I've been watch my soulmate create his game even before we got together. And it's been incredible watching him create something by himself!
He got told by a "professional" game development school, "you are not allowed to use any programs other than Maya, Photoshop, ZBrush, and Unity". Those programs are expensive, how can a student be able to afford these after they graduate? Or someone just getting into the game dev industry?
According to these teachers, you wouldn't get anywhere UNLESS you used only those "industry standard" programs.
He proved them wrong. He uses 3DS Max, Gimp, and UE4.
His first laptop bricked itself and he lost work, his family purchased a custom built laptop for him so he can continue his creation. The poor graphics card began to fail and couldn't take anymore. I didn't want to see him lose his work again, so I bought him a custom built PC for Christmas with the best specs for game development but still under 2k AUD.
I always told him, "persistence is key, you'll get there, your time will come" and it's starting to finally pay off. East of Eden (formerly Incursion) is his baby, I'm proud of him for working so hard and never giving up, he's inspiring to many people who want to get into the game industry.
When I played V1.0 I could already tell that he's put so much work into this game, it's the best feeling when you play something or watch something that has clearly had so much tender love and care put into it.
We are all proud of you, you're an inspiration to many new indie devs out there
<3