Josh Tamugaia Story

I am Josh Tam and this is the journey of my life, so far. My life as a fighter. Not literally a fighter, but a fighter as in I need to sort of fight for what I want and need instead of having them handed to me for free.

If you are wondering, I am not the same Josh Tam from the one-page site joshtam.com who is a photographer and who lives in Australia. OK, so here goes...

From 1984... Surviving Childhood

I wasn't born rich. In fact, my parents were church-mice poor. They had to borrow cash just to buy food. But they lived through it. So, as a start, I was low-class kid. Could not go to the best school, could not wear the best clothes, and had no toys to play with. I had to live in a 60-year-old apartment building with inner walls covered with moss. Yes, you heard me. Moss, with flying spores.

All my life, I have been a fighter. I am not used to nagging and begging for what I want and sulking when I do not get it. If I want something and I do not have it, I go get it myself. So whenever I fail to get what I want, I make what I want. Like I do not get the toys I want for instant, I will use whatever junk that my parents chucked away and make them into toys. I remembered last time that I had a small robot and needed a bigger one. My mom threw away an empty egg-holder that was shaped like a pentagon, so I used it as the flying-saucer of some sort to battle with the small robot.

From 1990... Damned to be sick

When I was around 6, I started coughing and having flu. My parents sent me to see the wrong doctor, the kind who just did some diagnostics and stuffed me with some antibiotics and suppressors. I really thought that when my throat did not irritate me anymore, my sickness would have been cured. In fact, it just got suppressed, just to arise later on. Until I was in Grade 4, I had this coughs, until one day, the doctor said I had bronchitis and difficulty in breathing. I frequently had to go to the hospital to puff up the phlegm stuck inside my trachea. Later on in Junior High, thankfully I met a nice doctor who instead of focusing on suppressing my phlegm, stressed the importance of pumping it out so that my sickness would never again recur. I thank him to this day, as I am finally free of bronchitis. I can now run 12 long blocks without exhaustion.

My sickness was also the cause of many troubles in school. When I was in elementary school, I was a kid of over average height; quite tall but not super tall. But I was skinny and could not participate much in sports. All "thanks" to bronchitis. But I had the brain. I was a fighter. I did the best in sports even knowing I could not beat the mediocre guys. And I excelled in studies. I created pencil-and-paper games that lots of my classmates participated in. I had ideas and storylines for comics, games, etc...

From 1997... Left out at school?

In High School, my fight continued. I was an oil derrick. Not sure what I mean? Well, I had many ideas for table-top, pencil-and paper games, and my table would be flocked by classmates in numbers during extra time in class, just to play. And during tutorial sessions, the same thing would happen. I was the source of answers for many assignment questions. So, saying that I was a popular guy would be right. But only half-right. I said before, I was an oil-derrick. When they were in need of fun or answers (resources) they would come to me. But when it was time to have some fun time like going to a party or a movie or a soccer match, I would NOT be in their list. Whenever that happened I thought: Oh maybe they have something against me, so they would not let me join them in their activities, but yea the next day in class, I was a popular guy once again in Math, English and Physics class. Strange eh... Not really.

My skills in Exams

In my studies, I frankly was not really good at most of the subjects, except maybe Math, English... but I got good grades. Only because I was good at the ultimate thing. I was an expert on exams. I could analyze exam papers and would know what to do to get good grades. Without cheating. I still had to study and do revision, but not to the extent to become an "expert" on the subject. Just to the extent to beat the exam paper. And I would get better grades than some experts. Haha. With my fighter mindset, I would always get what I want using my own effort, taking on opportunities without hesitation. When I fail at something, I analyze the failure instead of complaining. Then I get up and fight. I go at it again!

From 2002... After School

After High School, I went to a private college using my dad's savings. My other classmates went to fancy universities and then came back bragging. During the seasonal holidays, I would get some invitations from my old high school friends to go visiting and have some fun time. Yea, but after a year or two, all that stopped. Now it is like I am out of their list again. Well, it is OK though. As I said earlier, I do not complain. It is up to a person to choose his or her friends. This is a free world for all I know. Or perhaps I am just too busy or too hard to reach.

Back to my career...After getting a diploma, the college closed down and I had to go to another different college to get another diploma and proceed to degree, wasting my time. I tried looking for jobs but could not get ANY employment at all. My dad's savings kinda ran out. Bad luck bad luck. But not quite. I knew I had to do something instead. I took a study loan and a loan from an uncle, but then realized, if I wanted this, I would have to work to get what I wanted. Well it has always been this way for me. All my life. But what work?

From 2005... Flash Games

I took a big risky step, in the world of Flash. At that time, flash games kinda suck. But even the suck flash games were already regarded as very cool. I learned the ways to make flash games and then when I realized Sabermania, I took the Internet by storm. I had a website with dk3 until they closed down and then switched to Tamugaia.com and proceeded with many other games. Some games are small, aka crappy ones by some people, and some are big. But even my crappy games had meaning and are all complete. But I had to make those small games to make a living, and when I have enough savings, I could start on a big project which would take several months. Those Internet players hate small games and regard them as evil or something and hate them deep into their programming, but they do not understand the pain of flash programmers like me. If flash programmers had a million bucks in their banks, believe me, they would also dedicate their lives to making coool flash games, but guess what? They don't.

From 2006...

I started making my games. From Alien Galaxion X to Virtua Worm to Snowball, Sabermania, Aevarrian Coliseum, Final Slam... you name it. Yea, I made a decent living out of that. But the best part is that I did not have to be bound by the rules of any company. I work for myself. Being self-employed gives you a lot more freedom. But that does not mean I get enough time to relax, though...

To be continued