Background

I had originally planned to start this blog with my journey as a mature student and my initial forays into Games Development, but thought that I had better delve into my background a bit in order to fully explain why I waited so long to study an area that I was passionate about since secondary school.

I grew up in a single parent environment for much of my childhood, under circumstances familiar to many people. There wasn’t an abundance of money, but we were never hungry, always in clean clothes and, somehow, always spoiled at Christmas time. We always had games consoles in the house, starting with the NES and the Sega Master System, leading to the SNES and Mega Drive Later on. Although I enjoyed playing the games on these systems, I distinctly remember the first time that I looked at the screen and said “wow!”.

My older brother was playing “Zelda: A Link To The Past” and I was completely struck by the huge world map. “How can there be no levels?”, “So you can go anywhere on that map?”. Games all of a sudden felt bigger. They contained worlds filled with stories to explore. This initial reaction would shape my taste in games for years to come.

The first time I encountered the Playstation, my brother was playing Final Fantasy 7. I followed his progress, in awe of this massive rich world, illustrated in the anime art style that had gripped me, after sinking into many Manga films on the Sci-Fi channel. I got my own Playstation soon after and gleefully took a trip to the local game shop in the town centre. I left with 2 games, “Breath of Fire 3” and “Wild Arms”. Although the new 3d worlds were great, I found that pixelated sprites, were the remedy to a long lasting itch in this world of polygons and pre rendered backgrounds.

Fast forward to the end of secondary school and I was lost and confused. All of my friends had some kind of idea what they wanted to do after school and how to get there. I knew that I wanted to work in art. I loved the idea of being a games artist, but had no idea how to get there. I had no access to internet at this time, as we had no pc at home, and although there was internet at school, I lacked the technical confidence to even use the IT suite. When my teachers saw in my statement that I had no idea how to achieve my goals, they took the opportunity to direct me to their brand new sixth form, studying the subjects that I was strongest in, English and Art. Bewildered and panicking, I agreed, leading to 2 years of wasted time and more frustration. I finished the 2 years, still with no idea what to do. There were no games development courses locally, as far as I know, so I decided to get my first job and put my aspirations on hold.

I worked evenings at Cambridge Airport, cleaning hangars and offices. I didn’t love the job, but it was nice to be earning money. I took an interest in DJing at this time, so my first couple of pay checks went towards a set of turntables, records and a stereo. Soon after this, I was given a pc, which was due to be thrown out of the airport after an office refurb. I started to play around on it, still with no internet, and discovered that I wouldn’t blow it up by pushing the wrong button! The processor ran at around 500 mhz and it had 256 mb of RAM, so I quickly realised that I would need to upgrade, in order to run the music production software, that my friends were introducing me to. I spoke to the staff at a small local computer shop and started to buy parts, in order to build a capable machine. I had everything I needed after a couple of months and to be honest, have no idea how I managed to put it all together on my own, with no internet or outside help! I was now able to make music and also begin my journey into PC gaming, I was falling in love with gaming all over again.

Not long after this I met my partner and my son was born in February 2008. I needed to work more hours to be able to provide and, in October 2008, started my job at Sainsburys. Starting just before the christmas rush, on the non-food department was a baptism of fire for sure. However I wasn’t put off by this. I enjoyed the rush and the chaos. I loved being able to help people and quickly found a niche that no one else at the time could fill. There was no one else who knew about Games, consoles and electrical devices in general, so I took ownership of all of these, quickly becoming a key figure in the store. I was largely happy for a few years, however still dreamt of a life outside of retail. The problem was, the thought of giving up a full time job, to study, was terrifying…….so I stayed.

Fast forward again to 2018. I was in a middle management position, with 4 kids and was about to be made redundant, along with many others who felt that they had no place in the “new Sainsburys”, following a major restructure. Here was my chance! My partner was looking to start working again, meaning that we should be able to get by. I would study and work part time and she would work during school hours.

And so began my new journey. A mixture of excitement and fear coursed through my thoughts, as I prepared to head back into education, feeling completely out of my depth…………..