From Gamer to Game Dev: A Beautiful Cycle

Intro

Did you know that Hollow Knight inspired me to create games? It's not that surprising, the game is awesome! from the art, animation sound and music. Everytning is perfect.

I consider myself a hardcore gamer. I used to hide from my parents the fact that I played more than they allowed (one hour a day). I would literally game all day during school, which I later partially replaced with programming and creating games.

My Game Dev Journey

I made many cool projects from scratch in Java and OpenGL, literally coding almost everything myself. For a long time, I was against Unity or any other game engine.

After playing specifically Hollow Knight and having an unspeakable experience, I wanted not just to create games, but to give amazing experiences to players, too. I realized that was impossible by doing everything from scratch, as you need to abuse the most powerful tools available.

From that moment on, my goal was not to do everything myself, but to create the best possible finished product, even if it required some drag-and-drop or using tools that I once considered for "noobs".

The Realization

Now, after creating many games, including some in Unity, I've understood the most beautiful part of our industry: gamers become game developers who create games that inspire new game developers. What a beautiful cycle!

In pure programming, the only thing that inspired (or, let's say, forced) me was the money you could make, as people say they get paid well. In game development, it's different. It's the only place where I truly found passion - a passion to create games, to see how all the good memories I have from childhood were made - through camera math, physics, and AI pathfinding.

Along with that, I love having others - family, friends, and even external people - say that they really enjoy the games and have good memories from them.

The Mission

That's passion for me. It's even a kind of mission - a thank you to all the developers thanks to whom I had amazing experiences and memories everywhere.

In competitive games like CS and League of Legends, or the better-than-movie stories of projects like Resident Evil, Outlast, or Dead Space. I've even learned from the pain of Souls games that teaches you not to quit, the creativity of Minecraft, and the uniqueness of indie projects like Undertale.

Me making games is a kind of mission as a thank you to the developers of the past - because I continue to create great memories and experiences for other people, some of whom will eventually become game developers themselves!

And the cycle continues.

Finito

As of today, I have not managed to find anything like it anywhere else. It's an incredible feeling knowing you created those memories for other people.

We hope our games may influence you, too, so you have great memories by yourself or with friends, and who knows - maybe you will join the cycle one day.