A look back on Mind Garden

The Exposition

It was my freshman year of highschool (2023). I wasn't making any friends and was alone most of the time. That wasn't anything new for me. I've had periods with alot friends, and periods without. The way I deal with it - or really any hardship - is to create. Looking back, I should've been excited. Like, "This sucks but what am I gonna create this time?"

As time went on, I became more depressed but also more thirsty to create. It almost became a problem. I knew I wanted to build a video game - I saw it as a fusion of my talents - but I was having trouble finding and learning the right tools. 2 games in particular really inspired me:

I was at the point where I was getting more depressed because everytime I wanted to create, I was held back by not knowing how to code in a particular language, use the game engine ui, etc. Then, out of the heavens, decended Brackeys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOhfqjmasi0&t=3209s -

This wonderful tutorial dropped and I watched it beginning to end. Not only did I learn the basics, but I was excited to get started! Godot kind of clicked with this tutorial.

Fun Fact:
I didn't originally plan on using Godot! It was an option, but I was more inclined towards Unity.
After the tutorial, I was sold on Godot. And it's become a big part of my life. I'm now a fan of OSS because of Godot. I also work on a port of Godot to Apple devices. Called Xogot!

I started development in late March - Early April (2024). That's almost 2 years ago!

Note:
2 years seems like ample time to create a full game (maybe 3 or 4 hours), right? Well.. maybe. I was hoping Mind Garden to have a few more quests and be drawn out a little longer. I fell short of that due to a variety of reasons. As a beginner, I made alot of mistakes which made the game hard to build off of.In total, the game might take you an hour to complete.

Mid Development

This was where alot of inconsistent development happened. I'm a student, so there was alot of on and off. Let me take you through a few highlights, though.

• Learned to give variables proper names/style. Became confusing after awhile
• Learned what Git is. Lost tons of progress when I corrupted my project.
• Discovered nocaps. A cool indie game channel with a really nice community.
• Made a friend at school!
• O'pa died
• Joined Steam Next Fest and got +300 wishlists
• Finally settled on a narrative for the game
• Upgraded my M1 Macbook Air to a M5 Pro - much needed for the ram alone.
• Got hired for my first job! I get to work on documentation and tutorials for Xogot

As life tends to, alot of stuff happened. Good and bad. I'm forgetting and omitting alot, but all of it was imbued into Mind Garden.

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Present Day

If I'm being honest, I could've gotten this game out in October. But I was really busy with school. It wasn't until a few days ago that, seemingly out of nowhere, I picked the game back up and finished it up. It was precipitated by my best friend's Dad dying. He was a big supporter of me and my game. As a result, a portion of proceeds from my Humble Storefront will go to Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research in honor of him.