She made a point of following me everywhere and loved
to stay under my desk when it was still allowed in the office.
One day, by the end of last year, someone said someone
found a better place for her. I hope she is fine – although I know how she
loved her freedom – but anyway, in the beginning I even had dreams that she was
back. She was important to me.
So, a little later, I started to have lunch under some
trees and some dogs showed up. The “chicken friends club”, which included this
little dude.
I was almost sure he was her brother.
And he used to come with something in his mouth, a
leaf or a stick
Later, I talked to the old man who had these dogs and
he told that yes, he was her brother, and yes, bringing something in his mouth
was his way of asking for food.
Then, a few weeks ago, he stopped coming,
The old man told me that some boys in the neighborhood
loved the dog, and they moved away and took the dog with him. Well, I guess he
is fine.
I am happy because I was able, this end of year, not only to finalize Cause the Numbers but also this new game i started in June, I think, and stoped because I needed to study.
It's a concept that I really liked, inspired in the classic game "Who's Who?". "Who's Who?" is so cool, even knowing that it is broken - I mean, if two experient people play, the one who starts have like twenty times more chance to win - but anyway, it is so fun to play with little children. I played with my son a lot - can't forget when he asked in his first turn if my man was bald - the are only two bald guys, and mine was one - so with three years old he beat me in two turns and we laughed a lot. And I wanted to derive something from it, so I did.
Now I liked this concept so much that I think I'll extend it to a board-like game - that could perfectly be an actual board game, like Battle of the CookBees, my first game.
So probably I'll be releasing FaceBots Battle anytime soon!
I think an important thing is to recognize inspiration. Inspiration is not necessarily a moment when you have an "a-ha" idea. It's the feeling I had playing with my son, and the wish to extend that feeling to something of my own creation. Which in the end I did, many years later.
Another effect
of this programming journey is that it encouraged me to go back to college.
I’m doing
mathematics college on internet – the exams are in person. I believe I am going
to be a math teacher. That is the plan, since a few years ago. Some people may
say I’m too shy for that, but what do I care for what “some people” think?
Other
reason for choosing maths – besides the fact I like it – is that there Is a
shortage of teachers, so they hire college students who have at least one fourth of
the grade done. At least it has been so for many years.
It’s always
surprising how much can get in the way when you are almost there, but I’m
mostly fine now.
( one of the first sketches for my first game, Battle of the CookBees )
I have good news. I spoke with my wife and she agreed that I renew my
website hosting account, so my games stay there, at least for one more year. I
think much more.
The games didn’t earn me money as I expected – ain’t it a crime – but the
adventure is being far from vain.
I work in an engineering firm, but I am not an engineer. There are
always decisions in projects that I have no knowledge to make. Unlike when I
began working for the first time in 1999, and through the beginning of the
century, when it paid for being simply a very fast 3D drawing guy and knowing Revit, creating families and all, nowadays everybody
who wants to work with projects is expected to be an engineer or architect.
Well, ok. I believe I can learn more than people think, if there is goodwill,
but I learned that you can't expect too much goodwill from people.
Ok, again.
So, my way to stay alive in this market for at least a little more was
to learn how to make custom plugins for Revit, since I know Cad, BIM
and code, and I am good with geometry.
It took me months to master Revit plugin, and I was making some good
ones, then they sent me to make plugins for ArchiCad. A different software, a different
programming language, so I had to almost start from zero, and it is a barely
explored territory, but something is coming out of it.
It is valuable knowledge - ask on the internet- and, well, it is what I have to offer.
There is always more going on anywhere than a simple linear story, but
in pure professional terms, this is it.
I don't know how much it represents of the reasons why I have a decent
degree of tranquility tonight, I am sure it's much less than half, but is still
very important to me.
And this was possible because I wanted to make games.
Earlier, I had some very rudimentary notion of programming because I had
worked with 3dMax’s maxscript in the past, but in 2020 was the first time I sat
to really learn programming in the internet, and later through a “create your
game in Java” book. I learned so much in these five years, all because of that initial
dream.
All because, in 2019, playing with my son that was 3 years old, and
having problems with money, I started thinking I could have ideas for games and
put them on the Internet. I like games, after all, and it seemed like a good
idea.
I remember clearly when we took him to the hospital – nothing serious at
all – and I was in the reception room waiting for them, and I took a coffee and
started thinking about what kind of game I could create.
I looked at the starry night and dreamed. Boards with squares, colors, a
little bit of humor, all from an inspiration I had from a child.
And it was maybe naïve – but I still believe is fruitful.
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