There’s Only One First Year

One year ago, I embarked on a journey to help build Mark Otero’s 9th Collectibles & Combat RPG. And do you want to hear something fascinating? I had no idea about the details of what that meant, but I sure believed I did. Since I have been playing games my whole life and building companies my whole career, why couldn’t I make a game and build a game company? Easy, peasy, piece o’ cheezy, or as we say so often, LFG! Let’s hire a half dozen people, draft up some cool art, give it a story, do an NFT mint, drop some tokens, release the game in 4–6 months, and get paid! (I hope you’re laughing right now.)

Playing games has been a big part of my life. My 5th-grade allowance and “mowing lawns” money were all converted to quarters to spend in the mornings at 7–11 on 58th and Broadway, often causing me to miss the bus to school so that I could possibly hit the Donkey Kong high score. My 7th-grade allowance was spent at the underground arcade Time Zone, getting frustrated with Missile Command. And my 9th grade $5 bills were spent getting 25 tokens (instead of 20) and then spending half a day selling them four at a time to extend my credits at the Arden Mall arcade. It never dawned on me that I spent so much of my time and nearly all of my money on video games. That carried into my young adult life and fatherhood with the Wii, Xbox, and so on. I’ve been playing games my entire life.

So you can see now that when Mark had me on the phone in December of 2021 asking me if I wanted to join him in building a game, I felt I needed a week to think about it because I was overqualified. (Again, you can laugh.)

In all sincerity, I love playing games but never dreamed of making one. That’s because I had no idea how complex building a game is. And here’s what has surprised me: I am now a game developer, and I love it. Mark has been grooming and mentoring me on the amount of work, engineering, and magic that goes into making one great game, but I had no idea until we embarked on the vertical slice (a fancy term for a playable prototype).

Making games is hard. Making legendary games is punishing, if not nearly impossible. The touches required to create just one boss battle are astounding. And I see why there can be no room for compromises on quality. With every drift from the quality and fundamentals you take, you pay. Seeing the amount of talent come through in our one prototype didn’t just excite me as a co-founder of this company; it turned me back into a kid. It took me into the wonder of playing Defender at 7–11, transporting to that universe to battle tough enemies. It transported me to Tatooine where as a kid, I dreamt of becoming a Jedi Knight wielding a powerful light saber. Now, I get to be on the journey of creating a new universe like all those that have and continue to inspire me to play, have fun, and dream.

Perhaps most important of all, my feeling of fellowship with this game studio made me realize we are building a legendary game. I’m so proud of this team, and I’m honored and humbled to be on this journey with you all.

There’s only one first year of being a game developer. And as far as first years go, you and Legions & Legends have made my first one of the most special of my life.

It’s caused me to not only reflect on this year, but reflect on life.

If you reflect on your life, you’ll discover that you have been searching for keys the entire time.

The key to unlocking knowledge.

The key to another’s heart.

The key to success.

The key to your very own home.

The key to your first car.

The key to your own company’s headquarters.

We tend to take those little gold and silver-colored metal keys for granted. But symbolically, keys represent new milestones and outstanding achievements. They represent access to new levels and incredible new worlds.

In this photo, you’ll see the first set of keys to the Azra Games studio, handed over on January 19th, 2022.

The day we received these keys, it wasn’t just to get into the office. We received the keys to becoming a dedicated game development team.

Since that day, we have looked back with pride at how much we accomplished this year. Everyone worked to new levels, created the foundation for a successful game studio, and, most importantly, came to work to build a generational genre-defining game we call Legions & Legends.

You are a team member that has come together in dedication to creating legendary core game experiences on Web3.

Some of us knew each other, some had loose affiliations, and some were brand new to the studio. Every person on this team reached new heights and delivered incredible work.

And we’re just getting started.

There’s only one first year.

LFG!!!!!!