Memoirs of an X register - Readying yourself for inspiration

RSS Bot · August 30, 2016

An Observation to anyone who has ever wanted to pursue a creative discipline, but didn't do so because they felt they "didn't have sufficient inspiration:"

I've been writing software for the better part of 25-30 years. I have never written games during this period of time, because I didn't think I had a game idea sufficiently interesting enough to write. I have also followed homebrew gaming development since the late 1990s, when I first joined the Stella mailing list (for Atari VCS homebrew coding enthusiasts)...

...and in that time, some 20 some odd years, I had wanted to write a game...

...and finally, on May 31, 2016, that game idea came to me, fully formed, in my head, in a massive flash.

But, as I started work on this idea, I realized something: If I had been writing little practice games, all these years, I would have been infinitely better prepared to solve the problems that I am working through now, such as understanding the tricks needed to write a proper display kernel for the Atari VCS.

I am now compressing some 20 years of learning, into a much shorter amount of time, which is both necessary, and very painful.

So, I beg all of you, if you want to make anything, anything at all, make it, and keep making it, over and over again...you will get better, and when that amazing idea comes around, you will be mentally equipped to be able to actualize it.

http://atariage.com/forums/blog/166/entry-13261-readying-yourself-for-inspiration/