I am glad to have a software developer here today… That’s a first! His name is Justin and he created a coolest game for learning alphabet. I truly recommend you to check it out.
When I was a teenager I spent most of my time learning all I could about computers. When it was time to apply for a college, I applied to about a dozen colleges and got denied from each one. My GPA was terrible and I didn’t have anything on my application that impressed the admissions department. Feeling that I would be left behind, I went into a “learning frenzy” and got deep into the theoretical side of computer science.
This fear of being left behind drove me to acquire even more knowledge about namely software development. I figured that I was lacking because I didn’t have a college education. Years later I entered a few coding competitions and I beat out teams of college graduates. I somehow managed to learn more than I would have if I limited myself to college and just learned what I was taught. This gave me enough confidence to start my own software company. After many failures I started Skunk Software. I kept failing but trying to learn all I could about the business side of things. Now I have over four hundred and twenty pieces of software released under the Skunk Software name. All are complete failures but I would like to think I’ve learn something from them.
Fast forward to 2014. I was VERY excited to be accepted into the Nintendo™ Wii U Independent Developer program! I thought that I could just submit a bunch of shovelware to the eShop (Nintendo’s™ digital marketplace for Wii U games). I thought wrong. Nintendo™ has a much higher level of quality assurance than I was used to with mobile apps/games. At this point I wouldn’t have blamed Nintendo™ if they got rid of me. Thankfully they didn’t, a very very very nice manager at NOA named Alex P. made it a point to keep me around. I spent 2015 bettering my games and learning Nintendo’s™ guidelines. At the start of 2016 I started to submit the games I spent 2015 developing.
“Now I know my ABCs” was developed on a whim. I wanted to try to develop a video game for each game category Nintendo™ has. That way I would be able to see what kind of games people are most responsive to. I was extremely surprised to see the response I got from “Now I know my ABCs”! I learned that parents want quality educational games for their kids.
Though I kind of stumbled upon the educational games market, I’m finding that it is a rewarding market to develop for. I like knowing that my games will be used to educate children, compared to creating flashy games with blood and gore.
I feel like ‘digital learning’ is new enough that even a small time developer like myself can have an impact within the niche. Back in my day I had to learn coding from books. Nowadays they have totally interactive coding lessons. I feel like this is a newer space and I would like to be a factor in creating the “future of learning”.
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What a learning journey you went on. Motivation certainly comes from the unexpected. Not being accepted into uni made you raise your game. I could identify with that. Then you had another opportunity to raise your game again at Nintendo. What a great story. What a great niche to find and get into – apps for kids learning, what an honor. Thanks for a great read. Many lessons in this post.
Rachel.