Please read this

I’m leaving.

Well, not really. Let me explain.

Back in, I believe it was 2014 or 2015, little 11 year old me was passionate about something, and this thing was game design. Ever since I was three years old, I had been using Scissors, markers, and very sloppy handwriting to create small boardand card games. No matter what anybody said or did, I never lost that passion. I even had one game officially printed and sold at a craft show. When my family first bought a family computer, I quite unsurprisingly delved into the internet to find a game website. And this is what led preteen me to find Flowlab. Even since then, I have overflowed with nonstop crafting, tweaking, throwing away, and redesigning video games. Throughout the years I went from ridiculously awful trash to a few decent, and I might even dare to say good, games.
I am now in college. I am officially moving this year. The biggest changes of my life are occuring, yet game design is still my comfort and my home. I am going to college for computer programming, and Flowlab has been what has inspired my entire career decision. I would like to say, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

What I have done
Just recently, I browsed my old games, and was shocked to notice hundreds, and on a few, thousands of plays. This includes unpublished work created within a few days or writing this. Compelled by seeing the interest of others, have looked through the entirety of my game collection on Flowlab and deleted unused projects. I also decided to numerically order every single game, and rank them by their quality.

ARCHIVE 1: Hot Garbage. Do not play.
ARCHIVE 2: There are game mechanics there… Somewhere.
ARCHIVE 3: There’s a game, just extremely poorly executed.
ARCHIVE 4: Decently recognizable, either incomplete, extremely short, or not good.
ARCHIVE 5: A game I enjoy and am not ashamed of.
ARCHIVE 6: my personal favorites.
ARCHIVE 7: These are the best games I have made. You will recognize these.
ARCHIVE T: These are examples that still work that may help you make your game.

The reason in compiling the way I did is twofold. First, I wished to clean up unused space, and save myself and everyone else a headache. Secondly, I reminisce over those early days of game design. The truth is, I hope some of you, wether you be young, inexperienced, or unmotivated, may take hope seeing how far I’ve come in less than ten years.

Are you leaving?

After all of this nonsense lol, this leaves the begging question: am I leaving flowlab? ■■■■ no. This is a community I love. From the patience of Grazer putting up with my garbage preteen self, to the glorious chaos @ManiacPumpkin, @AbstractGallery and I ensued with Serenity, I wish to stay active here till the end. However, most of my projects will be within Unity, Godot, or Unreal now. If requested, I may post updates on these. And of course, college life demands much more time and importance. But I am not leaving.

I would like to say a few words to specific people.

RCreger

@rcreger, you’re just the best. You helped me going through some tough times, and you hung around and had a ton of fun with us musketeers.

JR 01

@JR01 … I’m sorry. I have not treated you well, and although I could make excuses, the truth is I was immature. I hope you will view me in some honor oneday.

pixelpizza

@Samuel_Tomé_PixelPizza, same as jr. I am sorry for trying to compete with you.

the bois

@ManiacPumpkin and @AbstractGallery , you guys are awesome. Long live the musketeers.

greggo

@greggo, good job climbing those ranks. I may never be as good as you, but I can hope!

bitwit

@Recryptech (i think this is bitwit) thanks for those reviews. I loved hearing about your… Interesting reactions to my games.

Grazer

@grazer. Man, I’m so grateful you made this website. I know I have acted immaturely, and you’ve had to put me back in check, but regardless of wether or not you’ve realized it, you changed my life. I’m going to college despite all my financial hardships because of you. Thank you.

To those that declare themselves my “enemy,” thank you. I need “sandpaper people.” You guys have matured me in a way friends never could.

To everyone else out there, on the otc forums, helping me code, and encouraging and having fun with me, thank you! Your support and friendship means the world to me. I cannot mention everyone as there is a word limit lol, but cudos to all of you and good luck.

Sorry for the long, drawn out text (Tactical nuke incoming, if I’m not mistaken). I hope you all have a wonderful day, and feel free to dm me. Good luck!

My favorite works

@hihilogic made this possible

My first memorable and popular game (definitely didn’t crash flowlab servers with it)

Still most popular game of the genre (currently broken, as it I am redoing right now.)

One of my best pieces, first unique game.

…If you know, you know.

My first officially sponsored game.

First game to my knowledge that fits a horror genre in flowlab (in bitwit’s words, “spoopy”)

Thank you all!

15 Likes

Congratulations on making it to college! I’m really happy for you and I hope you have a successful career.
As for the games, I really love your contributions to Flowlab (especially Till We Have Faces) and I’m glad you’re continuing on here. Keep up the great work!

10 Likes

Thank you! It’s probably my second favorite I made.

5 Likes

Glad you’re still going to continue game design, I hope you do really well with it and good luck in college!

6 Likes

You too my fellow night owl!

5 Likes

I wish you best with college, I am currently in college myself (I’m actually in college and going to study computer science and game design, but i’m also high school with a program called dual enrollment if you don’t know what that is you can look it up). I actually have been trying to learn unreal and hope I can make a transition, but that is amazing that you are moving forward with your career. And I also wish you best in your life outside of college as well. It’s also great to hear will still be a member of Flowlab. To one of the many living legends of Flowlab, until next time. :slight_smile:

8 Likes

Congratulations and good luck on the next step in your life! I have fond memories of playing Notes and Waves and Toss Some Change to Your Grazer is a classic! I look forward to what comes next from you!

8 Likes

Congratulations Neon Genesis Evangelion GIF - Congratulations Neon Genesis Evangelion Applause GIFs
Always good to see someone doing a job they love :smile:!

Epic gaming… uh I mean have a good career and life and college!

5 Likes

I’ve also been in dual enrollment for three years now, I’m finally moving to a university. Good luck to you too!

6 Likes

That game was such a pain to make lol, but I have many friends who have downloaded it onto their devices. And of course, flowlab always needed some rock music.

6 Likes

Amongus.

5 Likes

Thank you very much! :slight_smile:

4 Likes

Crazy how time flies and how people change. It feels like just a couple of months ago I was doing those reviews and learning new ways to hate mushrooms. It was always interesting watching the shenanigans you guys got into, even if it was a little much sometimes. I wish you luck with your education, college can be a really tough transition, but I hope you can take what you’ve learned from Flowlab into new pathways for yourself. Remember that with time comes maturity and change, but even through change, Flowlab will be here to welcome you back when you want it

5 Likes

Thank you @Recryptech! Your glowing (most of the time… We don’t talk about the mushrooms) reviews really encouraged me to continue even when I felt burnt out.

5 Likes

sincerely amongus

5 Likes

Sorry for the late reply but it’s water under the bridge.
Good luck in college, I’m still going through it myself but it is where I started to really do more on Flowlab.

9 Likes

Thanks @JR01 . I don’t know how you were able to put up with little snowflake ten year old me lol, but I appreciate your patience. Thank you.

9 Likes