Go To Statement Considered Harmful
Feb 23, 2011. The day we finally decided upon a project to pursue, We didn’t do a single line of code, but we didn’t have to, the decision itself was the most important part, and hopefully it will turn out far better than any of us could have hoped for.
Sean Kelly and I had met during CS 2500, programming 2, Fall 2008. The following spring during Computer Simulations we tossed around the idea of making iPhone apps, we even went so far as to install the sdk and make a few menus and such. We even talked about how straight forward we thought it would be to make an app, but nagging at the back of our minds was the idea that it wasn’t practical, it wouldn’t go anywhere, why bother?
Well, Fall of 2010 Sean and I decide that we are going to get together every Wednesday, and sit down and talk about a project to work on. We had zero ideas and didn’t even think this would go anywhere, all we did know was that we had spent a year and a half talking and not doing, so we decided to spend at least an hour every Wednesday attempting to do. Prior to meeting that first Wednesday we talked to a friend of ours, Zach Donnell, and invited him to meet with us.
Now, as much as I want to say that we thought up cool ideas and started getting stuff done, well, we didn’t. We actually spent many weeks talking about android, talking, and talking. Zach wasn’t used to this talking and not doing that Sean and I were so good at, so he went off and made a live wallpaper, a now self-condemned and mostly forgotten live wallpaper, but all the same, he made something.
We said good job, and congratulations, but deep down we still had that nagging thought that this wouldn’t go anywhere, it wasn’t practical, it was a waste of time. We couldn’t possibly make money making phone apps.
Well, Zach’s app started selling, and people started commenting, and soon enough Zach had a thing going, nothing huge, but for two weeks of work, he had a pretty decent thing going.
This tripped me out, it really was the first time that I actually believed anything could happen, up until then I had nothing invested in the project. Now, I wanted to see where this could go. We spent two weeks talking ideas and concepts and Feb 23rd, came up with our first game, and I’m running with it now.
I’ve started the process of finishing jobs and projects up, handing off work to other people, and soon I’ll be down to only one job, (it’s been a long time since I’ve only held one job) and depending on how hard we push this and how much exposure we get, I may not hold onto that job very long and just put everything I have into this company.
This type of work has been our dream, to work for ourselves, not some huge corporation where we’re hardly known. People have done it before us, we’re not doing anything new or original, but I think that’s what I never realized before, it’s not that hard and not that crazy, it’s exactly what the three of us wanted and needed.
-Brandon