Re: game writing and narrative design, that’s really cool! I love to see how games are changing ideas around narrative and story. RPG maker actually looks pretty cool, actually. I might try it out myself. : ) Looks like it’d be a good way to get ideas out quickly. Is it generally frowned on for some reason?
I started out using Unreal Engine (so C++). I was taking a sick day from work the day Epic announced they were dropping the monthly fee. I downloaded it & dug in, and it’s been pretty amazing. It’s overwhelming just how much there is to learn, but it’s a fun kind of overwhelming. : ) The challenge will be to pick an area & focus on just that one thing for a while. I know I can’t do everything.
Out of curiosity, what kinds of tools/languages do you use for your business development?
Thanks for the comment, it’s great to hear from other aspiring gamedevs!
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March 21, 2015 at 1:11 am
Yeah, that sounds quite familiar although I would think that in the States programs like that existed still much earlier than here in Austria. I mean I just finished university, so even though it took me a little bit longer than usually, I am almost certain that I would have had such a chance in the States when I started studying. But here, things like that develop slower unfortunately. The whole game industry is non-existent here. But I digress, sorry for that ;-)
I don’t think that RPG maker is frowned on, it is still a powerful tool and I would say it’s still harder to really master it than many people would think at the first glance, as you still have to know your scripts and your game states. But of course it really helps you to put something out quickly if you know what you are doing. I would say the main disadvantage is just that you are very limited in the type of games you can do, and obviously graphically you are very limited as well ;-) Although real pixel artists can still do a lot.
Wow Unreal Engine nice, I am still kind of afraid of getting in touch with these big engines. Maybe it’s unreasonable but they seem so overwhelming that I really don’t dare to touch them g And yeah I really think that you have to focus on certain areas first, which is for me storytelling. I even wrote my first script of a scene a few days ago, felt like a screenwriter haha. But of course I’m also of that sort that I would like to tear down all walls at the same time.
I am a developer in the SAP area, so it’s mainly ABAP and Java, and now more and more Webdevelopment (HTML5, Javascript), but that’s still a rather new field for me to be honest.
Yeah it’s really great to hear from others with similar stories =) I will definitely follow your progress here and I am curious what will emerge out of it.
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March 21, 2015 at 1:23 am
Thanks, best wishes on your game! be sure to let me know when you have anything you’d like to share.
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