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10th April 2025, 09:00 AM
Somewhere in the Suburbs, United Kingdom
The kettle had just clicked off in the kitchen downstairs, its steam momentarily fogging the window overlooking a typically grey British morning. Upstairs, in what was generously called Chris's 'command centre' (but was really just his bedroom), the digital glow of monitors cast long shadows.
Chris, ever the punctual one, was already seated at his desk, fingers tapping impatiently on the armrest of his chair. His setup was the cornerstone of their nascent operation: a mid-high desktop PC they'd all chipped in for over birthdays and saved allowances. It wasn't top-of-the-line bleeding edge, but it was solid for 2025 – boasting something like a respectable AMD Ryzen 7 processor, 32GB of RAM for handling larger projects, a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card capable of pushing serious polygons, and a speedy 1TB NVMe SSD so loading times wouldn't be their first bottleneck. For an 18-year-old's bedroom, it felt like mission control.
A slightly breathless Tyrone tumbled through the doorway, nearly tripping over a stray cable Chris had meticulously tried to tape down. "Alright, alright, calm down, Captain Serious," Tyrone grinned, dropping his backpack with a thud. "Traffic was mental. Apparently, a flock of pigeons decided to stage a protest on the A40." He unzipped his bag, revealing a slightly battered but capable mid-spec laptop. It wasn't a powerhouse like Chris's desktop, maybe running a decent mobile Core i7 from a year or two back and an RTX 4050 mobile GPU with 16GB of RAM – perfectly adequate for starting out.
Moments later, Max strolled in, cooler and more composed. He gave a nod to Chris and a mock salute to Tyrone. "Pigeon protest, Ty? Really?" Max opened his own sleek backpack, extracting his laptop – a machine similar in spec to Tyrone's, perhaps favouring a Ryzen mobile chip but also equipped with a capable mid-range mobile GPU like the 4050 or 4060 and 16GB of RAM. He set it down carefully on the spare bit of desk space Chris had cleared.
Three friends, united since the days of playground football and trading Pokémon cards, now gathered with a new, shared ambition burning brighter than their monitor screens: to make video games. Not just play them, but build them. They were complete beginners, armed with enthusiasm, years of gaming experience from the other side of the screen, and a combined computing power that felt, at least today, like infinite potential.
"Right," Chris said, cutting through the initial banter, his tone all business. "We're here. We've got the gear. First big decision: what are we building with?" He swivelled his chair to face them. "The engine."
Tyrone leaned back, hands behind his head. "Ooh, the foundational bedrock of our future empire! Do we go for the big, shiny one? Unreal Engine? Looks amazing, makes everything go 'boom' real pretty."
Max pulled up a browser window on his laptop. "Unreal's powerful, no doubt. Industry standard for AAA visuals. But," he tapped the screen, "it uses C++, which none of us know well, and the learning curve is notoriously steep for beginners. Maybe not the best starting block?"
"Yeah," Tyrone mused, "I wanna make games, not spend six months figuring out how pointers work again. What about that Godot thing? People rave about it being free and open-source."
"Godot's a strong contender," Max acknowledged. "Uses GDScript, which is apparently Python-like, or C#. It's lightweight, great for 2D, getting better at 3D. But the asset store and community resources, while growing, aren't quite as massive as..."
Chris finished the thought. "Unity." He looked between his two friends. "It sits in the middle. Easier entry than Unreal, arguably. Uses C#, which is widely used and generally considered more manageable than C++ for starting out. Massive community, endless tutorials, and the Asset Store is huge if we need placeholders or tools down the line. It's versatile – 2D, 3D, mobile, VR..."
Tyrone nodded slowly. "Okay, okay, sensei Chris speaks wisdom. Unity... it feels right, doesn't it? Like the default 'create new character' option. Reliable." He grinned. "Plus, didn't they add visual scripting stuff? For when my brain turns to code-mush?"
"It has options like that, yeah," Max confirmed, already navigating towards the Unity website. "And compatibility across platforms is a big plus. We can start small, maybe a simple mobile game or a PC prototype, and the skills will transfer."
Chris looked at them expectantly. "So, are we agreed? Unity is our starting point?"
Tyrone gave a thumbs up. "Unity it is! Let the legend begin!"
Max nodded. "Logical choice. Let's do it."
"Okay," Chris said, a rare crack of a smile appearing. "Next step."
Max preempted him, already clicking through the Unity site. "Checking the practicalities... pricing." He scanned the page. "Right, here we go. There's the Unity Personal plan. It's free to use... as long as the revenue or funding raised by the entity using it – that's us – is less than $100,000 USD in the last 12 months." (He noted the specifics might fluctuate slightly, but the principle remained). "Basically, it's free until we actually start making significant money, which..."
"...Is Objective Numero Uno, but probably not happening next week," Tyrone finished, chuckling. "So, free to start? Perfect!"
Chris leaned forward, the earlier impatience replaced by focused energy. He looked at his friends, the glow of the monitors reflecting in their eyes. The shared dream, talked about for years over countless gaming sessions, suddenly felt tangible. The tools were chosen, the cost of entry was zero pounds sterling, only sweat and time.
"Alright then," Chris declared, his voice firm but laced with an undeniable thread of excitement. "Boot up Unity Hub. Our journey as indie game developers starts now."
The quiet hum of three computers filled the small room, a digital heartbeat marking the first official moment of their shared adventure.