Hello all!
Let me first introduce myself,
I am an indie game dev who found a passion for games about 6 or 7 years ago. This passion developed through me actually playing games. I loved these games so much, I wanted to create some for my own. Here is a timeline of my dev adventures…
Early dev life
I started off on scratch, a MIT licences game making engine. There I learned a few tricks of the trade. I leaned how to set up conditional “if, then, else” functions, user input, and basic graphics. At this time I was going to many camps (yes I’m still a bit of a kiddo 
) and learning new things with different engines and coding languages. At the time the engines were quite basic: Code.org, Khan Academy, etc. I also learned HTML, which I am proud to say that I am relatively fluent in now. These camps added to my current knowledge, and love of coding.
Next Steps
I thought I was ready. I was going to make the next big hit. So what did I do? I downloaded Unity3D, a massive 3D engine, responsible for creating some of today’s biggest hits. This was my first ever BIG mistake! Unity is a game engine mostly based in C++, and C#. It was an extremly complex software that had its own dedicated graphics editor/rendering system, and many more complex aspects. I was about ankle deep in Unity when I got completely discouraged. I was lost in the complex world of game dev. I didn’t know where to go, and what to turn to.
Recovery
I decided to take a step back. I would look at it from another angle. I decided to move into the field of graphics. I thought, “if I want to be able to make games, I should be able to make my graphics for these games.” I downloaded Blender. This was mistake number 2! Blender is a 3D modeling software that the pro’s use to create graphics for animated movies, big hit games, and more. It was a bit less complex then Unity, only because it did not have as many different aspects. It was solely a 3D modeling and rendering software. I was able to make an animated monkey move around a screen. And… that’s pretty much it. This yet again discouraged me. I was obviously doing something wrong.
My Big Slump
I was now unfortunately in a slump. I had no idea what to do and where to go. I even stopped playing video games for a bit of time. I focused a lot more energy on school, and sports. Then, something sparked my interest again. Another game! This time it was World of Tanks. I played this game a lot, and during the loading sequence, an animation would play, showing tanks rolling around, shooting. I never noticed it at first, but in the background, there was a 5 star rating, and an award that World of Tanks got. I further looked into it, and it turns out that the game won the Golden Joystick Award for Multiplayer Game of the Year. This excited me, I remembered all the joys of coding games. I really wanted to do it again. I decided to start small, I learned individual coding languages through Khan Academy, and Codecademy. I then looked into game engines. This was quite possibly one of the hardest parts of the game dev process for me. There are hundreds of game engines out there, each with their own individual components that make them unique. I looked at many. This began to overwhelm me, but didn’t discourage me quite yet. As I was looking for game engines to use, I remembered the way that Scratch was set up. It was visual coding, with connecting blocks rather then written scripts. I decided to take the lazy rout. Rather then learning more languages, I just decided to click some blocks together, and try to create a hit… This was mistake number 3! When coding with blocks, because the blocks have presets, it limits what you are trying to create. At the time I was using Stencyl. My goal was to create a RPG mobile game. I wanted to upload it to the app store. Now don’t get me wrong, Stencyl is a great software! It is strong, and great for creating 2D games. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite what I needed. I did not realize this until it was too late… Because I wanted to upload to the AppStore, I had to be on a mac OS. I could use a virtual box, or get a mac… my computer wan not powerful enough for a virtual box, so I invested in a mac. 
700 for a mac to upload my game to the AppStore. A game that never really worked out. Thankfully I was not discouraged…
Alright… Get to the Point
I was back on the hunt for a good engine, I ran into a couple good ones, but they still didn’t fit my needs. And then, I found Defold. A beautifully built engine, with an amazing community. It wasn’t too complex for my goals, but it also wasn’t too basic. It was absolutely perfect. I stuck with Defold, slowly learning the ins and outs. I found myself on the forum more then in the engine!
I told myself that it was okay, it was the best way I was going to end up learning. I worked with a simple philosophy. I believe it is a philosophy that other devs should work by, or even live by. “Start small, enjoy the adventure. Don’t look at the rewards that lay ahead, look at the work you are working on currently. Don’t expect praise, or greatness. And whatever you do, have fun doing it.” Did just that. As my first game using Defold, I created a basic game with a hummingbird, that has to avoid, and collect different falling objects. It’s basic, yes, but is has taught me so many things about Defold, Lua, and even myself. I have learned how to use collection proxies, how synchronize to the Defold servers, how to create functions in Lua. I have even learned what type of lighting I work best in, the type of music that helps me focus, the people in my life whom I can turn to for ideas or advice. This adventure has been a great one, and I could not have done it without a few heroes who have come to my aid:
@britzl @Pkeod @TheKing0x9 @amel @Mattias_Hedberg and many more! I want to thank you all! You have been amazing help!
The Big Thing
I am proud to introduce… Humming Adventures, launching onto a Defold Community Page Saturday February 2nd!
I will post the link here, so please stay tuned!
I would really appreciate input from the community. Once the game launches I would love if I could receive feedback.
This feedback will be used to create updated for the game. I am already planning on having updated adding updated graphics, music, and more.
Thank you all so much for reading this!
Have a great, and wonderful day!
Stay tuned…
