My Inspiration

I remember vividly. The very first computer program I read that blew my mind (really). It was the Spring of my Sophmore year of Highschool. 2013. I'm at home playing Minecraft creating this world I had been working on non-stop over the last few weekends and days. Somehow, I had become fascinated with city builders and world builders and had a fascination for games like Sims City 4, and Roblox, and Minecraft. My childhood dream since I could remember had been to become a game developer -- a feeling I still hold to this day.

Markus Persson, otherwise known as Notch, is the creator of Minecraft. He is probably one of the first indie developers to "build in public" and gain virality for it, starting with Youtube tech demos of Minecraft that you can (kind of) view today https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUkZNk90rbQ.

The single most influential piece of software that completely shaped my understanding of game development and how I view programming was a game Notch published in 2008 for Ludem Dare called Breaking the Tower. Just to give you the quick summary, this game is a top down 20 minute RTS that takes place on a little island, and the goal is to build and control a minurature army to take down an evil tower. It's open source. You can view it here: https://github.com/al6x/BreakingTheTower.

Fundamentally, the game is designed using textbook Java best practices (for the time). You have a couple of static features -- the game engine setup, the render and logic loop, and a very neat classical structure. For instance, a Peon was an entity, and an entity is a thing that can move in the game world. Basic OOP and CS fundamentals, but executed better than anything I had ever seen before.

But to me, these were groundbreaking discoveries, since prior to reading this code, code to me was simply imperative means of number manipulation a-la puzzles and maths. I spent the entire summer reading cover to cover Java 6th Edition in the city public library. I fell in love with writing software and in particular with Java 6 SE.

I remember making shitty game after shitty game. First, I made a Tron clone where you control a little racer character that leaves behind a trail that opponents would die if they crash into. Then, a Spider clone (the courtyard game). Then, my own poorly built RTS. Bit by bit, I was getting better at something I truely loved. I was reverse engineering and learning from parts of other games -- reading dev blogs like RedBlogGames, participating in forums.

This continued through all of highschool, and then all of college. I remember watching "Ready Player One" in 2018 with friends and thinking that the main inventor guy, "James Halliday", was someone I aspired to be -- a man who creates worlds for others to create worlds. And then, I got my first job -- in corperate software.

Homie is my ode to the art of creating worlds where others can create worlds. Is it egotistical to look inwardly and create, when the natural has so much to offer? I've often thought about this question. I've been to many worlds thanks to the power of books and media and games. I think there's so much joy to be had in experiencing new worlds with new adventures where creativity is the limit. Homie is aimed to be medium for storytelling and world building. Here's to Homie 🔥