I’m very proud to announce that today marks the official release of my very first game, Quacker Stacker! It’s free to play and available in the Google Play store for Android devices.

[Update: It’s now also free to play and available for iOS too!]

It’s a simple stacking game where you have to help as many baby ducklings into their nest as you can. But be careful of other characters like the crows and the crocodiles, who are trying to get in as well. They’ll take away points and end your game, respectively.

There are two modes to play in: endless and challenge. In endless, you stack as many ducks as you can. In challenge, there are currently 10 levels to beat with specific goals, like stack 3 crows, or stack 15 ducks in 60 seconds. There are more challenges on the way, so stay tuned for updates!

I can’t take all the credit for this little beauty. The music was done by my friend, Tysen, and the graphics were done by an artist who wishes to remain anonymous. I also had a team of beta testers. Thanks to Tim, Josh, Patrick, Derrick, Danni, Tom, Kwame, Steven, Bruce, and Rita. Last, but certainly never least, I had the support of my boyfriend, Brian. He gave me advice while planning the game, pushed me when I got discouraged while coding it, and is the one who convinced me to care about games in the first place. I couldn’t have done it without any of these people and I am eternally grateful for their support.

Now that all that technical stuff is out of the way, time to get personal. I did not go to school for game development. Everything I know is entirely self taught. And I just wanted to take a minute to encourage anyone else out there who may be interested in game dev to take a shot too! I never thought I’d have a fully functioning game up, but here I am, the proud creator of a complete game with 5 downloads last I checked! (Thanks, whoever you are! <3) We’re very fortunate to be living in a period of time where there’s unlimited access to resources, and knowledge is no longer confined to the halls of established universities. Everything we need to know is at our fingertips. And you don’t even have to know much. There are even programs out there that will do the coding for you. All that you need is an idea and the drive.

And right now the game development scene is hot. Everyone is looking for that new addictive game. It could be yours! And with social media, even if it isn’t the next big thing, what you make could still spread further than you might think. I mean, this morning my tweet got liked by someone in Italy. ITALY! That’s over 6,000 miles away, with people who speak an entirely different language than I do! Never in my wildest dreams did I think one day I could say that I completed a game that was seen by people living an ocean away from me. And you know what? It’s satisfying as hell to say.

So if you’re sitting at home (or at work–I won’t tell on you if you’re browsing tumblr while on the clock ;D) and you’re even semi-interested in games, I say you should try. If you have a few friends who are interested in it too, even better! With countless tutorials and books (A LOT of which are FREE, I might add), and forums chock full of lovely people who are more than willing to help a fellow developer out, there’s very little that you can’t accomplish. The worst that could happen is that it doesn’t work, but maybe you learn something new in the process. The best that could happen is that you finish something, and you get to take pride in knowing that you built it yourself. So even if you don’t do it for the 0.005 cents per impression on in-game ads, do it for yourself. Trust me, you won’t regret it.

Download Quacker Stacker for Android here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.quackerstacker

Download Quacker Stacker for iOS here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/quacker-stacker/id973806478?mt=8