Hello and welcome to PLog – Patricio Land’s Blog!
My early adolescence was strongly marked by the boom of personal computers, the strength of this new technological wave knew how to bring a light of hope and new possibilities of expression for young people…
Even though I was born in Argentina, a distant country that at that time was going through one of its darkest political periods.The difficulty for my family to acquire one of these computers did not stop my curiosity and soon I knew how to relate to people who had access to computers such as the TI 99/4A, the Sinclair Spectrum, the Commodore 64, or my favorite: the Amiga 500.
With them, I learned the rudiments of programming and design, so when I finished my high school education I did not hesitate for a moment to continue my university education in the area of computer science.
To my dismay, all this technological revolution had not yet spread to the academic world, where old mainframes and obsolete equipment that worked using punch cards were still the queens and kings of the university cloisters. At that time, the courses were just as archaic as this equipment, and after about three years of study, I had to abandon my career. I spent more time using the power of my friends’ personal computers than with the big equipment at the university, where professors sarcastically smiled every time the term “video gaming” was mentioned. No one could conceive at that time of a degree – or any kind of degree – dedicated to the development of these products. Computer science was apparently a ‘more serious’ thing.
In 1983, I completed my first game, which, although very rudimentary, was able to circulate the world, who knows how, from Buenos Aires to some part of Russia, where it was pirated and distributed “clandestinely”. A real surprise and pride I have to say, in an era where modems and the internet were still concepts of some famous Hollywood movies like Wargames or Tron.
But with the appearance of the first PCs, I abandon little by little programming to dedicate myself to design and multimedia. As a result, I was able to work in almost every stage of digital publishing, going from being a layout designer to the editor in charge of 4 monthly magazines dedicated to animation, pop culture, and, of course, video games. I signed and published more than 300 articles on this subject, covering important events in Europe and Latin America for more than two decades.
In 2002, another economic crisis shook my country of origin, and having dual citizenship Argentina – Switzerland (on my father’s side), we made the difficult decision together with my wife and my 4-year-old daughter, to settle in the city of Geneva. The first days here were extremely hard. However, having to learn a new language, dealing with uprooting and a diametrically different society did not discourage us, on the contrary, it was another challenge that bore its rewards.
Eventually, I was able to resume my passion for video game development as an indie developer. Investing my savings and during my free time after work, I created a demo of a graphic adventure without being aware at that time of all the doors it would open for me.
To take my ideas a little further, I organized a crowdfunding campaign at Kickstarter in June 2018, which ended successfully. With the proceeds, I was able to incorporate a couple of talented artists into the project and most importantly, gain the courage to present this work to the annual selection promoted by Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Council for the Visual Arts.
With no other weapons than my own experience and learning through trial and error, trying to turn frustrations into opportunities, I’m now able to formalize my knowledge academically and obtain new tools that will help me continue to advance in this competitive market.
So, after waiting for several decades, I finally find in your institution an opportunity to get that degree that at the time was impossible for me, and to remember to myself and to my 3 children – the eldest finishing at this very moment her own master’s degree – that it is never too late to follow the voice of passion!
Pato
