A Child's Dream

I've always been interested in the field of game design. Ever since I was eight years old and my parents bought me the Sega MasterSystem, (ah, the nostalgia, good old Alex the Kidd!), I'd wanted to make my very own games. We only had one television in the house when I was young, so when it came time for the evening news, mum would swoop in to claim the TV, and I'd be sent off to play in the much more mundane "real-world". However, unlike most other kids of that age, I didn't go to my room to play with my cars and lego. Instead, I took out pencil and paper and started scribbling down crude sketches for my own games. At the time, my parents probably thought it was cute; little me sitting down so intent upon his little drawings! Now-a-days they're probably cursing the day they bought me my Sega.

High school went for me like it does for most teenagers; painful, "I HATE SCHOOL", with a dose of "do your schoolwork and pass, otherwise you'll regret it later on." If I had a dollar for every time I heard that...whew!

Ironically, for someone with the dream of making video games, they were also my high school downfall. With a lack of discipline towards schoolwork, and too much discipline at leveling up my characters to beat the next boss in Final Fantasy 7, I eventually fell too far behind, and ultimately crashed and burned. With terrible grades, my chances of entering into university or further study to bring me closer to my dream were all but gone.

That said, despite the path to my dreams being shattered, my passion for it hadn't lessened in the slightest.

These days, I've been looking into new ways to push myself along towards that ultimate dream, and despite the lack of the necessary education, the path to games design has opened up some.

Going back to 2000, when I was last at school, the face of PC gaming was very different. Back then, you'd go to the store, buy your game and play. The internet in those days - while established and going strong - was still a young and tender thing, and it's full potential had not been realised.

For PC gaming, and people in a similar situation as myself, 2008 - and the future - holds many promises. Today, while you'd still go out and purchase your games and have fun playing them, now they tend to come bundled with their own content editors. Having full games packaged with tools like this allows people such as myself to have a chance to get in and live our dreams, and at the same time - while not in a professional way - give us experience into the way the industry works.

Mods, and the modding community, are a massive benefit to the gaming community. It allows talented individuals to showcase their ability, and for the games themselves, it helps drive sales. I say this, as every new mod that takes off increases a games playability, and draws more people into it. Mods - whether it adds a new weapon, or introduces a completely new play mode into a game - help to keep a game fresh. Keeping a game fresh keeps people playing, and for the big companies, people playing = $$$.

So many games now come with their own content editors. The Elder Scrolls series, Unreal, Half-Life 2, and many, many more. So there are many options available for anyone who wants to get into that scene.

Now here is where I say the path to my dream has opened significantly (well, maybe not, but assuredly more than in the last five or so years). Most games would have heard of Counterstrike. In the beginning, it was a simple mod for Half-Life. However, through the magic and power of the internet, it became the next big thing. The one guy who created it in the beginning had found a formula, and it went off like a bomb. Thousands of people were playing it, and still do so. As far as I remember, Valve (the guys responsible for Half-Life) picked up this modder, and is now a member of their design team. It's a wonder story all like me dream of, and while I'd like to think that I myself would be able to pull off a success like that, I doubt it would ever happen.

However unlikely the success story might be for me, just having the experience in using such tools brings me that extra step closer to the ultimate goal of becoming a games designer. I have my dream, and despite the set-backs, I can never let it go, and will do all I can to attain it.

So wish me luck out there. Next time you log into your favourite game and click "play", you might wind up in something I've created.