From Healthcare to Game Dev: Building My First Game

🏥 The Career I Left Behind

I spent years in healthcare. Good with technology since my teens, but I chose to work with people — helping them through their worst days, navigating systems that were never designed for them.

Then came the workplace injury.

Now I'm disabled. Permanently.

The career I built? Gone. The future I planned? Erased.

That kind of loss forces you to reimagine everything.

🌟 Why This Game Exists

For the past year, this game has lived in my head. Planning, sketching, dreaming.

The concept came from two places:

First: My passion for the night sky. Stars, moon phases, constellations — I've been stargazing since I was young. There's something transcendent about looking up and feeling small in the best way possible.

Second: Frustration with what games have become. Mobile gaming is engineered for addiction — FOMO mechanics, daily login streaks, time pressure, artificial urgency. Games pull people away from the real world and make them feel guilty for not playing enough.

I couldn't find a single game that did the opposite: a game that encourages you to go outside, touch grass, look at the actual moon, watch real sunrises.

So I decided to build it.

🎮 Learning Unity From Scratch

I had zero Unity experience when I started. Zero game development experience. I'd built 3mpwrApp (a React Native app for injured workers and persons with disabilities), but game engines? Completely new territory.

I'm learning through:

• Tutorials: Hours of YouTube, Udemy courses, Unity Learn
• Trial and error: Breaking things, rebuilding them, breaking them again
• Documentation diving: Reading Unity docs until my eyes blur
• Community forums: Stack Overflow, Unity forums, Discord servers

It's humbling. Some days I feel like I'm drowning. Other days, something works and it feels like magic.

🌈 Carrying Forward What I Learned

Building 3mpwrApp taught me lessons I'm applying here:

Accessibility first. Always.

Not as a feature. Not as a compliance checkbox. As the foundation.

I want this game to set a new standard — the kind of accessibility the disability community actually deserves, not the bare minimum most games offer.

That means:

• Colorblind modes that aren't just filters — they reveal different gameplay content
• Screen reader support that's immersive, not robotic
• No timing requirements anywhere (motor accessibility)
• Works offline completely (like 3mpwrApp's offline-first architecture)
• No FOMO mechanics, no artificial urgency, no dark patterns

I also learned: perfection is the enemy of shipping. 3mpwrApp taught me to test relentlessly, rebuild when needed, but keep moving forward.

🔥 The Five Realms (Core From Day One)

The 5 realms weren't an afterthought — they were the foundation from the beginning:

Emberforge: Creation and energy (watch sunrises, feel sunlight, create with your hands)
Verdant Sanctuary: Growth and patience (touch actual grass, water plants, sit under trees)
Echo Fields: Memory and imagination (look at real stars, learn constellations, notice the moon)
Dawn Citadel: Wonder and knowledge (watch golden hour, prism experiments, light play)
Lantern Ascension: Peace and transcendence (moon gazing, meditation, releasing wishes)

Every realm ties digital gameplay to real-world nature activities. The goal isn't to keep you playing — it's to send you outside.

🎨 Creating Everything Solo

I'm building every component myself:

• Gameplay mechanics: Ritual systems, puzzle design, progression
• Audio: Ambient soundscapes, UI feedback, spatial audio
• Visuals: UI design, realm aesthetics, accessibility modes

Is it slower than hiring a team? Absolutely.
Is it riskier? Definitely.
But it's mine. And I'm learning skills I'll carry forever.

The creative part is where I come alive. Even on the hardest days.

🌐 Why WebGL?

I chose WebGL (browser-based) for one reason: accessibility through ease of access.

No app store approvals.
No download barriers.
No 500MB install asking for storage permissions.

You click a link, the game loads, you play. That's it.

For people with disabilities, every barrier matters. App stores are barriers. Download sizes are barriers. I wanted the game to be as frictionless as possible.

I'm also building offline-first support (like 3mpwrApp uses) so the game works without internet after the initial load.

📍 Where We Are Now

Real talk: I'm the only person who has this game right now.

It's not ready for release. Not even close to beta.

But the foundation is there:

• 5 realms designed and partially built
• Accessibility systems prototyped
• Nature-connection features implemented
• Firebase backend configured for cloud saves and collective actions
• Website live with game philosophy and realm details

I'm still learning Unity. Still making mistakes. Still rebuilding things.

But I'm further than I was yesterday. And that's enough.

✨ What's Next

The work continues:

• Finish realm mechanics
• Polish accessibility features
• Test, break, fix, repeat
• Eventually: find brave souls willing to beta test
• Eventually: ship something real

This is my first game. I don't know how long it'll take. I don't know if it'll succeed.

But I know why I'm building it:

Technology should enhance our connection to nature, not replace it.
Games should respect your time, not steal it.
Accessibility should be foundational, not optional.
And stargazing should always be free.

If you're building your first game too — especially if disability forced your hand like it did mine — know this:

Start messy. Learn publicly. Ask for help. Keep going.

The disability community deserves games built BY us, FOR us, with the standards WE deserve.

I'm building one. Even if it takes years.

Because magic is real when people decide to build instead of wait.

— Building in public, learning in real-time