A brief history of code…
My first real introduction into video game development took place between 1991 – 1996, where I and three other classmates formed a company named Vicarious Visions and developed a side-screen based murder mystery named Synnergist. It released in Europe, although I don’t know how many dozens of people bought the game.
I was the lead game programmer for that project, but things didn’t really work out the way that anybody really intended. Two of the team went on with their roles in the company (and did well for themselves, no ill will from me there) but at that time in my life, I wasn’t really in a place where I could crunch Assembly-level programming off the cuff, so I decided to hold off on game development for a while.
I turned my focus to developing tabletop based games instead, and played more than my fair share of role playing games, both on the PC and live action games in the park and elsewhere. I did eventually get a game published with Steve Jackson Games, entitled Greed Quest, but the honest truth of the matter was, I think I was just waiting for the technology to catch up to where I needed it to be to really jump into it.
Jump forward about twenty years, and I once again started really focusing my attention on software design, first with Java, then moving over to C#. I enjoyed seeing my little game ideas come to life on my cell phone or on my PC, although for a while I didn’t honestly think that I was publish-worthy.
Valve then released the Steam Greenlight program, and I wound up seriously buckling down and developed two game projects. Pesky Humans, and Autumn Park Mini Golf. Both games were submitted to the Greenlight program thanks to a Kickstarter, but Pesky Humans couldn’t quite get enough votes to move it into the Lit category, while the mini golf game did.
I took some time off programming to focus on writing my novels, but when I got my income tax return last year I bought the current development rig and the HTC Vive equipment that I’m now utilizing to make VR-based games. I decided that my first real, in-depth game project would be a new mini-golf game, but I wanted it to not just be a game, I wanted it to be a full experience.
That brings us to the here-and-now. I will be posting blog updates to my various existing projects and as I add new game designs to my roster, I am hoping to update everything here. Hope you enjoy the ride!