It was the last day that I would be staying at my cousins’ house. As I woke up in the already familiar bedroom, I thought about what to do that day. What could be done within one day? As it turned out, I spent the whole morning in front of the Xbox with my cousins. Soon after, I realised that we had very little time left to be spent together. I thus decided to give them a little something to act as a souvenir that I had left behind.
I decided to teach them how to make computer games.
Games have always been a part of my life. Ever since I was young, I would always yearn for an hour or two on the computer at least once a week. I would venture through the various games, from simple puzzles to board games to adventure stories to side-scrolling shooters to action games.
When I discovered a software to develop these games, I committed my time and effort to learning how to use it. 5 years paid off, and I was now able to create standard games matching those of the 1995 game consoles.
I immediately invited my cousins to a crash course on game-making. How could they resist such a tempting offer? The secret to nurture the seed your very own game idea...and make it bloom into something tremendous and satisfying...
Somehow, they never seemed that interested. Only cousin Ammar seemed willing to try. I gladly took him in.
Ammar was seventeen. He was mature for his age, and behaved like a normal teenager. The only weird thing was that he was about my height. However, that motivated me to treat him as an equal, subsequently helping me to communicate better with him.
I started immediately. Building upon simple concepts such as logic and storing data, I quickly moved on to gameplay. I taught Ammar how to make characters, walls, enemies, and how to make them interact with one another.
Ammar stunned me. He was the fastest learner I had ever seen. Never before had I encountered such a competent programmer and designer all at once. I suddenly understood the exuberance that a teacher experiences when he comes across such a pupil. I myself learned, that knowledge is not meant to be kept, but to be imparted.
My respect for Ammar grew. I educated him on important concepts, the best ways to achieve efficient programs, and even some secret tricks that I had taught myself. Later I congratulated him on his progress. That day, I had found someone who shared my interest with whom I could share my knowledge and ideas.
I was humbled by the experience, for before that I knew no one who had grasp the concepts of game making as well as I had. When I returned from Australia, I immediately emailed to Ammar to guide him in making the last level of the game as challenging as possible. After all, our relationship had to continue. Any game would never end just there.
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