Not all my inspirations are game developers. One of my biggest inspirations is Tucker Max.
Who’s Tucker Max? He’s a writer and blogger who chronicles his drunken adventures and mishaps with incredible wit and humor. On a bet, Max put up a website 7 years ago to share his stories with his friends and the wider public. In the process he’s built up a fan base in the millions. He’s actually not just a writer, but a NY Times Best Selling Author (for the last three years).
Now he’s about to release a movie based on his stories (NSFW trailer here), penned by him and best-friend Nils Parker. And he’s currently touring – premiering the movie to students across the US in order to build up the buzz. His style of humor nay be brash, rude and offensive, but it’s also hilarious and honest. It won’t appeal to everyone, and I’m not trying to convince anyone. What I want to highlight is why this man inspires me: he lives life by his own rules, and refuses to bow down to preconceived notions of how things “should be done”.
He says what what he wants, and does what he believes. He refuses to sacrifice his artistic integrity nor the ownership of his art in order to achieve his goals. This is not anymore evident than in the path he took to get his movie done. He turned down multiple studio offers so he could retain creative control. He turned down upfront money in the belief that if he created a good piece of art, he would reap much bigger rewards. This, and the rest of the development process for the movie (from writing, pitching, casting and shooting to marketing, touring and the upcoming release) has all been meticulously documented on his entertaining production blog. It’s a unique and unrivaled look into the process.
More than anything, this one piece encompasses why he inspires me: how the changing internet-driven world is creating immense opportunities for art creators to take control of their future.
Max has also taught me the value of hard work. While his book and movie success may now look easy, it’s been anything but. He has offered an unrivaled behind the scenes look ever since his site went up. His regular participation on his forums has provided fans with a front row view on his trials and tribulations over the years. I got to see all the failures and setbacks, the mistakes and the corrections, the analysis of what went wrong and why, the predictions and the payoffs. I saw all the hard work that is necessary to reach his level of success.
I could stop there, but it would be a shame to overlook how he has used his writing successes to help nurture and launch the careers of other writers. His company, Rudius Media, now supports a dozen independent and unique writers. Rudius Media seek out artists with an interesting story to tell, help them hone their craft and build an audience. Check out Philalawyer and his book deal. Or Love on Wheelz. Or The Bunny Blog. Or Ben Corman. Or ShrinkTalk.
It doesn’t take a leap to see what he will do if his movie is successful (and I predict it will be). He can then help artists in the movie medium the same way he has done for writers. He will be in a position to help them achieve the same sort of success, while helping them retain creative and financial control of their art.
I know all this comes across as hero worship, but I don’t care. I’m a big fan. I love his work. Mostly, I admire his honesty and how he pursues his goals without ever sacrificing his vision.
I used to fancy myself a writer. I gave up on that a while back, and have focused instead on where my talents lie: game development. I’m still learning every day, but I have used the lessons imparted to continually improve my skills. One of the quotes posted above my desk is from Tucker:
“Only failures think that natural ability is what separates them from success”.
Whenever I doubt my abilities to succeed, I look to those to refocus myself. I know I have some talents. Maybe not much but enough. I know that if I put in the work necessary to be great, I can achieve something tangible.
September 17th, 2009 - 12:10 pm
[...] I wrote a longer piece this week, and decided to break it off from the dev diary. Enjoy. [...]