This Hamilton man taught himself how to code and design video games. At 21, he’s released his own

A decade ago, Jimmy Cushnie was introduced to the concept of digital logic - better known as the concept behind modern computer systems - and he immediately fell in love."

The Hamiltonian was just 11 at the time, but as soon as it all clicked in his head, the rest was history.

The fact that you can take simple rules, chain them together and expand on them to create machines that think," said Cushnie. It's indescribably beautiful to me."

But, in the face of that passion, there was also frustration, said Cushnie, 21.

The existing tools and programs for playing with the concepts all had glaring problems," so much so that any time Cushnie would start a new project, he'd end up giving up halfway through.

He waited on bated breath for someone to put out a new version, but to no avail.

Cushnie eventually decided to take matters into his own hands. And so began the creation of Logic World, which launched its early access version on Oct. 22.

The video game - designed and built by Cushnie with the help of a friend in Spain - allows players to explore the world of digital logic from a first-person perspective. The gaming world is colourful and the original score was composed by another Hamiltonian.

Players can build, design and program circuits, eventually creating massive, intricate machines that are completely three dimensional - similar to Minecraft. In just 24 hours, Cushnie has seen players build their own versions of Battleship, Pong and a game similar to Guitar Hero.

There is so much you can do with circuitry," he said, noting players can also design fully programmable computers inside the game. It's about the freedom to invent and the freedom to invent what you want to."

Cushnie said the journey to Friday's launch began four years ago when he was headed into his last year of high school and thinking about his next steps after graduation.

The then 17-year-old knew he wanted to do something he was passionate about - so that summer, he turned to learning about coding and video-game development.

I was working on learning to code for at least 12 hours a day," said Cushnie, who is entirely self taught and has no plans to pursue a post-secondary career in video game design. It was really hard, but eventually, I figured it out."

While building the game, Cushnie said he would spend 30 to 40 hours a week coding. Then, every six months, he'd ramp it up to 80 hours a week for a short period of time, followed by a break - all with the support of his parents, who helped to fund his dream as opposed to paying for schooling.

It took some convincing," said Cushnie. But I'm indescribably grateful for that."

Cushnie also acknowledges that his situation is uncommon." He said most games released by independent developers are built by more senior software engineers.

The vast majority of games do not come from a situation like this," he added.

Cushnie said his drive to keep going on the project was inspired by his fans that would read and comment on his weekly blog posts as well as his own passion" and vision" for the game.

An earlier version of the game, which Cushnie quietly released in 2018, was also well received," he added. At that time, more than 3,000 people downloaded the game.

From the day I started working on it, I have truly believed that this idea is an excellent one," he said. And just knowing that there were so many people out there who were itching to play the game and believed in my vision."

Looking to the future, Cushnie said he has huge plans" for the game, including updates that will make the game more accessible" to those just starting to learn about the concepts and a campaign mode for super nerdy people."

He's also hoping to one day see it used as an educational tool inside schools.

As of Saturday afternoon, Cushnie said he had sold at least 1,000 copies of the game - something he described as a dream come true."

I poured so much love and passion into this project," he said. I had an amazing team and I was humbled to lead it."

Fallon Hewitt is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach her via email: fhewitt@thespec.com