Games Thirst – Amazing Life
Sometimes the thing you’re working hard to achieve is a training ground for where you’ll ultimately wind up.
And that’s exactly what happened to Alexander J. Velicky, a 19 year-old burgeoning game developer so serious about working at Bethesda that he spent a full year creating a huge mod called Falskaar.
Now, the man’s employed — but it’s not at Bethesda. No, he’s now working for legendary developer Bungie, the creators of Halo and the massive incoming title, Destiny.
“Modding has been ~90% of my life for over four years now, and all throughout you were there to support me,” Velicky said in a thank you note on the Elder Scrolls forums.
“From the bottom of my heart I want to thank every person who ever provided feedback on a mod, support, help, or something as simple as a ‘cant wait!’ or ‘great job.’ Every single one of you made this possible. From driving me to work throughout development, to providing astounding amounts of feedback and support to help learn and improve after releases. I owe it to all of you.
He also encourage fellow aspiring developers to chase their dreams: “Never be afraid to try”.
“I set my sights on a professional design job pretty early, I lowered my head, charged forward, and rarely looked back. Of course, I ensured what I was doing had a reasonable chance for success from time to time. But the most surprising of all, is who I’ve ended up with. I applied to many companies, and Bungie was in my, “Huge company that will completely ignore me.” category.
“Well, they didn’t and look what it got me. Bungie is an awesome company with an amazing team, and I’m very lucky that they’ve decided to give me a chance! Never be afraid to try. I spent the time it took to apply and the rewards are proving to be greater than I could have possible imagined.”
See? Hard work pays off, man. It truly does — and never give up on your dreams!
