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From Nasir’s games, I learned that the best form of learning is project-based.
I’ve also never been good at navigating the fine line between being vocally enthusiastic and honestly proud of my work and appearing to be cocky or egotistical. My wife, Brenda, calls this “Programmer Nuance Deficit Disorder.” By that, she means programmers don’t generally deal in ambiguity. We are binary creatures: Code works or it doesn’t; input in, output out.
Technology reinvents itself. As critical as it was to get ahead, the best one could ever do was to get there first and excel at the new technology.
You can only learn so much from books, though. As I picked up the fundamentals, I realized learning is always better when it’s project based.
Great tech without great design is just an interesting exercise. Great design without great tech (or at least the right tech) fails.
Giving people opportunities to grow is the whole point of an intern program.
That said, thanks to “Programmer Nuance Deficit Disorder,” when an interviewer asked me if I expected DOOM to be a smash, I answered directly, “Yes, of course.”
When prospective employees entered an office, first impressions mattered. They wanted to see a company in creative control, investing in its space and its teams, and providing a good working environment.
It’s also shown me the incredible power of humility. You are only as good as your last game, no matter who you are.
Don’t let problems magnify; deal with issues as soon as they arise. Problems always magnify over time.
Don’t hype what you don’t have.
Trust your gut instinct. If you think something is wrong, there’s probably a reason, even if it’s not obvious.
Surround yourself with good people and give them what they need to make something great.
Fail gracefully. Failure is a part of games, a part of life, and a part of success. Accept your flaws, reload your save and try again.
Every day, we lose critical materials that are historically significant as they are tossed out, recycled, or deleted. Design documents and disks full of uncompiled code represent the foundation and building blocks of the most important cultural medium of modern times.
despite VR’s growing presence, many players wondered when the tech would become the present rather than continue to be hyped as the future.
Execution is everything: Success is not defined by an idea. It is determined by your ability to execute on that idea.
