Why I'm Making This Game

I've wanted to make a video game since I was a kid. In elementary school, I tried to teach myself C++ but it was beyond me. I pursued other interests as a teenager and an unrelated career as an adult. Eventually my work afforded me a few days each week to pursue my own interests. So I'm lucky.

Then one day I woke up with the idea for this game. Not the full sweep of the narrative, or the details of the lore, or the names of the characters -- just a compelling idea for the introductory quest, one meant to be deceptively simple. As for how things might develop from there, I had only the vaguest notion. It wasn't much, maybe, but I have learned to listen to inspiration when it strikes.

I started jotting down ideas in a staple-bound pocket notebook with no lines or grid, making it suitable for writing as well as sketches. Soon I had enough of an outline for the project to reach a decision about whether to proceed. There were two main factors influencing that decision. One, the concept had held my interest, which was a prerequisite of any worthwhile endeavor. Two, I had no earthly excuse to deny the creative impulse. My boss couldn't complain. My partner was happy to see me being creative. It was the right idea at the right time.

And so I resolved after a hiatus of several decades to teach myself game development. Thankfully, it no longer requires learning C++ from a 600-page textbook. The necessary tools are far more accessible than they once were.

But there are some shortcuts I won't take. I have no interest in churning out more AI slop. I'm the kind of fucking hipster who still believes in artistry and authorship. This project is meaningless to me if I learn nothing in the process. When I was a kid I explored all manner of pursuits -- illustration, musical composition, fiction writing. I have missed those things. Making a game allows me to dabble in all of them. Not only a hipster but a dilettante! I admit it. I accept my obsolescence.