Micha's Games

Hi there!

I am Michael Wittmann from Micha’s Games, an independent developer of video games for Windows, Linux and Android, located in Pforzheim, Germany.

I’m a big fan of retro games – like the one I played in the early 1980’s and 1990’s. So a lot of my games will feel like tributes to games of this era – but with all the things we know today on how a game is made to be fun.

I am also a big VR enthusiast. So I’m quite sure that I will make a VR experience or game someday.

I also believe in games as a tool to improve our society and teach people of all ages about different things. So there will be games or elements within my games that could make you thing about a specific topic.
I hope you will share your thoughts with me and others.

In the late 1970s I had my first contact with video games. Several friends of my older brothers had one of these PONG-consoles like the Interton Video 2000 or even the Interton VC4000. As a five or six-year-old kid, I was totally fascinated to play Tennis or Car-Race on these machines.

Unfortunately, my parents didn’t like the idea of me spending time with video games. So, they strictly refused the idea of buying one of these new and hot Atari 2600 consoles. My father always said: „Spend your own money for such a silly machine (Affenkasten) if you have some someday.“ So, I saved each penny I could save and two or three years later I had enough money to buy a used one together with a TV and four or five games.

For some weeks I was a happy kid, playing these games. But fast enough I’ve mastered them all and so they got boring. But with small pocket money I couldn’t afford a lot of games, even if I bought used ones. If I only could create my own games.

Some time later a friend of mine got one of these cool Comodore 64 homecomputers. He was very proud of this piece of high-tech and talked all the time about it, the games he was playing and the programmes he learned to code at a BASIC course on evening school. I borrowed his BASIC manual and taught myself to code in BASIC. But without computer I had to write my very first games on sheets of paper. My friend invited me to hack this game into his C64. And it worked and was some kind of fun.

However, I was in need of my own computer, but my parents still acted against all kind of electronics. So, once again I had to save all the money I could save to buy my very own computer –what I managed to do. But after all it was a very tough way to start a career in computer business. Sadly, I had to give up creating games on my journey.

But stop! Everyone is the architect of his own fortune, so they say. Some years ago, I decided to start creating games again. With all my experience as a database and web-developer, project manager and trainer for IT-related topics and the skills I developed in creative writing there would be a lot of cool and unique games I could make.

What I have figured out for sure so far is that I don’t want to create games just to earn money. Don’t get me wrong: it would be nice to sell my own games on Steam or Google Play. But I don’t want to create a game just to make my living. Therefore, I still have a day-job I will continue to work in until I have enough money to focus on creating games on my own. Beside of this, creating games requires a lot of money. Until now I’ve spent my very own, but with increasing ambitions I will need some more. This will lead to better games that look nicely and sound awesome or even are made possible, because I can pay someone to develop parts of the games I can’t manage on my own– like a challenging AI for example. Furthermore, money will help to draw additional attention to my games, because I can spend it on marketing or traveling to conventions to show them in public.

Maybe you have played one of my games or you like the idea of what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. I will be happy to hear from you. Tell me what you think about my games. If you want to support me beyond that, I’ve set up a supporter campaign on Steady where you can buy different packages with increasing rewards. Just check them out.

Thanks a lot for your ongoing support.