I have many interests
I wouldn’t say that I’m a jack of all trades, but damn close enough to it. In my time I’ve dabbled in the areas of Programming and related fields thereof; I’ve tried my hand at digital media production including graphic design, film, and even 3d modeling; Photography and digital manipulation; Writing (The first chapter of many novels, poems, campaigns, and this here blog); and even music and sound production (Albeit short lived).
But none of those I would call my passion
I’ve gone to school for the past three years as an art student, only now realizing that it’s not for me. Unlike my close friends who go to school for art, I don’t often spend my free time on creative output relating to my field of study.
Unlike Alex who, in line with his field of study, creates his beautiful LXstrations in his free time; Chris who produces pride-garnering, fanciful vector work; or Marcus who just makes awesome shit (Which are in-tune with his interest in industrial design(I think))
I never really spent much of my free, creative, efforts on art pieces or anything like that. Even though I changed my major to Computer Science I still don’t spend my moments working on applications or really code anything of my own.
So what do I do?
I design games.
For years now any moment when my brain isn’t being wrapped around school or work, I spend my free thought cycles designing and refining games. My pet project, which I spend at least 6 hours out of everyday working on, is a Role Playing and Tactical Combat/War Game System. Hell, I even created a mini-game in this system that I’m mildly proud of (Ask Alex, Chris, JohnT, or Joe what they think of Rasslin’).
I spontaneously think up and refine designs for games. Often. Hell, I’ve even got a design for a RTS/Sim game based on the concepts of Hive Mind (Or Hive Mentality as Rhi suggested) and Insectoid Intelligence. In a sudden flash of unguided thinking I designed the framework for a MMO based in the Metroid universe (Trust me, it doesn’t suck like it may sound)
Not even computer or video games even. My main work is a table top game. I’ve tossed around some board game concepts. I’ve even thought up ideas for CCGs and card games of the classic type (Which aren’t really my bag).
But how do I go to school for that?
Thus I’ve decided, I can’t. There are so many things that being a game designer encompass that there really isn’t any one field that I could go into that would really set me in the right direction. I can’t get a degree in game design.
Which is why I’ve decided that I’m going to start writing, first small, design documents and open source them. There are probably plenty of beginning programmers that are in need of a good design document to develop around. Hell, how many open source games are there that are just copies of commercial games? Shit, how many commercial games out there that are just copies of other commercial games?
Too many.
I just hope that when the mortar hits the pestle that I can churn out something original and fun. I can’t program nearly well enough, I don’t have the skill to put the pencil to the paper (Or paint to the canvas or whatever), but I sure as fuck can design a fun fucking game.
Once I get over this whole laziness thing.
3 Responses to "A Self Analyzation of My Passion"
Sep 17, 11:43 PM
Your flattery is a sweet, sweet nectar flowing thickly into my ear and dripping liberally into my core- covering my core in an amber-tinged layer of love and pride.
(I’ll give you the 5$ payment later.)
Sep 18, 02:10 AM
Really, just keep at it, then. Your passion really doesn’t have a field of study or a degree (perhaps there may be related ones but nothing specific). There are plenty of people out there who design games…how did they get there? perhaps the hardest step is finding people in that position that you can ask, “hey, how the hell did you get where you are?”