When a Idea Grows Up

Hello, and welcome to the Corkboard.

My name is Trevor McGarrah (pronounced McGarr), and I'm a high school computer science teacher in Arkansas. For years, I've used simple game projects to get my students excited about coding. This devlog, and in fact the reason Corkboard Studio even exists, is because of a simple video game that has taken on a life of its own.

Backstory

A few years ago, after a few standard tutorials, I wanted to show my students what was possible if we built something from scratch. That's when Mother Mouse was born. It was a simple maze game where a mother mouse had to find her babies and bring them home while avoiding a wandering cat. It was made in MakeCode Arcade, and to be honest, it was lightning in a bottle. The original game can still be played here. Every single student, and I mean ALL of them, was hooked. If their code wasn't working, they would immediately stop me and have me help them recreate it. During play tests, they would literally jump and scream when the cat surprised them. It became an instant classic in my classroom.

From the original Mother Mouse, made in Microsoft MakeCode Arcade

For years, my students who took my more advanced classes would ask, "Can we make a new Mother Mouse?" I always hesitated, never feeling confident enough to lead them through a more complex engine like Unity or Godot. But the idea never went away. This summer, after watching a few devlogs and tutorials on GameMaker, I was struck by how intuitive and fast it was. I realized this was the tool I'd been searching for.

To make sure, I wanted to remake Mother Mouse,  but I soon realized I lacked the skills to make it from scratch. I needed to learn how to use GameMaker before I could do it. While I experimented with the engine, I would occasionally daydream of what Mother Mouse would look like if it "grew up." And that's when the vision for Of Mice and Tales was born: a cozy, storybook "Generational Sticker Chronicle" about family, legacy, and the stories we leave behind. You will learn more about that game over the coming months.

My Plan to Learn How to Use GameMaker

I soon realized I had to make this game, but I knew I lacked the specific skills in GameMaker to do it justice. So I created a plan. I want to show my students—and anyone watching—what a real growth mindset looks like. I want to document the entire process of taking the kernel of a classroom idea and turning it into a fully realized game.

This is my public commitment to that journey. Here is the bootcamp I've designed for myself to build the necessary skills:

• Project 1: An Arcade Shooter (like Asteroids) to master top-down movement, enemy spawning, weapons upgrades, score, etc.
• Project 2: A Maze AI Game (like Pac-Man) to learn simple AI and level progression, collisions, level design, etc.
• Project 3: A UI & Data Engine (maybe something like Cookie Clicker) to master integrated systems, UI/buttons, upgrades, etc.
• Project 4: A Minimum Viable Adventure (a farming RPG) to bring all those skills together, inventory system, progression, etc.

After completing this bootcamp, I will take all that I've learned and move on to the next phase: a full remake and expansion of the original Mother Mouse, which will be my first complete, polished, standalone game in GameMaker. From there, the main journey begins as I start the long-term development of the more ambitious Of Mice and Tales.

This is my journey of turning a simple idea into a published game. I want to show what is possible when you take a simple idea, let it simmer, iterate, and imagine the possibilities, but then actually take the necessary steps to turn that dream into a reality.

I hope this gives you a little insight into who I am and how I got to this point. Thank you for spending some time with me today. 

Let's put a pin in today's update. I hope to see you again, hanging around the Corkboard with me on this game development journey. 

I'm Trevor McGarrah, and I'm learning how to make games that stick.