I am a solo indie game developer. I build my games using custom engines because I love squeezing out maximum performance, especially on modest hardware. Frankly, I am a bit frustrated by how bloated and slow modern software has become compared to the past. As a huge fan of retro games, I believe there is a certain magic in older software that seems lost today. My passion for low-level tech also led me to compiler development and language architecture, so I am building my own language occasionally.

My journey started about 20 years ago when I first played Half-Life in my school's computer lab. Since I didn't own a PC back then, I would go home and draw creatures, cars, and locations on paper, daydreaming about exploring those worlds.

Eventually, my grandpa bought me my first computer for my birthday. I vividly remember walking into the store: rows of monitors showing neon-lit cars doing crazy stunts in Need for Speed, fast drum'n'bass blasting through the speakers, and a salesman offering us glowing peripherals. I was finally able to play games at home! Even with a strict one-hour-per-day limit, I was thrilled. That era, with its alien green glow and industrial aesthetics, felt magical.

As time passed, childhood ended. The world began to feel a bit more gray, and games became harder to impress me. Seeking a new spark, I dove into electronics and physics. I participated in local Olympiads, built DIY projects, and became fascinated by space exploration and satellites.

My path into coding truly began during one of these physics projects. I needed to program an ATmega8 microcontroller. I initially used someone else's firmware from the internet, but the fact that I didn't understand how it worked kept me up at night. So, I picked up Head First C to learn programming. After that, everything is a blur... Next thing I knew, I was installing Linux and writing console apps in C. The childhood joy was back! I realized I could finally build the games I dreamed of as a kid.

After high school, I went to university to pursue software engineering. During my freshman year, I discovered javidx9 on YouTube, whose tutorials inspired me to build a simple raycasting engine, just like the original Wolfenstein 3D. I threw myself into learning OpenGL and C++, deeply inspired by industry legends like John Carmack.

However, life took a detour, and my first job landed me in web development. It was fun, but it lacked the magic of game dev. Two years later, corporate executives shut our project down, and my entire team was laid off. I felt like a mere cog in a machine, doing meaningless work. It was a brutal realization for a dreamer. I blamed myself for choosing the easier path instead of chasing my dream.

So, here I am today. I take on occasional side gigs to get by, dedicating the rest of my time to what truly matters: making games.