how did you all start game dev ?

I am curious to know about you people :)

I worked at a computer graphics software company (Nichimen Graphics, now long gone) and when my coworkers ended up in game studios they got me onto their projects.

And I got into computer graphics because I programmed on Lisp workstations in my college AI lab, and years later the computer graphics division of that Lisp workstation company spun off to become Nichimen Graphics and was looking for Lisp programmers like me! So it was pretty unpredictable.

I took a long road to become a Game Dev.  Finished Art education.  Started as a Web/Flash designer. Took a job as artist in commercial game development company.  Became Art Director at that company. Learned how to program in C#. Saved up some money. Quit my job to become a full time game dev.... and part-time Salsa teacher.  ;)

Still studying my undergraduate degree, always wanted to make a game but don't know what tools to use, so I designed maps in Minecraft or fake missions in other games XD. Then I found the tool Unity 3 years ago and just couldn't stop myself from making game. I made some mini games but too crappy to be published, but now I'm preparing for my Kickstarter campaign, which I think is a huge progress! I'm just purely interested in game dev :P

I started out as a Personal Trainer who made games with a friend as a hobby, nothing serious, didn't even put them online.

Then after 12 years at the gym, they changed my role in a way I wasn't happy with, so I quit!

I had always loved making games, even when I was 5 years old, I would walk around outside making computer games in my head.

So I thought if didn't at least have a go at being a game dev, I would regret it on my deathbed.

So here I am!  making games!

I'm still fairly new to a lot of things like marketing, I've had to learn a lot in a relatively  short time frame, but I am very proud of my newest game in development, Cat-Powered UFO!

:)

I found a gamemaker sale and wondered if I could program something. My tests turned into a whole game. But it was truly surprising how each piece of the puzzle got togheter in the end; it's as if the project was preparing itself from the beginning for the big final. The whole soundtrack was random and some music took a few minutes to make. It was an experience. Dunno if I'll create anything more; out of idea.

Weird story, but I started making games in PowerPoint. One day, I just thought to myself "Hey, if I can make buttons that can go from one slide to another, then I can probably make a game." So, I started experimenting, and for about a year and a half, I was just making games in PowerPoint using that method, and it was pretty fun.  Then I learned PowerPoint animations, and that took my game creation to a whole new level of PowerPoint. Of course, I was only spending maybe a couple of hours every month on this, so nothing much. Some examples of games I was making: A card game where you'd flip two matching cards together, a duck hunting game where ducks would fly and you'd try to hit them and reload your gun, a basketball game where you'd have to click on the hoop in the correct positions while your power bar was at the right amount, a clicker game with upgrades...)

I continued making games in PP for about a year, and then I stumbled upon Brackeys for the first time. I watched a couple of his videos, but couldn't really get myself to start anew, so I continued making games in PP. A year went buy, and I started to feel very restricted, so I went back to this wonderful Danish man, Brackeys, and finally got myself to download and start using Unity. I've been making games in Unity for almost two years now, and I absolutely love it.

I first started making "games" in Scratch. After that, I found out I could make games using Unity and made a simple shooter before quitting game dev to pursue web design. After a while though, I realized game dev was more fun so I revisited Unity, made two jam games and published my first personal project called Hack FPS.

Starting in grade 3 my parent put me in game programming summer camps where we would use Scratch and occasionally RPG Maker, and I found that really fun to do. In grade 6 I went to one of the summer camps and made a game in Game Maker Studio 1.4 that I was really proud of called 'Shooter' (wow. how original of a name.). I decided to post the game on GameJolt to see if I could get any plays, and I got a few plays but not any to be even close to considered a success. After a while I decided to see if I could expand the game to more platforms, and discovered itch.io which let me sell games there. At the time I didn't have a Game Maker Studio license and just used the one the camp had, so when I decided to make more games it was difficult since I didn't have an engine. I ended up using Scratch to make games (I unfortunately couldn't distribute them) and just posting them on the community shared pages. I found it quite a bit limiting, but it was fine. Eventually in Grade 8 I tried out Construct 2 and really loved it, so I decided to buy a license to it so I could continue to make games. My first game in Construct 2 was called LightQuest and was very simplistic, but used a cool feature I had found in the C2 engine (I released a modern version of the game a few years later on itch.io). After that I started to get more in-depth with the community and got interested in making PC, console, and mobile games.

First of all I got interested into computers at a young age thanks to Chriet Titulaer, who had a show in the Netherlands called "Wondere Wereld" (means: Wondrous World or Wonderful World in Dutch) in which all new technology was presented. Please note computers were a luxury when I was a kid, as I grew up during the 1970s and 1980s. When I eventually came to touch a computer I was quickly interested in programming these and started to experiment. Like everybody else in my time that was in the BASIC programming language, however the BASIC of that time should NOT be compared to the Visual Basic, Blitz Basic, Pure Basic, Free Basic, Whatever Basic we got today. As I appeared very talented here I quickly began to write simple games and eventually when MS-DOS became popular I switched by advice of my mathematics teachers to Turbo Pascal and began developing games there, and that was the start of a long road that led me to where I am now. 

Due to the way I began my "career" in which we had no Unity, Game Maker or any other modern tools I was always in need to code my own stuff to get maps, assets and file management and other stuff on the move, I still prefer to work as long level as possible and to code the tools I need myself as much as possible.  Although I now just use PNG files for textures and sprites, and .ogg or .wav for audio, I still use the JCR system now it's it's 6th full version of which I wrote the first version when I was a teen (and I no longer have the original version), the Kthura Map System used for my RPG games is also based on trying to be as self-reliant as possible.  I may be a bit old fashioned but it does allow me a few of my own technical touches to things, I suppose.

College.  I needed an art credit in order to graduate and since I'm a big math nerd, I ended up putting it off.
I saw "Game Dav 405," asked the prof if I could join, and he said yes. 
I kinda hated it at first, art wasn't something I was good at at the time, and programming just felt like math done weirdly, but it grew on me.
Now here I am, with an itchio page all my own.