2. What's the first game you remember playing - Hannah
Day two of the 30 Day Game Dev series
Hannah Moon
4/18/20252 min read
What’s the first game you remember playing and how did it make you feel?
The first game I remember playing was Pandemonium on the PS1. I was six or seven, and my dad’s friend had just given us his PlayStation 1 and a bunch of games, probably after upgrading to the PS2.
Pandemonium was a platformer about a jester and an acrobat who had left the circus to study magic at a wizard’s school. The game begins with a cutscene I could probably still quote word for word. The two of them try out a spell from a book that’s way too advanced and accidentally summon a creature that eats a nearby village.
The goal of the game is to reach the Wishing Engine so you can wish the village back into existence. You run through twenty-something levels, each with a different theme, to get there.
I loved this game. I loved the satisfaction of pulling off a double-jump in mid-air. I loved that I knew the cheat codes, so I could just explore and look at the scenery without worrying about dying. And I loved how complete the world felt.
It was one of the earliest experiences I remember where I genuinely wanted to save something. I cared so deeply about the characters (both of them) that it pretty much consumed my thoughts. I had dreams that I could do spells like the characters and i'd wake up so disappointed that i did not, in fact, have magic powers.
So when we moved and I didn’t have access to the game for about twelve months, I started writing down everything I remembered in a notebook. I named every level, theme, and enemy (some of them were names I made up), and I drew pictures to match.
By the time I had my game setup back, it was like I’d never left.
