Video games was my creative hobby
Down + B. Pressing these buttons when throwing a Poké Ball, increased its capture rate — supposedly. Come to think of it, it might have been a legend. But I still did it anyway. Every single time. Like many other 90s kids, video games played a big part in my childhood. But for me, it was not only playing games. It was also making them.
On what I like to think of as The Afternoon That Changed My Life, my cousins introduced me to RPG Maker. As the name suggests, that piece of software allowed you to create role-playing games.
I loved stories and RPGs had always been my favorite genre. For me, playing Final Fantasy was like watching a movie. Except the story took 60 hours to unfold. And I was the hero. That was a highly engaging experience as a kid. It took me months to finish one of those games!
So when given the opportunity to create what I liked most, I couldn’t resist. RPG Maker changed my very relation to video games. Suddenly, it was not only about playing games, it was also creating them. Video games became my creative hobby.
Now, creating games is very time-consuming. As an amateur, you’re essentially a one-person team. And it takes a lot of different crafts to make even a basic video game. So by middle school, I was spending my days writing stories, creating all sorts of graphics, and even trying to make music.
That’s how I started spending so much time on computers in the first place. This video game-making hobby would eventually lead me to learn programming. That itself led me to become a software engineer. See, that really was a life-changing afternoon.
Sometimes, you might be thinking that you haven’t found “your thing”. Try to pick something you like — art, games, apps, sports. Now try to practice or create some of it, not only consume it. You might like it.
Feeling like reading some more instead?
- Can I really do this? — how I try to deal with my fear of failure
- Quit reading — why people read to reassure themselves
I’m on a journey to build a daily writing habit. You can follow me on Twitter where I’ll share my learning and most of my writing.
See you tomorrow.
