Community Question of the Week: What was the game that made you realize you wanted to be a game developer?

The global game development community is vibrant and full of energy and inspiration—with developers, artists, designers, musicians, voice actors, writers, and more across the world sharing ideas, providing feedback, and supporting each other at both in-person events like GDC and in online spaces. All of this is on display in our exciting Microsoft Game Dev community on Discord.

The beating heart of our online developer community, our Discord server allows developers to connect with each other, share their projects, get support, and network with peers in a thriving discussion space.

Our Discord community has grown into a collaborative space where we share our struggles, celebrate each other’s triumphs and joys, and get involved in in-depth technical discussions. We also have job boards for those looking for work and those looking for help with their projects. There are places to share your progress, get help debugging, and even to just chat about what you’re playing. Of course, we also have the requisite channels for posting your pets and your latest meal (because what is a community without pet and food pics?)

With that in mind, we thought that our Discord community would be the perfect place to pick the brains of some of game dev’s brightest minds to see what inspires them, what challenges they face, and what they think about the past, present, and future of the medium they love.

Every week, we’ll pose a question to our community and share some of their answers here on the Microsoft Game Dev blog.

This week’s question is: What was the game that made you realize you wanted to be a game developer?

Marlon “Nolram” Wolfersdorf: “For me it was Valve’s Portal 2, specifically the opening sequence. The impressive set piece completely surrounding the player, all running in real-time from a first-person view killed my love for VFX in film and instead sent me down a rabbit hole that would end up with me becoming a technical artist for games.”

Renee Gittins, Stumbling Cat Games, creator of Potions: A Curious Tale: “Honestly, I didn't realize I could be a game developer until my senior year of college when I met some professional game devs. However, the game that completely changed how I saw the medium and made me fall deeply in love with video games was the original Half-Life.

I had grown up with FPSes, but Half-Life took it to the next level with its immersion, in-game storytelling, and environmental puzzles.”

Peter Kojesta, Exis Games, creator of Dragonhold: “Final Fantasy 2 (IV in Japan). My friend Tom came to my house with a notebook and told me he was designing Final Fantasy 3. I knew right then and there that I had to help him. I was 12. I'm 43 now, and after a career in games working on things like XCOM, Bioshock, and Civilization IV & V, I'm finally working on my own RPG called Dragonhold.”

Amirtha “Chaak” Krishnan, currently working on “Tooth and Nail” for this year’s lowrezjam: “The game was DOOM. I know it's a weird reply considering I was born decades late, but when I was in eighth grade, playing DOOM sneakily using MS DOS with some hacky LAN porting thing we found on our boarding school's computers was... a magical experience.

I guess you could say it was more about that the people who I played it with were simply super influential on me. I dug deeper and found DOOM was made by a small group of friends in their garage and my life changed. I liked the sound of it, the idea of it, that some friends somewhere came together and made something that gave me friends. I did play a lot of games before and after that, but DOOM will always be in a special corner of my heart for that.”

Pijinguy, currently working on Blast-a-Finn: “Many, many games, from Super Mario Galaxy to Prince of Persia, but the straw that broke the camel's back was Undertale. Seeing what Toby Fox was able to make with just a little bit of help from others was shocking. A masterpiece that affected me a lot and it was held together with tape + hopes and dreams. That is when I realized that anyone can make a great game. Inspiring stuff. and now I can't wait for Deltarune.”

YongJu Lee (이용주), aka "Kumunua", game development student: “In the past, games like Minecraft, Portal 2, StarCraft, and Tetris captivated me, planting the seed of a dream to become a game developer. The creativity and challenges these games offered were what initially drew me toward the idea of creating games myself.

I always held onto that dream, but it wasn't until I encountered Blue Archive, developed by Nexon Games in Korea, that I found the determination to truly pursue it. This game inspired me in a way that reignited my passion, giving me the clarity and motivation to work towards becoming a developer. Blue Archive not only brought me joy but also helped me realize the kind of experiences I want to create and the stories I want to tell through games.

While those earlier games sparked my initial interest, Blue Archive was the turning point that solidified my commitment to actively work towards achieving my dream.”

Want to join in on the fun? Visit the Microsoft Game Dev community on Discord to hang out with us, we’d love to see you there!