Due to my extreme passion for video games, I've found it to be difficult to get away from them for long. I want to become more than just a hobbyist in this field, so I'm going to take a methodological approach to teaching myself to understand how video games work.

Even if the ten-thousand hour rule is poppycock, I think it will be good to record the time I spend on these projects.

In order to gain a better understanding of how video games work at a fundamental level, I've taken to be breaking down video games from their final form into the bare elements: sprites, objects, and other data structures. From these elements, these games may be recreated in any language or engine.

This is purely an academic study, no profit will be gained from this project.

Initially, we will avoid using any game engine or programming language. This will be a paper only affair, at least at the start. Be forewarned - mileage my vary when it comes to the legibility of my script (my handwriting can be messy).

Since I want to become a compotent creator, I need to set a base line for quality and platform expectations that I will uphold in all of my projects. FFF means every game probably won't neeeed this element, but most certainly will. Each game will have:

• Title Screen
• Game Over Screen
• Pause Screen
• NES Controller Support (FFF... as a default. I find the NES controller to be good enough for most games. other types of games will be altered as I see fit..)
• Scoring system (FFF)

Platform and Engine Expectations include:

• Basic 2D shape rendering (circle, rectangles, lines, and of any size)
• Basic 2D Image rendering of any size
• Font Rendering

My passion for video games persists, no matter how far I am from truly understanding, or being confident in my understanding and ability enough to make a living out of creating them. One day I'll get there, and this is my travelouge.