I was diagnosed with depression when I was about 15, and when I finally came out of my first rough patch I had the dream of becoming a games developer. I managed to get through highschool, a diploma of animation and finally got into a Games Design degree.
That's when my next rough patch started and it hasn't really stopped. But since then, I've graduated and have been wanting to make a game to try and show people what it's all like. I just don't have the words to convey it.
I have gotten significantly worse since graduating, now with a few more diagnoses. But that has only made me more passionate about the game I want to make. It might be a little bit ambitious, but I want to change the world. I want to reduce the stigma that is attached to all this. It took me a very long time to admit to even my closest friends that I may be bipolar. Let alone telling the world, but here I am. I don't want to feel like I need to hide parts of me, I don't want other people feeling like they need to hide parts of themselves.
One of the biggest hurdles is, how do you explain this to someone. How do you explain that there is something going on in your head that changes everything. I really feel like this is something games are perfect for. My goal is to create an experience for the player, the experience of living with my mind. My up, down, mixed up head of thoughts that are either too fast or not there at all. I want people to feel the things I do. Then maybe it'll be easier to accept these illnesses for what they are, an illness. Not a flaw or fault in the person.
So that's what I'm going to do. I've been out of uni for 2 years now, next year I'm going back to do my Masters in Computer Science. But I'm not leaving the world of Games Design behind. I'll still be working on a couple of games projects. Especially this one. It's time for me to start designing this one.
This is where I am going to be posting my progress as I go along.