Twelve Stones

Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story— those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, (Psalm 107:2 NIV)

And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, "In the future when your descendants ask their parents, 'What do these stones mean?' tell them, 'Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.' For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. (Joshua 4:20-23 NIV)

In many industries, and especially in the game industry, I have found that it is extremely important to give credit (sometimes more than the money) where credit is due. That's usually why we find ourselves in the game industry in the first place: to be recognized for our ideas. To be acknowledged for what we've done. It feels good to be acknowledged. It makes us feel warm and fuzzy inside. And it drives us to continue doing what we do, and to strive to be even better than we are. One of the best acknowledgements I've ever got was when one of my people came to me and told me, "Thank you for letting me work for Komikasi. You've made my dream come true. I'd like to grow old with this company." While my intent when I hired him was not to make his dream come true, but because I thought the company could use his skills, the comment made my day... my month, even. But then I realized, I, on the other hand, may have been too sparing on my acknowledgements. And so today, I'd like to first give credit and acknowledgment to the One who has made my dreams come true.

I grew up in Davao City. But ever since I was in fourth grade, I had imagined studying in Manila. My cousin had taken up Computer Science at De La Salle University. The course was new then. I liked computers. I was taking up computer in elementary to escape home economics. Since most of my cousins studied college in Manila, at the back of my head, I had always thought I would, too. But then by some strange turn of circumstance, my father's business folded, and he found himself buried in debt. Our house got foreclosed. We had to move to a smaller house. Things suddenly got so hard that my mother, my very sophisticated mother who you'd always see in pearls and Jackie O-style clothing, was repacking and selling dried fish on the side to augment to the family income! My dad couldn't get a job or start any new businesses. So both my parents agreed that he'd go to Manila and find opportunities there. So he did, with P200 in his wallet. A few months later, he found himself in the fish business buying and selling fish in Navotas... by the tons! By the end of the school year, we were afloat again and my whole family had moved to Manila. Talk about getting me there, huh?

So starting my second year in high school, I studied in Manila. After high school, I got in De La Salle University. What I really wanted to study was computer animation, but there was no such course in the Philippines then. So I decided I'd study in Japan after college. And everything seemed to go fine then... But then the Asian crisis hit. I was in my second year in college then. Dad was importing fish. So when the dollar shot up virtually overnight, we also lost money virtually overnight. I won't go into the details, but to cut the long story short, we lost all our money. But it didn't end there. The account officer handling my parents' time deposit savings ran off with the money. Because of all this, my dad got a stroke. So there we were, my mom was a stay at home mom at that time, I was in college, my three sisters were in an exclusive high school, my dyslexic brother had tutors... and our sole breadwinner, my dad, was incapacitated. Study in Japan? I didn't think I was even going to finish college! Don't even mention the stress everyone was having because we love our daddy! I don't know what I'd do if I lost my daddy then! But Someone up there loves me. He gave me a strong mother. And He gave my mother the opportunity to run our village country club, which led to her running the British School cafeteria for the next ten years, which got us through school. The contract ended just as my brother was graduating college. So, dream-come-true #1, I took up Computer Science at De La Salle University. And finishing it, I got a scholarship, which led to dream-come-true #2: I studied Computer Graphics for Games in Tokyo.

While I was in Japan, I took up a part-time job teaching English. That was when I realized I liked teaching. So a new dream got added to my list. I wished I would be able to teach at my university, or at The College of Saint Benilde, its sister school, once I got back to Manila. He granted me that. I taught Game design at BOTH schools for two years. Dream-come-true #3, check!

And finally, my biggest wish to date. In 2010, Komikasi got its first office on Pasong Tamo extension. Dream-come-true #4, check... But wait! I never thought I would actually need to sustain the company! But no worries, Big Daddy's got it covered. Back in 2010, we were a new company. #4.1: He gave us Anino to work with. Anino, the biggest local game company so far, chose to give us a chance. Then, when I was looking for more clients, (I did cold calls, can you believe it?), #4.2: I found out that an old classmate was the digital director of what had become the first ad agency our company worked with. Thanks to that, we were able to add their projects to our name, which led to us (again, another cold call on a day when I just wanted to curl up and cry because we had no more projects and it was December!) #4.3: getting our biggest client to date. It was amazing! We did our demo in January. Eleven months after that, I shot them an email asking if they had anything we could bid on (when you're getting desperate, you go straight to the point). And they said yes and told us to come for a bidding the very next day. We got the project, and we've been making apps for that brand ever since.

On top of that, He also gave me great people who have the skill as well as the heart. There is truth serum sprayed in the office, which makes interviewees spill things they normally won't in an interview but is very useful for us in determining if they are a match to the company. And generally little unexplainable things that save us, like how the client's host server would go down for maintenance when we were all already too tired to do overtime. Or when a client who hasn't been paying for months for Talecraft decks they'd sold suddenly pays the accumulated amount the day before payroll. Or when a program would just magically work (usually after our lead is desperate enough to pray. I'm assuming he's praying. Otherwise, he's just crouching before the computer). And in July 2012, Komikasi will be moving to its new office, which is three times bigger than the one we're leaving. Three times bigger in two years. Who'd have thought.

So to Him, who gives exceeding abundantly above anything I could ever wish for, thank You, happy Fathers' day, and to You be the glory forever.