About The Owlface Archive

Why Do This?

Hi, I'm Nick. My username on GitHub is OwlfaceGames.

I created this archive for many reasons. However the main reason is simply to leave a digital footprint of my work. I've seen and heard various discussions both online and in person about trying to discern what a developer has or hasn't done or what their skill or experience level may be via their digital footprint.

And, I realised I didn't really have much of a digital footprint myself. The nature of most of my work has meant that pretty much everything has been done in private and none of the code is ever public unless sold on some sort of asset store.

Also, even though some work, (particularly stuff from a really long time ago) could be made public. I always felt kind of ashamed of my old work. As a developer I'm always trying to improve. As a person I also think I am generally very honest with myself. This combined with being a lifelong gamer means I feel I am never delusional about the quality of games I have made.

I feel pretty strongly in fact, that basically everything I've ever made is bad. Knowing this allows me to improve. If I'm delusional and think everything I do is amazing then how can I get any better. Not to mention the fact that I never learned to make games to make the greatest game ever made. I didn't do it for money, to get a job or with some lofty goal of working at my favorite game company.

No. I learnt how to make games because I love making things. Whether it's music, writing, videos or dev I have always loved the creative process more than anything else in my life. And when I discovered game dev it was like a new frontier of process enjoying. Finally something that has endless potential to test every skill I have and many I don't.

The worst part of the process for me is when it's over. If there's nothing left to do then it's time for the next thing. And so the cycle continues.

Anyway. After that rather large tangent I'll finish explaining my previous point.

Part of me always felt a little too ashamed to share old work but recently I realised something. If you're a real dev and you've really been in the trenches working real projects. You know you've written some shit code. You know that new you is better than old you and that old you is cringe.

It's better to own your past mistakes and show your work to the world for what it is. A stepping stone to the next thing and a snapshot of a time when you were loving the process just as much as you are now. Even if you sucked at the time (and maybe still do).

Ultimately it's better for people to be able to see all the progress you've made and how your passion has persisted than it is to exist in obscurity never leaving any proof you ever did anything. Slowly becoming one of those devs that talks big game but has no discernable projects out there in the wild.

It's not about proving you're good. It's about proving you exist and are in the trenches like the rest of us, getting shit done regardless of what people think because you love what you do.

This whole process has been incredibly liberating for me. I feel free in a way that I hope will allow me to continue improving and enjoying the process even more.

I'd like to start wrapping up with some info about the archive.

Source Code & My GitHub

TIP

This project does have a public repo that you can find here.

However as of the time of writing this, there is only a GB Studio project included as source code. When I created this project I was hoping I'd have more to post but the reality is I don't own any of the code I wrote commercially and none of it is open source.

Many of the projects in this archive are so old that they are from a time before I even learnt how to use git or any form of source control so everything was just on a hard drive somewhere. I dug through some old drives to find most of the stuff that I've posted in this site but unfortunately only found binaries for the most part. If I do find the source code to any games that weren't made commercially then I will add said source code as and when it is discovered.

Also the intention is for this to be a living project so I will add any new games I make as and when I make them. I'd love to make some games and open source the code just for fun and potentially to aid anyone that is interested.

Lastly when I had this revelation that I should just be radically open about all of my past project originally it was about sharing code for all of my none game dev projects. For games I was just going to upload the binaries somewhere and be done with it. Now we're here I've made a whole site about my old shitty games.

Anyway my point is that I do have a bunch of random side projects up on my GitHub so if you want to see more code there is some there. Nothing major. Just a few things I created for myself that I decided to make public re my new found openness. The most interesting stuff is pinned.

TIP

I have more projects up on GitHub.

Thanks For Visiting

Lastly I just want to say thanks for checking out the archive.

If you're here then presumably you are at least a little curious about my work and for that I grateful. This was a fun project. I'm no web dev so even just by making this site I got to have fun programming and learn something new.

Good luck on your own pursuits, whether you're the next John Carmack writing the best code anyone has ever seen or you're just a shitty little solo game dev like me.