Every Gamer’s Beginning

This past week or so I’ve been reading John Romero’s autobiography called Doom Guy: Life in First Person. If you don’t know who John Romero is, he is probably one of the most influential programmers from the early days of video games. He and several of his colleagues founded id Software, a successful PC game studio which famously created Doom. There are many reasons why Doom was revolutionary for the time, but one of the main reasons it’s remembered today is because it was one of the first games that catapulted FPS style games (first person shooters) into the genre it is today. Halo, GTA, COD. Those are all because of Doom.

I’ve been fascinated by his journey: growing up in a violent, poverty stricken home in Tucson, learning BASIC and Assembly on his own as a teen, and then aggressively chasing after his dream job as video game designer and programmer when literally everyone close to him told him not to and that it was a waste of time. His access to video games and computers were throttled and controlled so he would write his game code ON PAPER and then, when he had the chance, would write it on the computer, copy it over to a floppy disk, and then mail it to publishers hoping to get paid for his work and make a name for himself.

I’m only partway through the book (haven’t gotten to the development of Doom yet), but reading his journey and his relentlessness has really inspired me to go after my own dreams and really challenge myself.

Looking back on my early childhood, it’s so painfully obvious that making video games was in my future. I just didn’t know it yet. (I wish I had started earlier and not sandbagged myself so much lol. I was totally capable just like I am now).

For John Romero, the game that absolutely captivated him was PacMan (also, TIL that the PacMan ghosts have a programmed path, they don’t move randomly, and thus, the game is highly beatable 😂). For me, a few titles stand out:

First was Myst. I was first introduced to Myst while at my late grandma’s house. She loved video games. I was little and didn’t know how to play it, but I loved watching my older sisters try and solve the puzzles and I was intrigued by the mystery and suspense.

My grandma also introduced me to the original Bejeweled and my sisters and I would always fight for computer time at my grandma’s house to play this game. I loved the fast-paced race to find the matches, the deep boom of “Excellent…” whenever you made rapid 4 and 5 jewel matches. The psychedelic wormhole warp in-between levels was also extremely captivating and addictive. My allotted time was never enough.

Eventually, my parents bought a PC that was dedicated to the kids that we could use for GAMING! (Also homework and word-processing but that’s not as exciting). I’m pretty sure this was like a Window’s 98 or something. Later, I remember we upgraded to Windows XP and the trial games were so much fun. That green lawn is so nostalgic. Anyway, on this I would play pinball until my free trial ran out, Minesweeper, and Carmen Sandiego. I’d also play all the Clue Finders games so that I could justify my time as “educational”. And when we got The Sims, it didn’t take long for me to find <rosebud;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;> because who didn’t want to build themselves a gazillion dollar McMansion and put all the expensive furniture in it 😂

Much nostalgia for this screensaver 😂

But the real magic happened the Christmas my parents bought us a GameCube. And when I played PacMan World 2 (the first game I ever 100%), I knew that video games were for me. To this day, I have an OG GameCube and PacMan World 2. I’ll never sell them.

I know that pretty much every video game developer today has a story like mine: they were fascinated with games at a young age, couldn’t get enough of them, and had a burning desire to CREATE as well. They wanted to not only consume, but contribute to the industry and field that brought them so much joy.

This week, in addition to reading John’s story, I’ve also started planning out my next game and challenge. I say challenge because the scope is bigger than Space Cats lol. I have this amazing vision in my mind and I can’t wait to execute on it. I’m starting to learn my way around Godot and I’m taking my time to strategically plan the structure of my game. This is important because there’s literally nothing worse than being 50% through game development and realizing that I royally messed up the structure simply by not being organized. There’s nothing worse than having to rewrite code because you weren’t organized.

I also want to develop it quickly. I’m impressed by the speed in which John Romero published his tittles. By the time he had published Doom, it was his 90th game. Obviously expectations and the market are different today than they were in the 90s. But also, I have a game engine. He did not.

Oh and one more thing before I forget. Space Cats mobile is finished. I’m just waiting on Apple to sort out some developer details and then I can submit! I’ll keep you posted.