My Crazy Daze In Games: From Populous to FRAMED - Part 1 GAMES WITH GRANDMA

As a game designer of over 25 years it is time I told my story.

I really hope you enjoy it.

Love,

Adrian 

At the Game Developer's Conference 2015, San Francisco with Loveshack Entertainment's hit game FRAMED. 

INTRODUCTION

The majority of us find ourselves having to work. There are many jobs to be done, many ways to earn money, and most of us probably dream of doing something more fun or interesting than what we actually end up doing. This is a (true) story of a kid from England who knew he would have to earn a living somehow when his school days came to an end. His dream was to earn his living as an inventor. More specifically, once video games burst into his life, he wanted to invent them. Passionately pursuing his dream he was fortunate enough to achieve a life as a paid game designer but it turned out to not exactly be everything he thought it would be. Amongst a very many things, working as a video game designer was much crazier than he imagined.

Dear reader, may you enjoy this little tale. And for all the budding game designers out there who happen to run into this story, I hope it helps you on your way. Good luck! You can do it if you really want it.

Part 1. GAMES WITH GRANDMA

I was born just after midnight, March 27th 1972, in a town called Guildford, on an island known as England, which is on the north side of a place that is mostly referred to as Earth. Unless you are from elsewhere, I am guessing you know of Earth. It’s a beautiful if not currently messed up place. Guildford and England specifically? They are quite beautiful too but a little grey and cold for me. The sun doesn’t shine much there. This is why I feel I was born there by mistake. Anyhow, my Mother gave birth to me in a bed in Mount Alvernia hospital. Quite why I was born in a hospital, I don’t know. Is childbirth an illness? It probably would have been more normal and natural to have come out in a house, maybe under water in a bath tub, but whatever. I don’t remember that far back anyway.

Since I became conscious enough to remember, I lived at 15 Marlyns Close, in a little village near Guildford called Burpham. That’s generally not pronounced as “burp-ham”, like a pig with gas or something. Burpham is commonly pronounced “birf-em” although you can pronounce it any way you like of course. Being a fortunate kid, the youngest of the clan, by the time I was growing up the house I grew up in was relatively spacious and luxurious as my Father was quite successful at business by then. He was the managing director of a dry cleaning business. I always loved my Dad but when I was old enough for him to tell me what he did to earn money I found myself quite uninspired. Good for him, I thought. But it wasn’t for me. I knew I wanted to do something in entertainment. What could be better?! Entertainment means fun! Everybody loves to be entertained. I didn’t want to work in accounting, bricklaying, banking, real estate, law or or any of that stuff. I wanted to work in entertainment, but not as a performer on account of me being far too shy and lacking any recognisable talent. 

Anyway, the best thing about the house that I lived in, by far, was the “granny flat” – a humble ground-floor dwelling attached to the house with a main living area/kitchen and a bedroom and bathroom off to the side. My grandmother lived there, which is handy really because she was my granny. She was affectionately known as “nana” in my family and I adored her. I think she adored me too, judging by the quality time she spent with me. Some of my earliest memories were playing games with nana. During school holidays, and maybe even before I was old enough to go to school, I would spend fun time with this dear lady in her granny flat as she would entertain me with games such as “hunt the thimble”. This particular game had me close my eyes while nana hid her sewing thimble around her humble abode. Sometimes she hid the thimble under a cushion, sometimes behind an ornament or behind the mantle piece. When she told me I could open my eyes I would walk in a direction and she would say “cold” when I was moving away from the thimble, “warmer” when  I was walking towards it. I would get really excited and happy as I walked in a direction where she would tell me “getting very warm”. I would scream with delight when she said to me “very very hot!” as I knew then I was homing in on the hidden target. Navigating the room with her words guiding me, this was an incredibly simple game but so much fun I would want  to play it again and again and again. When I was old enough, nana taught me more grown-up games that were played with traditional playing cards. My favourite was known as Rummy which was all about collecting sets of cards. This game she taught me inspired me to invent my very first card game, Fall For It!

I guess I’ll never truly know to what degree nana’s influence set me on my future course as a game designer, but I certainly fell in love with games back then. I learnt at a very early age how much joy and excitement they bought. I learnt that games are good.