Invent It

“Maybe it’s time for a change? Just because you started in the games industry. Doesn’t mean you have to stay there, right?” a junior product manager tries to give me advice.

But this future she paints for me. It does not sit well.

Later, over a coffee with another colleague. He asks to hear my story. He listens and tells me, “Okay… Cool. Keep doing that then. Become a product manager connected to games. Lean into it. That’s your strength.”

I’m surprised by his advice but somehow I can already feel he’s right. In this domain, I move confidently. Games were my catacombs.

One month later, there’s talk of a strange virus. China. Wuhan. Corona something?

The pandemic begins and the world…

…stops.

Welcome to 2020. Let’s find out what makes you tick.

All our conferences are cancelled. No more public speaking for me.

My colleagues and the developers around the world… Everyone feels sad.

For what punishments of God are not gifts?

It’s hard to predict what the future will hold now…

And I feel lost…

Time to learn about sourdough starters. Right? Fuck off.

I had just arrived here. In my dream of Paris. In my petite 30 square metre apartment.

I am confined and my back is against the wall now. Perfect.

My kitchen floor has big white tiles with black joints. One day I stare at them – depressed. I put on a record, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”.

I stand by the window and look out at the sky.

The lyrics begin and an idea starts to unfold…

“I look at you all”.

I think about the developers. They need a way to connect.

“See the love there that's sleeping”.

We can’t meet anymore. No more conferences. They need a virtual world.

“While my guitar gently weeps”.

My skill set. I am a game developer.

“I look at the floor.”

Tiled. Grid-like. Game-like. A simple movement system. That’ll do.

“And I see it needs sweeping.”

I know what must be done. Time to get to work.

“Still my guitar gently weeps.”

I pick up my skill set… And I begin to prototype an idea.

I code all day, every day and deep into the night. I barely eat. I barely sleep. There is nothing but this.

I dream of new features and small tweaks to make. I leap out of bed each morning and I add more.

After 10 days, the prototype is complete. I show it to my manager and more. It’s greenlit.

It’s a technology for recreating physical conferences into a digital virtual world. Developers walk around with little characters like a video game, all inside the web browser. It connects them to each other. We aren’t alone anymore.

If our communities can’t travel to our conferences anymore – we will bring the conference to them.

It’s the perfect solution to my team’s problems during the pandemic. I leverage my strengths to make it.

I call it “Adventure”. It lives up to its name.

They call me a product manager. But in truth, I become again – what I always was deep down – a creator.

Predicting the future is troublesome.

I find it much easier to invent it.