A few words from the game programmer....
My penchant for games, in particular platform games, started in 1987 when my father took my older brother and I to DataLink, a computer shop in Ta' Xbiex, Malta (that was then succeeded down the years by Datax further up the same street). I saw Killer Gorilla on an Amstrad CPC 6128 computer and I was totally lost. This chance encounter opened up a new world and from that moment on, I promised myself that later in my life I would definitely have to create my own games. My dad was very kind so as to buy us an Amstrad computer that same week, replete of course with a hefty manual on how to create simple programs, and then more complex games, using the Basic programming language!!
I easily got addicted to Killer Gorilla, Fruity Frank and Galactic Plague, and so did, but to a lesser extent, my brother and sister. Later I would get engaged to many more Amstrad computer games, in particular Football Manager 2, routinely still awake past midnight managing my favourite team Everton all the way from the old English soccer Division 4. My brother would play with Plymouth, with their all-black kit, and I realised early that he managed the finances and expenditure aspect of the game in a more thoughtful way than myself (perhaps a prelude to later stages in our lives, bro). Later, of course, would come long hours of playing PC games, especially football games (Sensible Soccer, Sensible World of Soccer, FIFA 96 and its successors) with my cousin or fellow university students, even on the eve of some important IT exam.
Although I loved programming with different flavours of Basic, including GW Basic and QBasic (anyone remember Nibbles and Gorilla?) and database tools such as DBase of Ashton-Tate, and that toolkit lot in the early 90s, somehow I did go through a rough period of approximately 2 years later in the 90s where I was thinking and doubting on whether I should truly concentrate my whole career efforts on programming; was this my true calling? Sure I did love architecture and databases, but from a general perspective I also loved culture, music (especially piano and sax) and learning different languages, and I was never into other subject areas, such as medicine, biology, chemistry and the like).
Then came into the fray great creative gentlemen, the likes of Raymond Camilleri (my coding role model), Jean-Paul Ebejer, Christopher Micallef, Jonathan Chetcuti (with his unique sarcasm and dry humour; what a good man he was - today I'm sure he's near the Lord) and Robert Ciappara, who helped me - either directly or indirectly - convince myself that yes, programming was definitely my career path. Then there was no turning back and I'm so happy that I made the right choice also with the help of these people; and yes, now I will definitely program till I die.
After developing a number of simple games along the years as a part-time hobby - I work full-time as a programming specialist but in the fintech area - on the lines of Pacman, quizzes and the like, Robbie Steal is the first true, complete game I created as a past-time (on Monday and Tuesday late evenings and weekends) and have published. The game itself is free but with a number of possible in-app purchases. I did purchase a number of image platformer packages and relied on the invaluable help and guidance of my big friend Jurgen Paul Agius for the necessary image editing, since I am not a professional image designer myself; for the rest it was all coding, animations, physics, web APIs, monster animals and ladders using a number of different tools which made my task easier, especially when compared to the raw programming, including HTML5, Canvas and especially Javascript that we coded with in the not-too-distant past. Platform games based on 2D physics have always been my favourite, and then I loved adding the educational part in the game, with Rob needing to pick up treasures with letters and thus giving the young player the opportunity to guess the mystery word or phrase at the end of an action level to be able to proceed to the next. However, I do see myself delving deeper into 3D for more sophisticated game engines and simulations in the future.
I cannot conclude this short text without another mention of my dear family, especially my late mother, who always supported me in whatever endeavour I set out on doing. And as some older, wiser men used to tell me, the only people who never fail are those who don't try. And it's awesome if you get it right and beautiful on your 100th attempt after 99 failures. Let's believe in God and - whilst accepting our weaknesses - in ourselves, and do some great things with our great minds.
Anton D Buttigieg (Malta)
My penchant for games, in particular platform games, started in 1987 when my father took my older brother and I to DataLink, a computer shop in Ta' Xbiex, Malta (that was then succeeded down the years by Datax further up the same street). I saw Killer Gorilla on an Amstrad CPC 6128 computer and I was totally lost. This chance encounter opened up a new world and from that moment on, I promised myself that later in my life I would definitely have to create my own games. My dad was very kind so as to buy us an Amstrad computer that same week, replete of course with a hefty manual on how to create simple programs, and then more complex games, using the Basic programming language!!
I easily got addicted to Killer Gorilla, Fruity Frank and Galactic Plague, and so did, but to a lesser extent, my brother and sister. Later I would get engaged to many more Amstrad computer games, in particular Football Manager 2, routinely still awake past midnight managing my favourite team Everton all the way from the old English soccer Division 4. My brother would play with Plymouth, with their all-black kit, and I realised early that he managed the finances and expenditure aspect of the game in a more thoughtful way than myself (perhaps a prelude to later stages in our lives, bro). Later, of course, would come long hours of playing PC games, especially football games (Sensible Soccer, Sensible World of Soccer, FIFA 96 and its successors) with my cousin or fellow university students, even on the eve of some important IT exam.
Although I loved programming with different flavours of Basic, including GW Basic and QBasic (anyone remember Nibbles and Gorilla?) and database tools such as DBase of Ashton-Tate, and that toolkit lot in the early 90s, somehow I did go through a rough period of approximately 2 years later in the 90s where I was thinking and doubting on whether I should truly concentrate my whole career efforts on programming; was this my true calling? Sure I did love architecture and databases, but from a general perspective I also loved culture, music (especially piano and sax) and learning different languages, and I was never into other subject areas, such as medicine, biology, chemistry and the like).
Then came into the fray great creative gentlemen, the likes of Raymond Camilleri (my coding role model), Jean-Paul Ebejer, Christopher Micallef, Jonathan Chetcuti (with his unique sarcasm and dry humour; what a good man he was - today I'm sure he's near the Lord) and Robert Ciappara, who helped me - either directly or indirectly - convince myself that yes, programming was definitely my career path. Then there was no turning back and I'm so happy that I made the right choice also with the help of these people; and yes, now I will definitely program till I die.
After developing a number of simple games along the years as a part-time hobby - I work full-time as a programming specialist but in the fintech area - on the lines of Pacman, quizzes and the like, Robbie Steal is the first true, complete game I created as a past-time (on Monday and Tuesday late evenings and weekends) and have published. The game itself is free but with a number of possible in-app purchases. I did purchase a number of image platformer packages and relied on the invaluable help and guidance of my big friend Jurgen Paul Agius for the necessary image editing, since I am not a professional image designer myself; for the rest it was all coding, animations, physics, web APIs, monster animals and ladders using a number of different tools which made my task easier, especially when compared to the raw programming, including HTML5, Canvas and especially Javascript that we coded with in the not-too-distant past. Platform games based on 2D physics have always been my favourite, and then I loved adding the educational part in the game, with Rob needing to pick up treasures with letters and thus giving the young player the opportunity to guess the mystery word or phrase at the end of an action level to be able to proceed to the next. However, I do see myself delving deeper into 3D for more sophisticated game engines and simulations in the future.
I cannot conclude this short text without another mention of my dear family, especially my late mother, who always supported me in whatever endeavour I set out on doing. And as some older, wiser men used to tell me, the only people who never fail are those who don't try. And it's awesome if you get it right and beautiful on your 100th attempt after 99 failures. Let's believe in God and - whilst accepting our weaknesses - in ourselves, and do some great things with our great minds.
Anton D Buttigieg (Malta)
A few words from the game programmer....
My penchant for games, in particular platform games, started in 1987 when my father took my older brother and I to DataLink, a computer shop in Ta' Xbiex, Malta (that was then succeeded down the years by Datax further up the same street). I saw Killer Gorilla on an Amstrad CPC 6128 computer and I was totally lost. This chance encounter opened up a new world and from that moment on, I promised myself that later in my life I would definitely have to create my own games. My dad was very kind so as to buy us an Amstrad computer that same week, replete of course with a hefty manual on how to create simple programs, and then more complex games, using the Basic programming language!!
I easily got addicted to Killer Gorilla, Fruity Frank and Galactic Plague, and so did, but to a lesser extent, my brother and sister. Later I would get engaged to many more Amstrad computer games, in particular Football Manager 2, routinely still awake past midnight managing my favourite team Everton all the way from the old English soccer Division 4. My brother would play with Plymouth, with their all-black kit, and I realised early that he managed the finances and expenditure aspect of the game in a more thoughtful way than myself (perhaps a prelude to later stages in our lives, bro). Later, of course, would come long hours of playing PC games, especially football games (Sensible Soccer, Sensible World of Soccer, FIFA 96 and its successors) with my cousin or fellow university students, even on the eve of some important IT exam.
Although I loved programming with different flavours of Basic, including GW Basic and QBasic (anyone remember Nibbles and Gorilla?) and database tools such as DBase of Ashton-Tate, and that toolkit lot in the early 90s, somehow I did go through a rough period of approximately 2 years later in the 90s where I was thinking and doubting on whether I should truly concentrate my whole career efforts on programming; was this my true calling? Sure I did love architecture and databases, but from a general perspective I also loved culture, music (especially piano and sax) and learning different languages, and I was never into other subject areas, such as medicine, biology, chemistry and the like).
Then came into the fray great creative gentlemen, the likes of Raymond Camilleri (my coding role model), Jean-Paul Ebejer, Christopher Micallef, Jonathan Chetcuti (with his unique sarcasm and dry humour; what a good man he was - today I'm sure he's near the Lord) and Robert Ciappara, who helped me - either directly or indirectly - convince myself that yes, programming was definitely my career path. Then there was no turning back and I'm so happy that I made the right choice also with the help of these people; and yes, now I will definitely program till I die.
After developing a number of simple games along the years as a part-time hobby - I work full-time as a programming specialist but in the fintech area - on the lines of Pacman, quizzes and the like, Robbie Steal is the first true, complete game I created as a past-time (on Monday and Tuesday late evenings and weekends) and have published. The game itself is free but with a number of possible in-app purchases. I did purchase a number of image platformer packages and relied on the invaluable help and guidance of my big friend Jurgen Paul Agius for the necessary image editing, since I am not a professional image designer myself; for the rest it was all coding, animations, physics, web APIs, monster animals and ladders using a number of different tools which made my task easier, especially when compared to the raw programming, including HTML5, Canvas and especially Javascript that we coded with in the not-too-distant past. Platform games based on 2D physics have always been my favourite, and then I loved adding the educational part in the game, with Rob needing to pick up treasures with letters and thus giving the young player the opportunity to guess the mystery word or phrase at the end of an action level to be able to proceed to the next. However, I do see myself delving deeper into 3D for more sophisticated game engines and simulations in the future.
I cannot conclude this short text without another mention of my dear family, especially my late mother, who always supported me in whatever endeavour I set out on doing. And as some older, wiser men used to tell me, the only people who never fail are those who don't try. And it's awesome if you get it right and beautiful on your 100th attempt after 99 failures. Let's believe in God and - whilst accepting our weaknesses - in ourselves, and do some great things with our great minds.
Anton D Buttigieg (Malta)
My penchant for games, in particular platform games, started in 1987 when my father took my older brother and I to DataLink, a computer shop in Ta' Xbiex, Malta (that was then succeeded down the years by Datax further up the same street). I saw Killer Gorilla on an Amstrad CPC 6128 computer and I was totally lost. This chance encounter opened up a new world and from that moment on, I promised myself that later in my life I would definitely have to create my own games. My dad was very kind so as to buy us an Amstrad computer that same week, replete of course with a hefty manual on how to create simple programs, and then more complex games, using the Basic programming language!!
I easily got addicted to Killer Gorilla, Fruity Frank and Galactic Plague, and so did, but to a lesser extent, my brother and sister. Later I would get engaged to many more Amstrad computer games, in particular Football Manager 2, routinely still awake past midnight managing my favourite team Everton all the way from the old English soccer Division 4. My brother would play with Plymouth, with their all-black kit, and I realised early that he managed the finances and expenditure aspect of the game in a more thoughtful way than myself (perhaps a prelude to later stages in our lives, bro). Later, of course, would come long hours of playing PC games, especially football games (Sensible Soccer, Sensible World of Soccer, FIFA 96 and its successors) with my cousin or fellow university students, even on the eve of some important IT exam.
Although I loved programming with different flavours of Basic, including GW Basic and QBasic (anyone remember Nibbles and Gorilla?) and database tools such as DBase of Ashton-Tate, and that toolkit lot in the early 90s, somehow I did go through a rough period of approximately 2 years later in the 90s where I was thinking and doubting on whether I should truly concentrate my whole career efforts on programming; was this my true calling? Sure I did love architecture and databases, but from a general perspective I also loved culture, music (especially piano and sax) and learning different languages, and I was never into other subject areas, such as medicine, biology, chemistry and the like).
Then came into the fray great creative gentlemen, the likes of Raymond Camilleri (my coding role model), Jean-Paul Ebejer, Christopher Micallef, Jonathan Chetcuti (with his unique sarcasm and dry humour; what a good man he was - today I'm sure he's near the Lord) and Robert Ciappara, who helped me - either directly or indirectly - convince myself that yes, programming was definitely my career path. Then there was no turning back and I'm so happy that I made the right choice also with the help of these people; and yes, now I will definitely program till I die.
After developing a number of simple games along the years as a part-time hobby - I work full-time as a programming specialist but in the fintech area - on the lines of Pacman, quizzes and the like, Robbie Steal is the first true, complete game I created as a past-time (on Monday and Tuesday late evenings and weekends) and have published. The game itself is free but with a number of possible in-app purchases. I did purchase a number of image platformer packages and relied on the invaluable help and guidance of my big friend Jurgen Paul Agius for the necessary image editing, since I am not a professional image designer myself; for the rest it was all coding, animations, physics, web APIs, monster animals and ladders using a number of different tools which made my task easier, especially when compared to the raw programming, including HTML5, Canvas and especially Javascript that we coded with in the not-too-distant past. Platform games based on 2D physics have always been my favourite, and then I loved adding the educational part in the game, with Rob needing to pick up treasures with letters and thus giving the young player the opportunity to guess the mystery word or phrase at the end of an action level to be able to proceed to the next. However, I do see myself delving deeper into 3D for more sophisticated game engines and simulations in the future.
I cannot conclude this short text without another mention of my dear family, especially my late mother, who always supported me in whatever endeavour I set out on doing. And as some older, wiser men used to tell me, the only people who never fail are those who don't try. And it's awesome if you get it right and beautiful on your 100th attempt after 99 failures. Let's believe in God and - whilst accepting our weaknesses - in ourselves, and do some great things with our great minds.
Anton D Buttigieg (Malta)
