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Game Development Dedication
Game Development Dedication
| Name: | Jeff Johnston |  |
|---|---|---|
| Date Posted: | Feb 24, 2006 | |
| Rating: |  Not Rated | |
| Public: | YES | |
| Comments: | YES | |
| RSS Feed: |  or Subscribe with  . | |
| Profile Page: | View profile page for Jeff Johnston |
Blog post
Let me start by introducing myself...
My name is Jeff Johnston. I am 37 years old, divorced and currently live in Saint Paul, MN. I have had the burning desire to create games for the past 16 years. I dream about them, and I have notebooks full of information and design documents. I have five children that play games and are giddy about the idea of me making games. However, I have not been able to make this dream come to fruition. I was born and grew up in a religious community (cult). In this cult, personal development and creativity is stifled. I will not go into great detail about it here, but if you would like to know more, you can email me (at the end). I finally was able to leave, which meant leaving my family (parents, 7 brothers and 2 sisters still there, grandparents, wife and children) behind. It was the hardest thing that I have ever done. My whole life I have been told that if I ever left, then I was going to hell and there was no chance of ever being saved. Kind of puts a damper on leaving.
Leaving was enough of a struggle as it is not to include the fact that in leaving, I became a newborn in the world. I didn't realize how much I didn't know about how the "real world" works and how much of a struggle it was going to be. The being said, I am still here and am still struggling. I am 37 years old and I feel like I am 18 as far as life is concerned.
Now to game development. I AM GOING TO MAKE GAMES. I do have a design and programming background through one of the businesses that the community owns. I created interactive multimedia for ten years. I think that I have a pretty strong background that is suitable in many ways to game development. I, of course, applied to many companies to get into game development only to find out that you need something called a degree to get in anywhere. That sucks... I am 37 and have no college degree. So I am going to school online at University of Advancing Computer Technology, Tempe, AZ for a Game Programming Degree. I am getting 4.0 accross the board and feeling pretty good that what I learned in designing and programming for ten years was pretty solid. By the way, everything that I know in design and programming is self taught.
When I graduate from college, I will be 40 years old and still a virgin to the game industry. I think what I need to do, and the direction that I will go is to start my own game development company and start making my own games. It is too late to get onto the corporate ladder and start climbing. I am too far behind the eight ball, as it were. This is the hardest part about having been in a cult for most of my life. I don't have anything to show for all those years of life.
Any help or suggestions from the community would be greatly appreciated. I am here to stay and I am going to make this succeed. I don't have any time left for other options that I can see. I almost feel in a panic state in this regards.
If you would like to contact me outside of the Garage Games forum, my email is:
jjnstn2002 at yahoo dot com.
Thank you for you time and I am very excited to be a part of this community of game developers.
My name is Jeff Johnston. I am 37 years old, divorced and currently live in Saint Paul, MN. I have had the burning desire to create games for the past 16 years. I dream about them, and I have notebooks full of information and design documents. I have five children that play games and are giddy about the idea of me making games. However, I have not been able to make this dream come to fruition. I was born and grew up in a religious community (cult). In this cult, personal development and creativity is stifled. I will not go into great detail about it here, but if you would like to know more, you can email me (at the end). I finally was able to leave, which meant leaving my family (parents, 7 brothers and 2 sisters still there, grandparents, wife and children) behind. It was the hardest thing that I have ever done. My whole life I have been told that if I ever left, then I was going to hell and there was no chance of ever being saved. Kind of puts a damper on leaving.
Leaving was enough of a struggle as it is not to include the fact that in leaving, I became a newborn in the world. I didn't realize how much I didn't know about how the "real world" works and how much of a struggle it was going to be. The being said, I am still here and am still struggling. I am 37 years old and I feel like I am 18 as far as life is concerned.
Now to game development. I AM GOING TO MAKE GAMES. I do have a design and programming background through one of the businesses that the community owns. I created interactive multimedia for ten years. I think that I have a pretty strong background that is suitable in many ways to game development. I, of course, applied to many companies to get into game development only to find out that you need something called a degree to get in anywhere. That sucks... I am 37 and have no college degree. So I am going to school online at University of Advancing Computer Technology, Tempe, AZ for a Game Programming Degree. I am getting 4.0 accross the board and feeling pretty good that what I learned in designing and programming for ten years was pretty solid. By the way, everything that I know in design and programming is self taught.
When I graduate from college, I will be 40 years old and still a virgin to the game industry. I think what I need to do, and the direction that I will go is to start my own game development company and start making my own games. It is too late to get onto the corporate ladder and start climbing. I am too far behind the eight ball, as it were. This is the hardest part about having been in a cult for most of my life. I don't have anything to show for all those years of life.
Any help or suggestions from the community would be greatly appreciated. I am here to stay and I am going to make this succeed. I don't have any time left for other options that I can see. I almost feel in a panic state in this regards.
If you would like to contact me outside of the Garage Games forum, my email is:
jjnstn2002 at yahoo dot com.
Thank you for you time and I am very excited to be a part of this community of game developers.
Submit your own resources!| Chris Labombard (Feb 24, 2006 at 16:15 GMT) |
First, let me say. Welcome to our community! :)
Ok, if you plan on being self employed and not working for another company (when it comes to coding), why are you in school? That makes no sense to me. I wouldn't waste money on it, I'd just take the knowledge and experience and start your company.
| James Spellman (Feb 24, 2006 at 16:32 GMT) |
| Richard Van Stone (Feb 24, 2006 at 16:45 GMT) |
| Todd Pickens (Feb 24, 2006 at 16:58 GMT) |
| Jay Barnson (Feb 24, 2006 at 17:35 GMT) |
If you are serious, and stick with it, you'll make it happen. Good luck to you!
| X-Tatic (Feb 24, 2006 at 17:35 GMT) |
| Aaron Ellis (Feb 24, 2006 at 17:48 GMT) |
To offer a bit of encouragement, let me say that whenever you start getting nervous about your place in the game dev world, just remember that fresh eyes and new perspectives can help revitalize any industry. As a veritable 'outsider', you can approach game development in a different way than most of us here. And as an Indie developer, you can have the freedom to experiment and take gaming to new places.
| James Randall (Feb 24, 2006 at 17:53 GMT) |
Secondly: I don't want to come across as faceicious as what you must have been through sounds terrible. I just like to be positive. That out the way so I'd say you did get one thing from those years: a self taught knowledge of coding and development. So they weren't completely worsted. Just trying to be positive...
As to the corporate ladder. You're not missing much. I think most of us are trying to get off it.....
Good luck with your game making. Go for it!
All the best.
| Jason Swearingen (Feb 24, 2006 at 21:54 GMT) |
I dont know what technologies you work with, and what your future plans are, but i'm kind of in the same boat as you.
I currently work at Microsoft, doing development in Windows DRM. Now, you might think that's awesome, but it really isnt. I have too many ideas floating in my head, and working for a big company is NOT the place to exercise creativity :P
So... what am I going to do? well in less than 1 month I'm quitting, selling my house, cars, and all my possessions, and then in June I'm moving to Thailand to start a software development company.
So needless to say, our situations are not that different. I'm only 28 right now, so you have about 10 years more "life" experience, but I'll give you my advice anyway. If you are serious about starting a software company, and have no experience... then honestly, dont get a degree in programming. You need a business degree, or the equivlant. If you are going to hire programmers, then it's their job to write the kickass code (you should only hire people more skilled at development than you) and your job to make the "big decisions". Sure, it's great to be multi-facited and help out with the coding in a pinch, but running a company isnt about how great of a programmer you are, it's anticipating the market, effectivly managing your employees, and keeping your projects on time and under budget.
But if you are for sure going to get a degree in development, well, then by all means keep in touch with me... I am sure I could use a capable developer (if you wanted to move to thailand!)
-Jason
| Jeff Johnston (Feb 25, 2006 at 02:36 GMT) |
I will keep adding new .plans as I have updates on our progress.
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