I was working on a personal project called Greengineers for the Microsoft's Imagine Cup contest.
After the contest was over, I dropped development of the game. A few months later i hear about this game called Fantastic Contraption, which shared some similarities with Greengineers and had made a lot of money.
The game was great and deserved all the merits it got. I thought to myself: "this is what Greengineers should have been". I was way out of focus with the direction i was taking, way out of my league, overcomplicating gameplay, and i realized i knew nothing about game development. Note taken.
Years later, i'm on my daily life handling in my head an idea i wanted so much to make (aren't we all in this state?), when i see this prototype of a very cool game called Incredipede.
Again, the game had some similarities with my current idea and turns out it's from the same developer as Fantastic Contraption!
"Ok," i said to myself, "this guy is cleary stealing my ideas, traveling back in time and implementing them before me! I must stop this ASAP!"
Ok, so not really, but at least he was a developer whose games i liked and i could relate to. Browsing through his website i read his name is Collin Northway, and develops games while travelling the world... wait, what? Has this guy not only stolen my ideas but my dream? Yeah, turns out he goes to different places, works on his games, and moves on to the next place. Just, awesome.
That is what i wanted to do all my life. See the world, be free, make friends, get to know different cultures, stay if you like, or move if you don't, all while working on games.
So, self analyzing time: why am i not doing this? I'm young (enough), i'm healthy (enough), i don't have any responsabilities, i've never been a big spender so my bank account can handle it, and the craving for indie game development in my head is killing me... why not?
Sure, i could fail. In fact, let's be honest, most likely i will fail. So what? Worst case scenario i burn all my savings and have to go back to work... exactly where i am right now. But at least i could look back and see that i lived what i wanted, did what i wanted, experience for a tiny bit what is it like to live my dream. Like this journal's name states: i know i'm too dumb to make it, but i'm just too dumb to quit.
Fast forward one year later, i'm outta here. I quit my job, sold all my stuff (to be honest they weren't many to begin with), grabbed my backpack and my notebook under my arm.
This is me going to live through the eyes of Collin Northway, this is me crawling through that tunnel i found on the 7th and a half floor... let's see what's on the other side.
* hi, my name is agustin and i'm a part-time traveller, part-time game developer, and, currently, also part-time crummy go student in korea. I have a small travel blog (sorry, spanish only: http://dondecarajoestaagustin.blogspot.com/) and this will be my game development journal. I hope you guys like what you see =)
** no, i do not know, nor have i spoken to Collin ever in my life, hope he doesn't think this is TOO creepy =P
