From Passion to Platform
The Origin of Probot Playground Inc.
The Foundation
EJ and I had first met through the Summer Bridge program at UC San Diego in 2016. The Summer Bridge program was meant to help incoming freshmen transition from high school to higher education. Both EJ and I had recently graduated high school and were preparing to enter our first year of college. Coincidentally, we ended up being put into the same housing unit and became friends through the program. Over the course of the next three years at UC San Diego, we both remained very good friends and continued to pursue our respective interests in school. EJ was majoring in Cognitive Science with Machine Learning while I had strayed towards Public Law and Communication. Each of us had also pursued minors with Business Marketing and Finance. In late 2018, we had the opportunity to work together on an incubator program where we came up with the idea to build an automated gaming platform that would allow users to play games by programming their own bots and algorithms. A few months later, we founded Probot Playground Inc. in February 2019.
Tony’s Story
Ever since I started high school, I have had an interest and passion for STEM, particularly in robotics. In the 9th grade, I joined the high school FIRST robotics team where I was able to build and program mechanical robots. This was the first time I had taken an interest in technology and engineering. Over the course of my high school career, this passion grew and my interest followed. I continued to take a more active role in my robotics club and was even able to serve as the Financial Officer. This role not only allowed me to submerge myself into the world of technology, but it also allowed me to gain experience of the business end. I was in charge of fundraising, contacting corporate sponsors, and managing the budget for the club. And as the Finance Officer, I witnessed first-hand how our business endeavors could directly expedite our growth and performance. Suddenly, I found another field of study I was interested in.
When I had entered college with this newfound interest, my area of study began to stray away from STEM and it enabled me to explore different subjects. It provided me with the ability to go beyond STEM and explore different interests. Soon, I found myself leaning more towards Business. Although I was still interested in technology and the sciences, I decided to pursue other degrees in Public Law and Communication. I then decided to pursue a minor in Business with two concentrations, product marketing, and business management.
When I entered my third year of college, I was offered the opportunity to take part in an incubator program and work alongside one of my closest friends. Aside from creating a business, we came up with an idea that would merge my two interests: business and technology. This was not an opportunity I could pass up. When starting our company, I was able to take on the role of Chief Executive Officer and it reminded me a lot of my experience serving as the Finance Officer on my robotics team. As the CEO, I was able to work and develop the business side of our company while also being able to work with the technology end. It not only allowed me to reconnect with my passion for STEM, but it also enabled me to continue to develop and learn more about the business world. Even now, almost six months after establishing our company, I am continuing to learn new ways to become better. While I know we are still young and working to build up our company, I cannot wait to see where we go from here.
EJ’s Story
My interest in technology sparked at a young age. I spent a lot of my free time gaming with friends and would always wonder how they were made. One day I decided to find out with a quick Google search, How are video games made?. Not knowing what to expect, I was blown away by all the complexity that went into making a video game. After reader articles and watching Youtube video on game development for the better part of the day, I realized games were in their simplest form just a bunch of pictures and code (whatever that was).
At this point, I knew what pictures and graphics were but still was not too sure about the code part. So I did some research and began to understand what programming was and the different languages out there. Of course, the next logical step was to Google, What programming language to learn?. This was how I began journey learning Java.
Throughout high school, I got better and better at coding and began reading up on the up and coming topic of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence and then I knew that I wanted to go to college for Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence.
Once I started college, I continued to code quite a bit but began to shift toward web development. After learning more about Artificial Intelligence, I found that there was not a very convenient, fun, and entertaining way to practice what I had learned.
With my good friend Tony, we began developing Probot Playground. Over the past few months, I have learned so much about the ins and outs of developing a real live web platform. It has been such a wonderful experience, and I am still learning so many new things. Even beyond the technical aspects, there are so many business aspects that I have learned while building our company.
What’s Next?
Since our incorporation in February 2019, we have been working tirelessly to build our platform from scratch. We are at the point of our company where we are finalizing our platform and are shifting our focus to the official launch in just a few short weeks in early September.
After launch, we will continue to work to develop our platform while also trying to grow our user base. Once we launch, anyone will be able to start playing on Probot Playground and develop their own bots. Along with playing in normal matches, we are also planning on having online tournaments where users will be able to test their bots against players around the world. Do you think you could make the best bot?
Can you rule the playground?
