At first I looked for tutorial on game programming. Most of the required I use either android studio or visual studio and code from scratch. this was daunting considering I was used to wizard thing. I dug dipper on YouTube and found few tutorials that were simple to follow.

This is where my game development career started. But wait, coding alone was not enough. In needed to make GUI based games. This meant learning how to create UI and at the same time bring life to UI elements. This proved hard for me and I nearly gave up.

One day as I was perusing through the internet, I came across Unity as game engine. I did few tutorials practically and ended up with playable game. Yes, I would call it game. After all i was able to move cube and destroy it. With this new game, I create my playstore publisher account and hosted my game. I registered it as paid version since I didn't know how to integrate ads.

No downloads were coming forth. So I decided to give it for free.  I got few downloads after very long period of time. I challenged my self and decided to take the most complex tutorial on YouTube. I started my search for the tutorial. I bumped across one that required I create a puzzle game. I decided that I would follow it to the end and see if I could make game.

As I was working to get the game running, I pressed play button by mistake and boom, the game run. Wish you could see my joy. Having android game running! It was the best thing that happened. I went on with tutorial and completed. Awesome, the game was running fine.

I also found few companies I would use to monetize my game. I integrated ads and tested. The joy was that I saw some dollars post on my account. I couldn't believe that I was making a dollar while testing. I challenged myself, what if the game is live, how much would I earn?

I tweaked the game to add few more playable to distinguish it from other games. U hosted on playstore and deleted the cube game. I got few downloads but the dollars were posting on my ads account. I decided to create more game with unity following tutorials on the website.

After creating several games I realized people were not downloading as Nokia use to. I decided to create a game from scratch. Learn the hard way and get the UI elements for new game, code and test. This marked the beginning of my journey into graphics design. 

I installed adobe photoshop and Illustrator. I had basic knowledge on how to use them. However I didn't know where to use them. I made my first UI button in Photoshop and realized I could use it for that functionality. I decided to try Illustrator and results were awesome. I would use both of the to create my UI elements.

I realized even with UI elements designed from scratch, I still needed to create a game I would call my own. As I was going through other developer's stories I notice one who used adobe XD. I decided to try it out. I would create UI elements in Illustrator and polish on adobe Photoshop then create the game scene in adobe XD. The results were fantastic. I like the process as I would even create prototype for game and try to navigate through various scenes in XD.

The coding process became simple as now I had knowledge on unity and I had my prototype to follow along.  A game that would take months was now taking weeks. I deleting all my previous games after redoing them. Unity even made it very simple for me to create games as I would just link up UI elements and have the game ready.

By this time I had master C# which was the main language I was using. Having experience with visual studio also worked to my advantage.

this time, I was now ready to develop games. I fall in love with unity and decided to master it. Downside was that they would release new version before I mastered the current. I took the challenge and decided to just follow along with one version then realized the updates were not affecting the way I was coding. This came as relief.

Now that I was over with coding I had to deal with monetization. I checked for way I would monetize my games and make the dollars I was making previously. I added in-app purchase and also requested donation to those who would like to appreciate my efforts. This paid a lot as now I would earn from Ads and also sell in-app products like time, coins and more.

While I don't regret not taking this challenge when i was doing Nokia, I learnt to never ignore an idea that can earn you few dollars.  I worked on my few games I have developed which i keep updating every time I have an idea.

You can get them from this link.

The hard work started paying since I usually get contracts to develop games and apps for other people then they pay. It is a side hustle I enjoy and hope to create a game development studio and help others grow their career.

I don't shy to say that it is not easy as people think. Coding is not for faint-hearted. You must be ready to learn new skills and adapt to changes in technology.

If you would like to support me in this journey, feel free to use any of below methods. I will appreciate the little you give.