It sort of came in waves, each one getting further than the last. To be honest, after reading about all you guys starting to program while still in grade school I feel like a late bloomer.
Part 1
When I was about 5-6 I just started designing games. I say
design in the loosest sense of the word because these were the kind of "design documents" you'd expect from a kindergardener. Baseball was played with dice and dinosaur stamps, in fact I still remember some of the rules: point calculations were based on where each dinosaur was positioned on the field. If your opponent's T-rex rolled a 6 you were screwed, unless your Anklyosaurus blocked it with a 6 roll of it's own (I am not making this up), because we all know the dinosaur food chain worked like rock-paper-scissors, right?
I was not allowed to partake in family pictionary games (probably because they saw the aforementioned design docs), so I made my own; something involving dice, cutout cards, and what can only be described as a mutant Sorry! board. Followed this cycle a few more times: Battleship, Trouble, Fireball Island (seriously, how could anyone play Fireball Island and NOT want to make their own version). My parents threatened to take Mouse Trap away after I tried Macguyvering kitchen tools into it.
Part 2: Enter the NES
Kind of embarrassed on this one, but my Dad bought us a NES right before I turned 6 yet it did not occur to me to design my own video games until over a year later. My inspiration? I saw The Chipmunk Adventure and thought that balloon game looked awesome. My technology was limited to markers and construction paper (which is why it KILLS me to hear of all the 8 year old budding programmers out there. Sigh, so much time lost). Anyway, what followed were pen and paper versions of Mario 3, Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, a kamikaze missile scroller, and two all out manuals for a hypothetical Mega Man 4 and Darkwing Duck. Imagine my chagrin when I learned those games already existed.
Part 3: The Newb Years
After a LONG hiatus, I picked up my old ambitions to make games. One of my high school math teachers (when I said long I wasn't kidding) mentioned that he also dabbled in computer programming. Until now, I'd thought of video games as works of alchemy, being crafted in a cyberpunk Karloff style lab. It did not occur to me that they were actually made by
regular people. I heard the magic words "C Plus Plus" and was off to make my first game, a tactical submarine simulator... I was young, foolish, and had just read Hunt for Red October for the first time. Consider this my "how do I make an MMORPG moment"
Part 4: Trial and #error
Got my first PC and didn't waste anytime jumping into the PC game market. I bought Starcraft
because it had a mission editor. I knew it would be limited but at least I could finally design my own games, without having to actually program. And then it happened... Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition, and it came with all the editing tools. I could finally make my own FPS style games! I went online and discovered the world of modding. No actual games were completed (saved all my ideas though), but I did get a lot of practice in level design, 3d editing, basic AI, and several other game elements. This also got me into the world of serious game programming, where I actually took the time to learn the tools and methods of making real games. Learned I couldn't sell anything made with the Unreal engine unless I paid $$$ for a license. My rebuttal? "Fine, I'll write my own." Lots of learning, lots of cursing, lots of getting frustrated and quitting only to come back a few months later to try again, and around we go.
Part 5: The Current Era
Not sure what caused this, but I think it was a combination of my brother moving in with his PS3 and Wii, the complete loathing of my day job reaching an all time high, and discovering the Gyrovorbis and Lusikkamage youtube channels. I took everything I'd accumulated over the years and started from scratch. I put my grand designs for a Donkey Kong Country + GTA 3 clone on hold (it's better than it sounds, trust me) and dug out my old ideas. Started small and simple and planned on working my way up, only... it happened again; my eyes got bigger than my stomach
and my once simple designs evolved into a magnum opus of sorts, all justified with "but it's only in 2D."
So now here I am, writing this obscenely long story which is likely to be of little interest to anyone but myself. This is probably just my way of procrastination on making my solid objects arc correctly when I throw them. Stupid gravity.
My apologies for this unsolicited saga. It's late, I'm rambling, and if you've read this far you have more patience than I do. Props.