I build my first computer in 1980, learnt BASIC and realised it was pretty awful for games. Learnt machine code and was assimilated by a Z80a processor in 1981.  In 1982, on my twelve birthday, I sold my first game: Caven, an endless runner.  Endless runners did not exist back then; how I chuckled as friends tried in vain to ‘complete’ my game.

In 1983 I created a non-linear space exploration game.  It did not sell one copy. I was crushed and decided to focus my attention top shelf publications, usually found half burnt in laneways and back alleys.

I was asked to leave the University of Bristol after a disagreement with the computer science lecturer.  I said I wanted to develop 3D animations for the use in TV & Media.  He said computers would never be able to render those graphics at a quality suitable for broadcast.  I explained he was a Luddite and that Reverse Polish Notation & Punched Cards & Dry Running would be as useful as a copy of Corbyn’s manifesto in the 1922 club.

Fending for myself with nothing but crazy ideas and a curious odour, I fell into web development in the early 90s, founding a studio that created ‘More than Brochureware’ and delivered web experiences that actually did something.  In 1998 I designed a new style of chat forum, where you could subscribe to not just topics, but people and follow their development.  You could even see what the friends of friends were talking about and ‘Hitch’ them.  I called it SqawkBox.  The shareholders of the company pulled funding, saying that they saw no commercial value in an application that built up a network of people and connected like minded individuals.

After several years of suffering the incompetence of those I reported into at various levels, I moved further and further away from actually cutting code.  With a procedural background, OOO was a huge mind shift and it took a long time before my mind switched.  Once it did, it was like bathing in a new world of Newtonian Marmalade.

Now, it’s like I’ve come home and I am cutting code again in my spare time, enjoying the freedom of creativity and the wonderful endless canvas you have as a developer where anything can be created.  I am getting bang into Unity and am loving a course scripted by Ben Tristem, my new hero.