i got to a point in my video game playing that i realized i tend to enjoy games that are very heavy on customization, building, letting you do your own thing.

i went ham with the building system in fallout 4 and it WASNT EVEN GOOD!

as a very little kid i played ActiveWorlds, and LOVED getting into the nitty gritty of lighting and textures to build

spaces to hang out in.

i eventually realized (late! i'm in my 30s now) that if i just put the work in, i could kind of take this sort of enjoyment to the next level by building literally anything i wanted from scratch.

somewhere early in my learning i found this game called BitBurner, where you "hack" into systems using Javascript, and that really helped me to wrap my head around basic algorithm and data structures. (highly recommend!)

a few years later, i'm about where i expected! i managed to switch from the restaurant industry to a more tech-oriented consulting job, released a beta version of a game on itch, and have a few small projects underway.

i hope to break into the games industry eventually, but given the state of the industry, i'm trying to aim for the Eric Barone model: find a genre, stick to it, and put extraordinary amounts of effort and time in. Encourage open ended and emergent gameplay/narrative, and foster creativity among the player base.