Building a Dream - Part One

Welcome, to the first installment of a three part series. This blog will focus on a firsthand look from two talented, passionate game developers from polar opposite backgrounds, coming together to create a business and the video game of their dreams.  Catch Light Interactive, LLC co-founders Jorgen Tandberg (Norway) and Paul Kardos (USA) talk about what inspired each of them to get into game development.

Meet Paul Kardos, Writer, Artist, Right-Side-of-the-Brain

I wrote my first game in 1985 on an Apple //e (the “e” stands for enhanced!) that had 128kb of memory, a 300bps dial up modem, and dual 5.25 inch floppy drives housed in one large, somewhat heavy and remarkably loud unit.

Ah, those were the days!

I programmed in Basic. Line by line, with all the INPUT, GET, and GOTO commands you’d expect. It was simplistic coding, sure, but programming was exhilarating to me. Dreaming up functionality, writing the code, debugging, and then that pure joy one feels when it all comes together and just…works. Somehow I managed to write my own text parser, which is how old text adventure games worked back then, and began telling stories through my computer.

It wasn't longer before I discovered something called The Graphics Magician by Penguin Software (later Polarware, later defunct.) With this amazing tool, I could draw double “hi-res” images for my text games in stunning 16-bit graphics!  I was hooked immediately, drawing trees, mushrooms, castles, bushes, characters, and whatever else I could dream up. Eventually I got tired of drawing with a mouse and ran out to buy my first drawing tablet.  It was nothing like the tablets we have now, but at the time it was a massive step forward.

The ingenious thing behind The Graphics Magician was how it worked.  Storage space was an issue back then, with those floppy drives only capable of holding 140KB of data.  Instead of using valuable disk space to save a complete image, the Graphics Magician simply stored the steps used to create it. When called by your program, the image was drawn by following those same steps until the complete image appeared on the screen.  This process even allowed for some really early, really crude animations.

I know. It doesn’t sound like much now, but it was pretty cool at the time.

At this point I was so into game development that I harassed the poor (and patient) people at Polarware Software, not only the developer of TGM but also the publisher of a solid catalog of interactive fiction games. They ended up sending me a copy of their in-house version of The Graphics Magician along with some kind words on how to go about creating a commercial game for sale. Probably all they could think to do to shut me up.

With this new tool at my disposal, I could feel the difference right away.  My graphics were better, my stories became more complex, and my coding skills improved. I was getting somewhere, getting close to finishing my first game!

And then one day, I just stopped. Know the feeling?

I don’t remember why I quit. I think that just happens, especially at the age when you’re trying to figure out who you are and what you want to do with your life. I discovered other interests, ended up moving away to college, started a career, and raised a family. You know the story.

Fast forward to January, 2020. Although I stopped developing games, I never stopped playing them.  They remain a great source of entertainment and a way to relax. On a whim, I decided to look into Unreal Engine 4.  It was free, looked like a lot of fun, and I was really looking for a new hobby.  My programming skills remained where I left off some 30 years before, so UE4's Visual Scripting was really helpful. I didn’t know C++, but I could figure out blueprints. UE4 is also known for being very artist-friendly, and 3D art was something I really wanted to get into.

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