Over the years, I have dabbled in various forms of media, from content writing, graphic design, photography to videography. So, you can probably guess what these points are in today’s digital space. Yes, you might have guessed it right - Content Creation. What started as a means to overcome my procrastination slowly taught me how significant effort, dedication, and discipline are in life. To be able to share ideas and satisfy creative urges on my own terms is undeniably one of the perks of being a content creator. But for someone who is always curious to explore new things, do I even need to answer the question: Why the sudden career change?
Dream Come True.
How many of you remember playing Dangerous Dave on MS-DOS? I might have started playing games before I could speak, and I am in my twenties now, but games never bore me out. As an introvert, games were a staple for not losing my sanity. Now, I am sure many of you can relate to this pattern. Games led me to tech. And that interest in tech led me to an educational background in Computer Science. My fate brought me to join a game-based software company at the start of my career, and it feels like I'm back to square one, i.e., living my childhood dream! What more could I ask for, right?
I was always hesitant to become a software developer as I dedicated most of my time to playing games rather than creating them. But, I must admit all that playing and curiosity for tech does come in handy. In today’s competitive world, a degree is just a mere thing and not enough. A strong foundation in problem-solving and executing that solution via programming is what a beginner needs to focus on, which is exactly what I did. Aligning with my innate desire to witness creations come to life, a swift shift to app development felt like a natural progression.
Learning never goes in vain.
Some tools that I used as a content creator helped me ease into the path of app development. Figma, the primary tool used by the company for UI/UX, was a tool that I had used during content creation. As a result, navigating through Figma, understanding UI/UX from the design team with practical discussions, and reflecting it on code as a developer took me less time to get used to. As a content creator, I had always been fascinated with tech. Despite starting off as a front-end developer, I could grasp and learn things faster related to various aspects of app development like deployment, networking, and optimization of games for all kinds of mobile devices. As it is said, whatever you learn in life never goes to waste.
A Transition Story.
As an Associate Software Engineer at Bhoos, I am happy to be part of a developer circle who are fully dedicated to making great games. My role involves shaping the company’s All-in-one App platform, which is readily available on the AppStore and Play Store as “Bhoos Games”. Our apps and games are primarily based on React Native. If you are familiar with it, I have an interesting obstacle that I came across as a beginner developer. React Native doesn’t directly support creating holes of various shapes in a View component. Since we barely use third-party libraries, it took me a while to figure out a way to achieve our desired outcome. I had to make use of React-Native-Skia library to create holes of different shapes in a Canvas. You can see the achieved outcome in action during onboarding of our app where you are prompted to ‘Pick a game to play’. So yeah, do try the ‘Bhoos Games’ app with some constructive feedback for us to work on.
It is fun to see how the app’s growth and my coding skills are intertwined, creating a symbiotic relationship. Bhoos has created a lot of games till date and the recent development is an all-in-one platform to access them but that’s not it. The future goal is to act as a podium that can help game developers utilize our game engine, make their own games and publish it on our app to gain popularity and incentives.
Team Environment Matters.
Overall, it has been a great learning experience both professionally and personally at Bhoos. All the credit goes to the company’s work environment that actually makes you want to leave the comfort of your home every day. Also, mentorship from highly skilled individuals and hands-on-experience with the SuperApp project has further pushed my passion for coding and creating. I hope to make a few games for this platform in the foreseeable future and to see them come to life on the platform I worked on, while being enjoyed by people all around the world would be a dream come true. This role at Bhoos isn’t just a job, it’s a stepping stone towards realizing my dreams and I am filled with immense gratitude for the journey thus far.
In summarizing this transformative journey, the key takeaway is the fusion of personal passion and professional growth. I encourage others to embrace change, pursue their passions, and share their stories. Let's inspire and be inspired!