jUMPbOT, my first crack at game development is complete, does this make me a game developer? Yes, No, Maybe, I don’t know-you decide. Should I add game developer to my resume-maybe I will add it under the accomplishment section. Should I add game developer to my social media bio? I think I will-but again should I? Will it make a difference if I did ? or didn’t. Will anyone see it? Do people even visit my profile? Does it matter if anyone saw it?-or didn’t? Will anyone play the game? Will they like it? Will they recommend it to their peers? Will They live a 5 star, 2 star 3 star 4 star, 1 star, No star?-Or maybe a good review,or perhaps a bad review?. Will they play it when they read this article because they love the article? Or maybe they will love the article but still not play the game? — Or maybe vice-versa? These are the 21 questions(but again are they even 21?) that project my anxieties(I’m sorry if the word anxieties is a trigger to anyone-I know it is to me) as I plan to release this masterclass, this magnum opus-at least this is how I see it in my head. I never wanted to be great at anything, all I wanted was to create something that people would want to engage in and know that I exist-I just wanted to belong.
I wanted to be an artist/ a painter- now I can do decent drawings but I am not Michelangelo yet. I wanted to make beats-the furthest I got was trying out MuseScore and admitting that music is hard. I wanted to be a coder/a developer/a programmer/web designer-well I am now,but I’m still not Linus Torvalds Yet, I still lift code from Stackoverflow and spend my days hoping other peoples code run so that I don’t have to think about killing myself (“Killing Myself” here has been used as a tone of phrase and not in literal sense-I’m sorry if its a trigger to anyone). In regards to my animator dreams I don’t know if its me or Its Blender 3D, its probably Blender-Someone has to take the blame right. In regards to becoming a writer- I wrote 30 articles on hubpages and made 0.03$ before my account was suspended-But I guess Ill take what I get. Bottom line is I think I have never created something good enough. Maybe My expectations exceed my abilities or maybe this is something Every wannabe creative experiences in the course of their existence-You know that feeling-sitting in front of your computer at [2:37 am] waiting for that render to complete,code to finish compiling, your video to finish uploading on vimeo, your mixtape to finish uploading to soundcloud,your database to finish the backup process because you know the pain of messing something in production-All the while thinking you could be someone else. A human rights activist maybe, at least making a difference in people lives at the cost of your own because injustice anywhere is injustice anywhere and the fact that rights are supposed to fought for not only when convenient but especially when its hard-But again where would you start, Black lives matter? All lives Matter? Animal rights would be something worth considering or do one better combating global warming or pushing for environmental conservation/preservation-Will people listen to you? I hope they do. I think they should. Bear in mind these are the same people that have made it possible to fuel jets mid-air so that they can make the process of destroying lives a little bit more efficient-Yikes-All the best.. And then you think of software engineering-Must be fun creating UIs,databases, making apps and playing around with AI, Blockchain, robotics and computer vision-But you think of Agile ,TDD,OOP,DOD, standups, version control and Continuous Integration and then you don’t think about it anymore-But its still achievable-Still achievable though-But at the cost of tour life. [2:40am] you realize you cannot be someone else because you are a creative and in as much as there is creativity in you there is you in creativity-Does this make any sense-I don’t know-I’m just ranting.Oh my word! am still writing this?-I was supposed to be talking about my game-Did I digress?-I think I did.-A little ……..Game Development must be nice [light bulb]-Well! Activision, Naughty Dog, SquareEnix, Electronic Arts, Valve, Rockstar and all the AAAs are waiting for you at the door ready to do a number on you-But don’t let me fool you-indie game development is fun-I would know.
So I found this guy called Tim Ruswick on YouTube who ignited this game developer fire in me. “Your first game won’t be perfect but still you have to put it out there,just create a prototype and have people play it and then improve it[this is where I am at]
I am releasing my first game,it ain’t perfect,it ain’t AAA, made with zero budget-trying to be a great nevertheless,it ain’t half as good as your favorite game-you would be better of playing Fortnite or PUBG or maybe Red Dead Redemption II, COD sounds nice-But still its a worthwhile undertaking because this was a story and it ain’t complete until you play jUMPbOT. It might not be worth your time-But[refer my last sentence]
A thousand tools, techniques and languages later(Unity 3D,Blender 3D, Panda 3d,Godot Engine,python, C#, C++,JavaScript and even GD Script) I present jUMPbOT made with none of the above but by the humble choice of Gdevelop for the control statements and Paint for the Artwork-simple tools but game changing-pun intended.
Regardless of what I have said/written(Do we use said or written in this context?-would like to know) , jUMPbOT is an incredibly decent cross platform platformer mini-video game,exciting to play, efficient controls, smooth gameplay, challenging levels(4 levels only) decent artwork and everything you ever wished in a video game.-Maybe not everything.
jUMPbOT is a celebration of all my below average skills.I learned a lot when making the game from setting deadlines to making art, level design and writing the control statements.I wish you get to play it and love much as I did making it for you and it ain’t much but still its honest work. It is available on itch.io( https://odrian.itch.io/jumpbot)
Thanks For taking your time to read this.#LetsPlayjUMPbOT.
Regards,
The neighborhood Jack of all trades and master of none.
