In the mid-90s, Kevin had developed an interest in computers. Everyday, he would log on the family computer to either learn more about it or play video games. This was the era when the game "Doom" was a huge hit and was one of Kevin's most favorite games and was also the first video game he had ever played.

Moving ahead to the millennium year, Kevin stumbled upon a game development book  that contained a CD with development software, DarkBASIC. Since he had a passion for video games, he decided to try it out.

"At first he really did not know what to do with it."

Once DarkBASIC was installed and fired up, his eyes widened.  At first he really did not know what to do with it. The program offered significant options and was rather complex.  He tried tying in random words, but with each try the software detected errors. Although it was too complicated for his age, he never stopped trying to program. After some intense study of DarkBASIC he created a program that did a simple task, play music when the user pressed the spacebar. It was a very simple program, but soon evolved into more and more complex programs, including simple versions of first person shooter games.  Self conscious about his work, he had never released any of the programs.  Unfortunately his early efforts were destroyed with one strategically placed lightning bolt.

"After his initial work was lost, Kevin never gave up."

After his initial work was lost, Kevin never gave up.  He had tasted what he thought would be not only a great hobby, but offered the opportunity for business aspects as well. When he realized the software he was using was developed by "The Game Creators LTD.", he checked out their website. He found more tools that made games even faster and more enjoyable.

The first product Kevin tested and ultimately purchased was a first person shooter creation tool titled "First Person Shooter Creator". This tool literally threw Kevin into a whole new vista of game development.

"Kevin was overwhelmed on how fast it wast to create mult-leveled FPS games"

While using FPSC, Kevin was overwhelmed on how fast it was to create multi-leveled first person shooter games with an editor that was so easy that just about anyone could build a game level.  The point and click interface made it amazingly easy.  After many weekends of practice, he decided to design a game of his own.  The first step was to write down ideas for a game.  After many a few weeks of sketching out thoughts and  ideas, he focused on building his very own “sci-fi” horror game.  Kevin had been a fan of sci-fi games such as Doom 3 and Quake, but always wondered what it was like to be behind the scenes actually making one.

"Slaughtered's first screenshot did not catch on like he had hoped"

After a couple of months of pain staking work, Kevin posted some of his development screenshots on a forum board specifically for game creators.  The first screenshot did not catch on like he had hoped, but it did offer comments worth consideration that ultimately resulted in a more interesting screenshot.  Simple, but horrifying, members of the gaming community had responded with nothing but good comments.  Reenergized,  Kevin invested more time and effort into his project now titled “Slaughtered”. 

The second screenshot of Slaughtered did capture many interests.

Kevin posted more and more screenshots of the game and now had solid interest in his project from those he respected most, fellow gamers.   Do to its nicely featured lighting, Kevin started to receive not only posts on the board, but emails asking him “how did you do those professional style lighting?”  This motivated him to delve deeper into game development and including the release of a demo of “Slaughtered” to the public.

This is a screenshot of the first Slaughtered demo while in development.

Following the release, downloads of the demo increased resulting in even more positive comments.  He had proven to himself that the actual copy of the game was just as good as or maybe even better than the individual screenshots themselves. Gaming community  members were awaiting “Slaughterer’s” initial release.

"Maze O’ Boxes Arena” became a hit in the FPSC fan boards due to it’s impressive and massive level design."

Further down the road, Kevin released an online arena game titled “Maze O’ Boxes Arena” which became a hit in the FPSC fan boards due to it’s impressive and massive level design.

Kevin discovered that it was still fun and exciting to see his creations accepted by the gaming community.  Though FPSC was fun and fast to create an FPS game, it also had its share of major issues that made it a real pain.  First, FPSC did not support easy modification.  It requires a significant amount of work because it does not allow you to just port an object that you created into the engine.  It requires you to convert it to be formatted to a file format so it can be implemented.  Second, slow frame rate in the game.  FPSC could not handle a huge level filled with more than 10 – 15 enemies to be rendered smoothly.  The frame rate would drastically decline to where it was unplayable with a solid frame rate of 5 – 9 frames per second.  Third, long load times.  When Kevin created a highly lit scene with a large level design, the level would take longer than 3 minutes to load while in normal testing.  This was a real headache to Kevin because no one will wait 3 minutes at a load screen to play a game.  The longest anyone would wait would be 30 seconds so this was a problem.

To Kevin, FPSC was a great introduction to 3D game design, but it just did not have the power enough to create his dream game, “Slaughtered”. When he returned to The Game Creators’ website again, he had acquired a new taste for the game programming arena.

"Kevin knew he would like to use DarkBASIC Professional more than FPSC from the beginning."

 After browsing through the site more, he had found a professional version of DarkBASIC that offered many more features than the original.  Out of curiosity, he downloaded the demo and gave it a try.  His first reaction to the program was much more positive than DB because it was in a ‘Windows Environment’ which meant that the software ran in a normal window like a windows explorer window compared to DarkBASIC’s full screen, dark environment, and green text.  Kevin knew he would like to use this software more than FPSC from the beginning.  While in the trial version, he followed many helpful tutorials and help files that made him much more capable of programming a simple, but fun game.

After many months of learning, he decided to try and program a very simple program which was a simple screensaver for his gaming hobby company, Toxin Games.  It was simple that had 6 rotating boxes with the Toxin Games logo textured on each one.  It also had a red particle showering the boxes.  Kevin was very excited to see such results that had him actually working with logic and programming.