People who like video games usually have a story of the first one they have ever played, how they were amazed by it, what feelings they have experienced. I don’t have a story like that. I don’t remember my first video game. I became a gamer before my memory functions have even properly kicked in. At 6 months old approximately.

My parents tell me I would crawl to our Atari 2600 and try to play it. They’d give me a disconnected joystick so I would just think that I’m doing something, but being awesome as I am, I didn’t fall for such trickery and would demand the actual thing. In the earliest recorded footage of me playing games that we could find I was racing in DeathTrack. I was almost three years old then.

So games have always been part of my life. I guess it’s only logical that the desire to actually make them would sooner or later appear. I dabbled in things like Klik’n’Play, or scenario editors for different strategy games I used to play (needless to say, the output was… not the best), but it wasn’t until year 2000 that I realized I seriously want to make games.

Evil Islands. That game blew my mind. It was beautiful, had amazing story, amazing gameplay, amazing writing and voice acting (well, the last part applies to the original Russian version), amazing fan community. Perhaps it does not look like much now, but at the time, it was such a memorable experience for me, that I thought to myself – I want to create experiences like that too.

And so my Game Design journey began. I have learned a lot since then, though have many more things to learn. But to share as well. All in all, it’s been a blast. Thanks to everybody who accompanied me during this journey! And a special thank you to my family and my wonderful Ira! Wouldn’t have gone as far without you.