shotgunheart

It's hard to know how to start these things off.

Around 2007 I taught myself how to program in the BYOND engine (which is... loosly C based) and spent 4-5 years working on a project; a Bleach anime fan game.
http://www.byond.com/games/Cthulh/BleachShinzui
At it's peak there was several hundred players who enjoyed it partly for the fun of using the skills from an anime, partly enjoyed just chatting with the community there.

My wife likes to point out how impressive it is that I cultivated that type of environment, and how several of my design choices were a few years ahead of industry standard. These include: stats leveling up by using them, a dynamic class system that allows a single character to change among all 8 classes, and a leveling system involving a soft cap followed by a larger (and slower) hard cap.

Sadly due to personal reasons, I could not continue dedicating time to this project in 2012. It warms my heart to see there are still people posting comments on the game's page saying that they miss it.

More recently, I've spent time learning the Unity engine. I've completed some Unity Learn modules, learned some C#, and participated in some game jams.
My wife, her other partner, and I made Filled With Wonder for the 2017 GMTK jam.
My wife and I made HoverBots for Ludum Dare 39.
I made CoinThief alone for Ludum Dare 40.

My mentality when it comes to game dev as a whole leans towards prioritizing good UX, rewarding player mastery, and encouraging fun. Some of my favorite experiences with games has been when I can leverage my mechanical mastery in a new playthrough & have it feel rewarding rather than flat. (Valdis Story: Abyssal City is such a game for me, as is Dead Cells.)

When it comes down to it, I just want to make fun games.