Hello!

my name is Derik

This post is all about just giving some context for who I am and sharing some interesting facts about me!

LIFE and Career

At the time of this blog entry, I am 23 years old. I was born in Arkansas, where I've spent most of my life, though I've also lived a few years in Texas. I graduated from an online high school, which I chose so I could work more hours at my job at Taco Bell. I started working there at 16, and by the time I was 18, I had been promoted from a Crew Member to a Shift Manager. It was my first job, and the only place I ever applied, so I consider myself fortunate that it worked out so well. During my time there, I developed a strong work ethic and honed my people skills, but the work environment was also toxic and stressful, taking me a couple of years to recover from after I left.

Shortly after turning 19, I decided to leave my job at Taco Bell to pursue a career in emergency medicine. I had just completed an EMT course at my local community college and planned to study for the NREMT. My interest in emergency medicine was inspired by my older half-brother, who has extensive experience in both EMS and firefighting. Following in his footsteps seemed like a solid plan. I had actually taken the EMT course once before, while I was still in high school through a distance learning program. However, since I was only 16 at the time, much of what I learned had faded by the time I was old enough to get my EMT license.

After a few months of struggling to study for the NREMT, increasing financial issues, and dealing with some family drama, I applied on a whim for a dispatch position at the same company where I had hoped to work as an EMT. As fate would have it, I got the job, and now, four years later, I’m still working there. Today, I’m a licensed Emergency Medical Dispatcher (EMD) through the IAED College, a role I’ve grown into and take great pride in.

Habits and hobbies

As a kid, I never really got into sports, so I was always on the heavier side and not particularly motivated to be physically active. Naturally, I gravitated toward the internet and spending time indoors. When my parents bought our first family laptop, I was eager to learn about computers and explore the web as one did in the early 2000s. It wasn’t long before I had my own desktop computer in my bedroom. As a teenager, I learned the basics of assembling computers, which came in handy as I gradually upgraded my setup or built new ones from old hardware I collected or was given. Once I was old enough to work, I quickly enhanced my setup, spending as much as I could on all the RGB and sleek, blacked-out computer hardware I could afford.

Around the age of 12, someone gave me a copy of “Creating Cool HTML 4 Web Pages” by Dave Taylor. This was my first introduction to programming, and while I didn’t go far with it, I knew I had a passion for creating things. From that point until late in my teenage years, I didn’t do much in the way of programming, but it was always in the back of my mind. Instead, during that time, I made several attempts at creating videos for YouTube. Sometimes it was video blogs, and other times it was gameplay videos where I tried to mimic the comedic styles of YouTubers I admired. Some of these attempts have since disappeared, but many still exist, and the cringe I feel when watching them will likely keep me from sharing them anytime soon. However, I learned a lot during this phase of my life, becoming proficient in Blender and the free Photoshop alternative, Paint.NET. For my YouTube content, I learned video editing using Camtasia and audio editing with Audacity. This experience even led me to persuade my parents to buy me a Blue Yeti microphone.

Like many kids interested in computers at the time, I eventually explored the idea of making my own games. I dabbled with RPG Maker and a few other programs, but the one that really stuck was GameMaker 8.1. Learning GameMaker felt intuitive to me, and although it took me a while to get past the tutorial stage of learning, I eventually did. I started out like many others, following 2D platformer tutorials and using the built-in tutorials provided by YoYo Games. Later, I transitioned to GameMaker Studio 1.4 and discovered more in-depth tutorial series that the GameMaker community would likely recognize. A couple of years later, I picked up GameMaker Studio 2, which eventually became GameMaker 2.3. During this time, I created various platformer concepts and arcade-style games, though most of them were never finished. I’d often see a cool technique in a YouTube video and spend months trying to replicate it, sometimes successfully. Along the way, I started learning more advanced concepts like inverse kinematics and procedural generation.

Unfortunately, over the years, much of the evidence and project files from my learning experiences were deleted or lost, but this only strengthened my motivation to actually finish something. Despite that determination, I still struggled to complete many projects. The next post on this blog will likely showcase what I have recorded of my progress. Life has kept me busy, and it wasn’t until the last few years that I had the time to dive deeper into game development. It was just two years ago that I finally managed to finish a game and released it on the Android Play Store, although I didn’t maintain the app, and it eventually got taken down.

Since then, things have only picked up, and I’ve now fully immersed myself in the world of 3D game development. It was a steep learning curve, but now my still often unfinished projects involve shaders, skeletal animation, and other advanced techniques. In desperate need of proper backups for my larger-scale projects, I’ve also expanded my GitHub page, where I’ve begun sharing my progress on my own Virtual Table-Top (VTT) program for use in my D&D campaign. Inspired by other members of the GameMaker community and a couple of Sebastian Lague’s videos, I created a rather complex and far-along 3D Ray-Marched SDF Primitive Framework for GameMaker, which remains a work in progress. Additionally, I released an asset that allows for file association in Windows, which can be set up during runtime of a GameMaker project. File association is essentially what enables a program to create save files or project files that can be clicked to open your program and immediately load the clicked file, complete with unique icons for that program.

So whats next?

Lately, I’ve taken a step back to reflect on my life and assess where I am. I've dedicated the majority of my recent years to my job, and I'm currently holding out hope for a promotion someday. That said, I genuinely enjoy what I do and believe I’ve found a niche where I excel. While I’m not sure if I’ll ever pursue game development beyond a side hustle, I wouldn’t shy away from the opportunity if it presented itself. For now, I’ve decided to start building a tangible record of my time on this Earth, which is why I created this website and blog.

In terms of my game development journey, I’ve recently taken on the 20 Games Challenge, which I read about and found intriguing. My plan is to make each and every one of my entries playable on this site. Part of me is doing this to satisfy that creative itch I had as a teenager, while the other part sees it as a way to build a portfolio. There’s definitely more to my life than what I’ve shared in this entry, and I’ll probably cover those aspects in future posts.

That’s all I’ve got for today. If you’ve taken the time to read this, I sincerely appreciate it, and I hope you’ll come back for future entries—and maybe even check out my other projects!

Bonus Facts

FAVORITES:

Color: Blue

Food: Mac & Cheese

Fast Food: Taco Bell

Home Console Game: Kingdom Hearts 1 (PS2)

Hand-Held Console Game: Pokémon Crystal (GBC)

Band: Crown The Empire

Show: Digimon

Soda: Root beer