How I Became a Game Developer

This feels kind of sad… 🙁

I posted a poll on Twitter and Bluesky for my next article, and an overwhelming number of people wanted to know how I got into game dev. I don’t know what about me is so interesting, but here we are.

I’m not sure where to begin, but I do want to cover each part of my journey up to a certain point, even if briefly. I can break it down like this:

– I Play Too Many Games
– I’m a Web Dev. Would Making Games Help Me Get a Job?
– From Hobbyist to My First Game Jam
– CRUSH, Disappointment, and the Back Burner
– I Need a Job. What Should I Do? / How I Started Salt & Pixel LLC

I Play Too Many Games

The last console I owned was an Xbox 360. Back in 2009, Left 4 Dead 2 was king. At the time, I was living in Burbank, CA, and working at Hustler Hollywood. I was as far as you could get from being a developer, artist, designer, or any kind of creative.

In my early 20s, I had left Texas and was living in LA, trying to figure out what to do. One night, while playing Left 4 Dead 2 way too late, I thought, “This isn’t healthy.” I was definitely addicted to video games, and eventually, my coping process led me to think, “Maybe I should learn to make games since I enjoy them so much.”

Around this time, I had a breakdown moment (the first of many). My childhood and relationship with my parents were rough, to say it kindly. I had no guidance or support for making good decisions.

During that time, a childhood “friend” reached out, and I ended up leaving LA to move to Missouri and join a church—well, a cult—the International House of Prayer. Honestly, this part of my life could be a book. Relevant here, though, is that I became homeless. While trying to figure out how to get out of that, I bought a book on HTML5 (which was new then) and Dreamweaver. I lived in my car, so I’d lay down the back seats, half in the trunk, with my pillow and blanket, reading by the streetlights.

I’m a Web Dev. Would Making Games Help Me Get a Job?

Fun Fact: My first love is music. You might believe it, but I could have been a professional singer.

By 2012, I had some experience with web and graphic design. I’d made websites on Squarespace and was getting familiar with WordPress. Back in California, I was living in Pasadena, working at the Pasadena International House of Prayer as a worship leader and groundskeeper, making furniture, and doing freelance website work whenever I could.

I really wanted to land a steady job, though. I learned HTML5 could be used to make games and discovered Construct 2. I thought creating a video game might help me stand out, so I started learning it.

Eventually, I landed a job as a lead designer for a web firm. It didn’t last, though—everyone hated me there, and the firm eventually went under. But I learned a lot. Later, I became the Creative Director for Catalyst Convergence, a Christian organization that held large conferences and events. More on that later…

From Hobbyist to My First Game Jam

For years, I kept my game dev hobby a secret, mostly because of the cult I was in. I did what every aspiring dev does. My first game jam entry was Tom is Late for Work. I watched someone on YouTube play it, and seeing them laugh and enjoy it cemented why I wanted to do this. I even participated in GMTK’s first jam with The Earth Dies Screaming.

I released a bunch of WIP projects on Gamejolt, but one really took off.

CRUSH, Disappointment, and the Back Burner

CRUSH is the game I keep remaking (Annihilator start as CRUSH for the Game Boy!). It gets compared to Xeno Crisis a lot, but I can assure you, CRUSH came first.

This was my first game to get featured on Gamejolt and Newgrounds, pushing me to take game dev more seriously. But CRUSH also taught me a harsh lesson about the internet and social media.

I tried launching a Kickstarter, and they even labeled it a “Project We Love,” but it failed miserably. I learned that likes and follows don’t mean much. I had a demo on Armor Games, which ended up being removed after review-bombing. That hit my motivation hard.

I Need a Job. What Should I Do? / How I Started Salt & Pixel LLC

Sugar & I, somewhere in the middle of nowhere mid-west.

Back to Catalyst Convergence. By 2014 or 2015, I finally had a normal job as a personal assistant, eventually becoming the Creative Director. I moved to Virginia and converted an old school bus into a tiny home, where I still live. I worked for an events company that let me work remotely.

In 2018, I drove the bus around the U.S. for six or seven months, a life-changing experience. By the end of that year, I found myself jobless and struggling to find work. After burning through my savings, I was desperate.

I thought it was a long shot, but maybe I could use my pixel art and game dev experience. It took a couple of months to figure out where and how to post my work. I tried Fiverr and Upwork—don’t bother with them. Surprisingly, it was Reddit, specifically r/gamedevclassifieds, that gave me my break.

People liked my art, and soon, I was getting regular commissions. Business picked up a lot when the pandemic hit, and I ended up paying off my debt and founding Salt & Pixel. At the time, my cost of living was low, especially since I lived in a bus, and I had the space to work.

That’s How It Got Started

Since then, I’ve been able to take on bigger projects and even return to developing my own games. Leaving the cult and becoming independent changed me in profound ways. There were some low points (Outer Terror, but that’s a story for another day).

In truth, it feels like I’m just now starting.