I would like to read others stories, in a format like mine or similar. And I'm eager to read the What inspires you? answers!
You may omit the classic inspiration sources like many on my list, we all take them for granted, if you want to type less.
A bit of history:
I've recently (hours ago) come into contact with this game.
I googled it after seeing someone say "Go to play Limit Theory if you want to thrive and not be ganked" on a response of a comment of a review of Eve Online's Phoebe last update written by the gankers point of view.
It made me think about two little things. I love the vastness and depth of eve online, but we all love that aspect. The second, you don't come to have a hundredth of the fun you could, limited by the fact that if one man alone could create and manage an empire at Eve online, the game would die of imbalance in a week. So I thought, hey, if gankers mock up on carebears using that game, might be worth a look.
A SHAME ON ME for not knowing of it before. I have all the space empire related games since a Freelancer copy that fell on my hands from a newspaper Sunday extra long 8 years ago.
Man, I'd had pledged 100€ if I knew of it. Not that I am rich, but because I'd had spend my year savings on it just because YES. It's way worth the third meal of a month or two. THIS looks like the GAME! Now I'm late. I'll wait and get it on steam or whatever Sad panda is sad.
A bit of objective to the post:
This game is inspired by the idea of lack of limits (maybe originated on the mind of a youngling born deep enough a rich society to end up believing things like that). But hey, we all have this version of us somewhere. We've all been this version of us at some point. The depreciated grown-up children have always a place on the face of the world when it somehow requires innovation, breakthroughs, motivation, or plain and satisfying illusion on dreaming that dreams are not complete fiction.
So:
Seems like Josh always coded, dreamed and is even realizing some of his dreams. Dreams about space, games, fiction and bringing it close to reality, in the way he can.
We all would like to be as smart as he was, starting to code so early, recognizing his own strengths and intendedly obviating the weaknesses, or just plainly jumping from thinking to doing as hard as he did.
So I open up this post with the intent of placing a mirror on the screen.
(leave modesty aside, It's nice, but here we are just talking, you are not getting a job, or money or a girlfriend/boyfriend by being modest either by bragging to much around forums, so let's just debate!)
- What nice aspects of Josh personality or actions did you see reflected on yourself, in some measure? And what aspects of his projects on yours?
- What science-fictiony thing you dreamed you could sometime make a reality? A game? A book? Making it REAL real? (How on that last one? I want to join!)
- When did you realize which of your science-fictiony daydreams you could materialize in some form? (Becasue you can. Really, not self-help bshit or anything. If you can read and write in a forum, you can transform ideas to some material form, so you can do the former)
- What do you like, what does inspire you, and your dreams? Who's the author of it!?
- (Insert here anything you'd like to talk about related to life in general, your dreams and aspirations, what you do like, or whatever. It's a forum, it's for talking sake.)
My grain (rock?) of sand:
- Reflection on personality / projects?
Well, I'm actually just a year older than him, and also an active daydreamer who thinks there might be no limits with plans so big they make me wish days had 30 hours, even mondays. He also had a clear enough vision of himself to know what does he do well and how to focus his efforts to make (or start to make) it a reality. I love space too, spaceships, the idea of large size, and the idea of things well done. I'm a good self-explorer, too, and find almost everything interesting in some degree. I also LOVE the concept of simplicity, abstraction and efficiency.
Also, I've always dreamed on a singleplayer version of eve online + X3:Terran, with more freedom, and the ability to manage your own entire faction. Like Josh seems to do, seeing the game he's making . - What science-fictiony thing you dreamed you could sometime make a reality?
The truth is that I'd like to bring my head's universe to some form of material form that allows for it's depth to unwrap to the interested ones.
The only way I can come to think off are videogames. So
A game! I'm not concerned with graphics, so 2D will be ok. I want it to have space! Ships! Planets! Colonies! Convoys! Lasers! Factories! Asteroids! Aliens! Economy! Time! Space! (Yeah, a game like an overhauled version of the space sphere from portal. Just yelling ideas that make you dream and smile!). Ill make it.
So I decided to make three games.
One about spaceships, where you make and are a convoy, you pew pew, it has spaceships, aliens, lazors, and you bring colonists to a safe new ground, where your punctuation is driven by the amount of them that survives the next ten years period, and what they achieve.
Another one about stations, where you make them grow, thrive, you get to upgrade them. Envision them like if you were a station manager on eve online, but just add more elements, a contained economy in a safespot lost in a pocket of forgotten space! A spot you could make interesting by your sole presence if you manage to grow a station interesting enough for all the space-adventurers!
And a last one about colonies. Where you prepare what you'll bring, and you have to grow from what it makes to the destination! You have to plan, to recycle, to endure, to manage and to build!
It all sounds super exciting to me. I might die before I can manage to make any of this real. But man, pursuing dreams feels good.
And if by any means any of you get to steal any of this idea and make a game first than me... I want to play it! Tell me! And if you are any kind of good person, at least state your inspiration if it was this post. And you would also like to add me to the team, damn, I got some ideas and I know how to C++, and also have hundreds of pages of development documentation finely crafted for those same games, so you better don't waste your time. Anyways, we all know originality does not exist, just a different mix of reality. So I won't be really mad when a game comes that looks like one of my design docs. If it's done right, well, probably I'll be thrilled by it. Like how I got a little angry on civilization After Earth announcement, for almost being identical to one of my older docs... But they did it hexagony, turned and full strategic. (There's hope for mine still! And also the game's decent enough for make up for their fault on being first - When did you realize you could materialize inspiration in some form?
At some point in my life, I managed to draw, to paint, to write and to code at a novice level, but pouring more than a thousand hours in each (Those things that kids have... TIME). I did the little experiment of letting others see the results and see what they think of it. Later, when I grew up (and still am), and mixing the results from the exposure and my personal preferences.
The first I understood is that writing was the worst, but still pretty damn nice responses were gathered. So I grew to really believe that we all can do things at a level good enough for others to value the results, if you manage to merge your strong points with the given action.
I always knew I loved space. Back when I was an early teenager, I already decided that I wanted to be a physicist, and know about the universe. Later, I saw my fault (two years ago). The universe is so complex, that the places you love, and the things you like are better observed than studied, because observing you can gather it all, and at least I, was not bright enough to study it ALL in a meaningful way. You know, when you study physics, topics narrow instead of broaden. So I switched to computer science. I decided that I'd apply my scientific and mathematical capabilities and mix them with my creative side. Algorithms have a lot of creativity tied to them, and the better your abstraction skills and your ability to re-invent a wheel, the further they can take you. That sounds like art, and it requires maths. That's like the nerd-heaven.
So here I am. Studying computer engineering to be able to make the most of a machine, and then be able to build the best possible material version of my dream universes. Josh had the vision of starting to code at the age of 10. I am already ten years late. That made me feel like I'm REALLY late and that I'm already out of the league. But man, it gives insight at the same time. And what if I manage to make my dreams a little truer ten years later? It really is not a league. It is not a competition. Once you manage to ensure a little a steady stream of food, water and shelter, life is no longer a competition. You really make your own goal. We live in the ultimate sandbox. So what if I am late to be the new revelation? If sometime I'm able to play a thing I dreamed, that day I'll know it all makes sense. Until then, I can just try! - What does inspire you?
At the topmost level:
Tsutomu Nihei
With his mangas:
Noise
Blame
Biomega
Abara
Book authors:
Ian M. Banks
Orsonn Scott Card
Isaac Asimov
Kay Kenyon
J.R.R. Tolkien
Music:
System of a Down, Metallica, Slipknot, DOPE, Edguy, Sum 41, the Cranberries, McFly, The Rasmus, Antonia Font, Mishima, Three Days Grace, Daft Punk, GreenDay, 30 seconds to mars, Billy Talent, Manel, Blaumut.... and on and on and on.
Films:
Star Wars (all of them. there's space opera on all of them)
Matrix (the same)
(The background of Avatar, even!)
Anime:
Ergo Proxy
Ghost in the Shell
Mushishi
Games:
X3 and expansions
Eve online
Titan Revenge and Droid Assault
Space Engine <--- I REALLY think Josh should take a look at this 'game'. Its a beauty machine. And by extension, I think everyone should know.
Factorio
Sim city series
Anno 2070
Risk of Rain
The binding of Isaac
Graphic art:
Almost all of it. Even some great semi anonymous artists you find digging trough deviantart.
PD: That's my first post in any kind of forum outside my university in more than five years... I'm not a native speaker, as your spider sense screams, and I shall give a ton of internet kudos to whoever took their time to add an English speller to the forum writer. I'm learning a little at the same time your eyes bleed a lessle. <- Take that cherry.
Edit: I forgot to add my favorite artist of all time and means: Tsutomu Nihei! Strange... sometimes we obviate what it's most important!