I Can't Play Diablo 3 So I'm Going to Make a Game

Posted on May 1, 2012

Well it turns out that the best computer I have cannot run Diablo 3.

As I am not Mr. Warbucks (what with the housing prices in Toronto and a child on the way) I cannot simply go out and blow a thousand bucks on a new rig just to run a new game (sad though it is).

I have also been reading The Making of Prince of Persia at the behest of a co-worker and have been greatly inspired by it. It documents the trials of Jordan Mechner during the years of his life it took to produce this game. In the early years he had been distracted by ambitious dreams of becoming a screenwriter before settling in and deciding that making games was his true calling. While I cannot say that I have any sort of talent for making games I can say that I have developed a certain sense of taste and minor skills in art, music, and I am a fairly decent programmer. If I put all of these skills together why couldn’t I make a game?

Problem is that I never get around to finishing any of them.

So in order to play Diablo 3 I need to buy a new computer. In order to buy a new computer I need more money than what I can get from my paycheck (which is going into saving up for a house and putting away for the little one). The only way I can do this is to make something that I can sell many copies of for relatively cheap. Computer games!

So I’ve dusted off some of my more novel ideas and am in the process of investigating the different platforms, tools, and distribution options. In the coming weeks I’ll post some concept sketches and demos as things come together. And hopefully somewhere in the near future I will have a decent game that I can feel proud of and sell so that I can afford to buy a new computer so that I can play Diablo 3. It’s all about goals and focus. On the important things.