Initially, I was unable to find a mentor, let alone a whole internship. That was frustrating, but I was eventually able to find a mentor with some help. We talked back and forth about what my goals were and what I've been doing to achieve them. However, when talking on Skype we both concluded that I'm actually way ahead with my approach and don't really need much mentoring, if any. My current tactics to learn more and improve my skills are already so efficient that involving too many other people may actually slow me down at this point.
Sometime in the middle of the semester, I decided to go back to programming a tool I developed for the last 3 years: BrawlBox. I used to program it for free as a learning experience and as a cool hobby to assist myself and the community with modding Wii games, but I retired at the end of 2013 in order to pursue developing my game.
This time, though, I wanted to make money. I figured maybe I could do that by going back to program what I knew best. Due to the nature of school, college apps, and time-consuming programming, I now could only focus my time on programming for money instead of working on my game. It's been frustrating that I haven't had time for actual game development, but the good news is I've actually been making a lot of money programming now. Not as much as an actual job would pay, but a pretty good amount in comparison to what I was making before. People contact me with features they want implemented in the program, and then I give them a quote. Then they or multiple people can choose to pay that for me to implement the feature for the next release. It's been a pretty efficient system and it allows me to make money without having to sell the program itself.
BrawlBox is on the right side of the screenshot, the left side is Visual Studio, what I use to program it.
This time, though, I wanted to make money. I figured maybe I could do that by going back to program what I knew best. Due to the nature of school, college apps, and time-consuming programming, I now could only focus my time on programming for money instead of working on my game. It's been frustrating that I haven't had time for actual game development, but the good news is I've actually been making a lot of money programming now. Not as much as an actual job would pay, but a pretty good amount in comparison to what I was making before. People contact me with features they want implemented in the program, and then I give them a quote. Then they or multiple people can choose to pay that for me to implement the feature for the next release. It's been a pretty efficient system and it allows me to make money without having to sell the program itself.
This past semester, I've learned that I can get sidetracked pretty easily (with good intention) and I need to balance my projects better. As a change for this semester, I am going to try and finish all current programming commissions and get back to developing my game. You could say my iQuest goals have changed because of the money-making side project, but they really haven't. I programmed in the past to learn. Now that I'm an experienced programmer, I'm pursuing this game's development, a much larger goal. The only reason I am programming anything else is now for money so I can save up funds for my own life and tools for game development. I think this endeavor will turn out pretty good, I'm sure I can get something done to show for the iQuest final at the end of the year.
