BIO
I have been creating since I was young. To take an idea and make it into something tangible is a satisfying and interesting process. Throughout my life I have been all across the board on what types of things I create. My earliest creations were necklaces I made with string and beads. Later I learned how to build things with popsicle sticks and cardboard and when I entered middle school I started adding electronic circuits to my creations.
Electronics Interest
I got into electronics when I was 17. I started building devices based on schematics I found. These included things like capacitors, transistors, LEDs, resistors, etc. Over the course of a few months I learned how to read schematics. Not long after I started my electronics hobby I began building my own circuit boards. I continued building electronic devices for years.
Computer Interest
Early in the year 2000 I viewed computers as something you do work on; computer's were, quite boring in my teenage mind. My opinion was based on the fact that when I played video games it was on my Super Nintendo or Nintendo 64 not a computer. Later in that year my Dad bought a PC which I felt was just for work. One day two of my best friends came over with a video game called "Command and Conquer Red Alert." They played that game with my brother on my Dad's new PC. I asked them if they wanted to play Mario Kart 64 with me instead; Red Alert looked boring to me. They asked me to give it a try. I was immediately hooked; the sheer number of possible ways to play the game made it extremely interesting to me.
Since computers had gone from something boring to something fun, I became a lot more interested in them. Unfortunately my Dad restricted my use of his computer. So I started looking for my own computer. I bought my first PC in 2001, it was a disaster. It was slow, had problems and when the next Red Alert game came out I couldn't play it on my computer without upgrading it. So I started to perform computer upgrades. I upgraded the processor, video card, ram and hard drive. I had to re-install Windows 98 countless times over those few years. Suddenly I realized that I actually enjoyed working with computer hardware. Eventually I built my first PC and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. In a year computers went from something that was boring to my new favorite hobby.
Since computers had gone from something boring to something fun, I became a lot more interested in them. Unfortunately my Dad restricted my use of his computer. So I started looking for my own computer. I bought my first PC in 2001, it was a disaster. It was slow, had problems and when the next Red Alert game came out I couldn't play it on my computer without upgrading it. So I started to perform computer upgrades. I upgraded the processor, video card, ram and hard drive. I had to re-install Windows 98 countless times over those few years. Suddenly I realized that I actually enjoyed working with computer hardware. Eventually I built my first PC and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. In a year computers went from something that was boring to my new favorite hobby.
Programming
I learned to program early in my college career. I took a class that introduced me to Visual Basic 2005. There I learned to program simple math formulas and create a GUI. I used the skills I learned there to help with my other classes. My first "real" programming experience however was when I started at Brigham Young University Idaho. I was introduced to C++. At first I really struggled to understand the language. I didn't get a good handle on programming until my third programming class. Later I was introduced to other languages including assembly and C. I continued to struggle with programing until I took my first embedded systems class.
I remember at the beginning of the class the instructor got in front of the class and showed us a little red board with a microcontroller on it. He said that during this class we would learn how to program the pins on that microcontroller to do whatever we wanted. Everything changed for me, I realized at that moment that programming was a far more powerful and useful skill than I originally thought. My programming knowledge and electronics knowledge came together and I was able to use this new skill to create things I didn't think were possible.
I remember at the beginning of the class the instructor got in front of the class and showed us a little red board with a microcontroller on it. He said that during this class we would learn how to program the pins on that microcontroller to do whatever we wanted. Everything changed for me, I realized at that moment that programming was a far more powerful and useful skill than I originally thought. My programming knowledge and electronics knowledge came together and I was able to use this new skill to create things I didn't think were possible.
Game Development Unity
My game development journey started when I developed JConsole. JConsole was my first video game system. I developed it in 2012 using the MSP430 microcontroller. Over the next three years I continued to develop new and improved embedded game systems. Then I had a question; "how similar is developing a game for JConsole to developing a game for Windows?
In the past I had modified and hacked games before. I consider myself an avid gamer. Game development seemed the next logical step, but how would I start?
I remembered a time when one of my former college professors showed me a game he was working on. He was using a game engine called Unity. During college I made a feeble attempt to learn Unity but I gave up after a half hour when I couldn't really make any progress.
I realized that it would take a lot of effort to learn Unity but it was something I really wanted to learn. After a month of following tutorial videos I started making my own games. Over time I learned how to implement some pretty cool stuff using the Unity game engine. Eventually I learned about the entire process of developing a game; from starting a new project to releasing a game on the Google Play Store.
In the past I had modified and hacked games before. I consider myself an avid gamer. Game development seemed the next logical step, but how would I start?
I remembered a time when one of my former college professors showed me a game he was working on. He was using a game engine called Unity. During college I made a feeble attempt to learn Unity but I gave up after a half hour when I couldn't really make any progress.
I realized that it would take a lot of effort to learn Unity but it was something I really wanted to learn. After a month of following tutorial videos I started making my own games. Over time I learned how to implement some pretty cool stuff using the Unity game engine. Eventually I learned about the entire process of developing a game; from starting a new project to releasing a game on the Google Play Store.