- Joined
- Aug 19, 2009
- Messages
- 279
Hi everyone,
I'm posting this after being away for a long time. I just remembered hiveworkshop and thought I'd make a post here. I was last active like 11 years back. So many things have changed since then, especially Blizzard being what it is, and the whole world too.
I'm thankful for having a platform like hiveworkshop — it's a big part of how I got where I am today.
Just a short update on my life. I've been modding games since I was in grade 7-8(2006-ish). I didn't have internet at home, so I used to take writable CDs to internet cafes, save stuff like Valve Hammer Editor on them, and work on CS maps at home. Warcraft 3 was so much better in terms of potential learning JASS was fun, and I ended up doing so much obscure stuff with it. It was limited, but it was the right place to experiment and try new things. thehelper.net was another site I practically lived on back then.
I left modding to pursue my career in computer science engineering in 2011, and thought I'd left all those dreams behind. But college life was horrible. (I found out a few years back that I have ADHD, which probably contributed, though I'd suspected it for a while.)
I ended up wanting to drop out and get into game development: (A thread of mine from 2013, i was asking what should learn to get into game development)
Question about game engines.
Someone on that thread suggested I go into Unreal Engine. I learned UDK, then UE4. I never actually made a game, but this was right around the time Unreal Engine was getting big, and I started getting a lot of work.
I am from India, and around my 3rd year of engineering college, I was earning a better salary from freelance work than I would have from finishing the degree and getting a job. I'd decided to drop out by then. Looking back, it was risky. I don't come from a well-off family, and I had lost my father at an early age. Had things not worked out, I would have been screwed.
I have moved away from game development, but there was a lot of varied enterprise work with Unreal Engine that kept me going until late 2020. By that time I had built a small team, and some of them were the original guys who had been working with me since 2013.
We had registered a company around 2018.
I'd also started getting into AI during that time. I'd been thinking about how to create game AI that was as smart as human players, that could learn from us, and so on. That part of my business has expanded considerably.
Anyway, it's 2026 now. My company has been doing well, still a small team, but we've been doing all kinds of enterprise work across different domains.
Along with that, I tried releasing a few products with mixed success. Current one is doing pretty good though. No games, sadly, but I'm happy this all helped move my life in the direction it did. Without that decision to get into games, I have no idea where I'd be.
I don't get much time to program anymore, but I enjoy it when I can.
Not sure if there's a moral to the story. Probably, I just got lucky.
I'm posting this after being away for a long time. I just remembered hiveworkshop and thought I'd make a post here. I was last active like 11 years back. So many things have changed since then, especially Blizzard being what it is, and the whole world too.
I'm thankful for having a platform like hiveworkshop — it's a big part of how I got where I am today.
Just a short update on my life. I've been modding games since I was in grade 7-8(2006-ish). I didn't have internet at home, so I used to take writable CDs to internet cafes, save stuff like Valve Hammer Editor on them, and work on CS maps at home. Warcraft 3 was so much better in terms of potential learning JASS was fun, and I ended up doing so much obscure stuff with it. It was limited, but it was the right place to experiment and try new things. thehelper.net was another site I practically lived on back then.
I left modding to pursue my career in computer science engineering in 2011, and thought I'd left all those dreams behind. But college life was horrible. (I found out a few years back that I have ADHD, which probably contributed, though I'd suspected it for a while.)
I ended up wanting to drop out and get into game development: (A thread of mine from 2013, i was asking what should learn to get into game development)
Question about game engines.
Someone on that thread suggested I go into Unreal Engine. I learned UDK, then UE4. I never actually made a game, but this was right around the time Unreal Engine was getting big, and I started getting a lot of work.
I am from India, and around my 3rd year of engineering college, I was earning a better salary from freelance work than I would have from finishing the degree and getting a job. I'd decided to drop out by then. Looking back, it was risky. I don't come from a well-off family, and I had lost my father at an early age. Had things not worked out, I would have been screwed.
I have moved away from game development, but there was a lot of varied enterprise work with Unreal Engine that kept me going until late 2020. By that time I had built a small team, and some of them were the original guys who had been working with me since 2013.
We had registered a company around 2018.
I'd also started getting into AI during that time. I'd been thinking about how to create game AI that was as smart as human players, that could learn from us, and so on. That part of my business has expanded considerably.
Anyway, it's 2026 now. My company has been doing well, still a small team, but we've been doing all kinds of enterprise work across different domains.
Along with that, I tried releasing a few products with mixed success. Current one is doing pretty good though. No games, sadly, but I'm happy this all helped move my life in the direction it did. Without that decision to get into games, I have no idea where I'd be.
I don't get much time to program anymore, but I enjoy it when I can.
Not sure if there's a moral to the story. Probably, I just got lucky.
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