Brendan Greene's life was in tatters.
He was trapped, divorced, penniless, and alone, in a foreign country, with no hope of escape.
Bit by bit, he was saving up what little money he could in the hopes of one day making it
back to his native Ireland, but this goal still seemed like a long way away.
In the meantime, the only thing that helped keep him busy on his long, lonely nights was
video gaming, but even this was getting boring.
He'd played Call of Duty over and over and over, and was incredibly tired of experiencing
the same repetitive online match formula time and time again.
Spawn.
Run.
Shoot.
Die.
Respawn.
There was no variety, no sense of exhilaration, no need for independent thought.
If only there was a video game that forced the player to be more inventive, where the
match's scenario would change endlessly so that no two games played the same.
The kind of game where your life mattered, and you couldn't just instantly throw it
away and try again, so that you had to plan strategically without running and gunning
your way through encounters with opponents.
As he sat there, bored out of his mind, desperate for some kind of escape, Brendan made a decision.
If his idea of the perfect game didn't exist yet, then he'd made it.
And so, just like that, Brendan invented PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.
Brendan Greene was an army brat.
Born in Ballyshannon in Ireland, Brendan grew up at a military base called The Curragh Camp.
His father would travel the world on assignments for the army, and would often come back with
unique presents from his time away.
One time, after a trip to Lebanon, Brendan's father brought the family back an Amiga 2600,
and Brendan played happily.
That said, as much as he enjoyed gaming, it wasn't ever a major part of his life.
As the years went on, played only a few rare games, every so often.
He briefly tried the stealthy Metal Gear Solid, but this really wasn't his kind of thing.
He preferred games that involved running and gunning, so put in his fair share of hours
in Delta Force: Black Hawk Down and America's Army, but ultimately lost interest in gaming
altogether.
For a while in university, he even dabbled with cyberpunk roleplaying games, but this
was always secondary to some of his other, more beloved hobbies.
Brendan earned a degree in fine art, with the hopes of becoming a professional artist,
but he soon learned that the Irish art market was fairly unforgiving for a newcomer.
Instead, Brendan noticed the success that his girlfriend of the time was having in the
field of graphic design, so he gave that a try.
Freelancing as a photographer and designer seemed to work pretty well for Brendan, so
he kept working in an ad-hoc manner for whatever clients he could find.
He also had a deep love of music, which led him to set up a music studio with a friend,
where he'd be in charge of band artwork and videos.
Brendan floated between creative projects, taking himself into whatever field seemed
to offer promise.
It wasn't the most secure way to earn a living, but he didn't really have any other
idea what to do – he was just one person, all by himself.
Eventually, Brendan fell in love with a woman from Brazil, and followed her back to her
home country in the hopes of getting married and starting a family.
While all was well for a while, eventually their relationship broke down, and Brendan
found himself divorced and alone, living hand-to-mouth without much to aspire towards.
This time was perhaps the lowest in Brendan's life.
He was a nobody; an insignificant speck of a man who scraped by without truly living,
and without anyone nearby caring about him.
He began saving money for a plane ticket to take him back to Ireland, but this was a long
way off.
As a foreigner without traditional employment, he was stuck watching the majority of his
earnings disappearing into rent and bills, as he wiled away his evenings without much
to live for.
And so, bereft of any other things to keep him busy, Brendan started playing video games.
He embraced the latest Call of Duty and its quickfire shooting matches, although it never
really felt like something that filled the hole he was looking for.
Eventually, a game called Arma 2 came along, and this was better, but Brendan was having
ideas about building a game of his own.
He was inspired by the Japanese movie Battle Royale, as well as the more recent Hunger
Games novels, both of which featured a plot where combatants fight to the death as blood
sport for the amusement of viewers.
Brendan couldn't help but think of how much fun this kind of experience could be in a
video game.
If matches went on for over fifteen minutes, and if players only got a single life, they'd
be forced to play cautiously, strategizing to avoid a death that would feel increasingly
heartbreaking.
The longer a player survived in a match, the more tense and exciting the game would become,
and the more they'd feel desperate to keep going longer without getting killed.
In his daydreams, Brendan imagined his game playing out as an eSport, with a huge arena
filled with spectators watching fifty or so players battling it out on rows of computers
in the center of the room.
When each player was defeated, they'd have to stand up from their table and slowly make
their way out of the room.
It would bring the Hunger Games Battle Royale experience to life in the only way that could
possibly be considered humane.
As he dreamed of the possibilities, Brendan started to consider actually building his
game.
After all, what was to stop him?
Mods existed across the internet that changed the rules of different games, so he could,
in theory, build his deathmatch game as a mod for Arma 2.
If nothing else, working on this mod gave him something to actually strive for; something
he could achieve on his long, lonely nights.
And so, Brendan set to work, teaching himself modding from scratch.
The process was slow, but he had all the time in the world to work on it.
Before long, his Arma 2 mod, named PlayerUnknown's Battle Royale.
Brendan had chosen to slap his online username, PlayerUnkown, on the front, as a way to distinguish
the mod as his own creation, and in the hopes that it would feel like something of a unique
brand name that would stand out from the original Battle Royale movie.
PlayerUnkown's Battle Royale earned a respectable following within the Arma 2 modding community,
and Brendan had a lot of fun playing with online friends in his homemade creation.
Everything at that point was paid for out of Brendan's own pocket, as he and a friend
set up a server for fellow gamers to enjoy the game.
Brendan would stay up late into the night, keeping the server running so that everyone
was able to play, and the game would go offline when he went to bed and had to shut down the
computer.
This set-up was less than ideal – not least because Brendan's internet connection wasn't
very stable, and everyone's game progress would disappear periodically.
Eventually, the small community surrounding Battle Royale breathed a sigh of relief, as
Brendan finally made his way back to Ireland on a one-way trip.
Returning to his home country, Brendan was met with concern from his parents.
They loved their son, and following all the challenges he'd suffered through recently,
they were really worried about him.
Not long after planting his feet on home soil, Brendan signed up for government welfare to
keep himself afloat, and dove back into running Battle Royale a more solid experience.
His game's community was growing, and he was passionate about helping to sustain its
progress.
His parents weren't sure that this was a good use of his time – especially after
Brendan explained that there was no money in game mods, and that his burgeoning player
base weren't actually giving him any financial return for his investment of time and money.
They were helpless to stop him, but they couldn't help but worry that if he carried on like
this for much longer, Brendan would be out on the street, homeless and completely penniless.
They needn't have worried.
Soon, a big name game developer was going to take notice of Brendan's progress in
a big way, and his life was about to change dramatically, as Battle Royale got the full
Triple-A gaming treatment.
Unbeknownst to Brendan, his little mod was grabbing big attention from some of the Higher
Ups within the gaming industry.
The Battle Royale idea felt so fresh and innovative, that a lot of developers were eager to try
and copy its premise, which led to employees for Daybreak Game Company, the creators of
H1Z1, discussing the mod as part of some development videos that the studio released online.
When Brendan saw this, he was thrilled – these industry professionals were taking inspiration
from his game!
He sent them a jokey tweet, suggesting that they should throw some money his way to help
make their Battle Royale idea into something real for their game.
To Brendan's immense surprise, that's exactly what they did.
John Smedley, then the president of Daybreak, sent Brendan a private message on Twitter,
asking to talk further.
In no time at all, Brendan was boarding a plane again, this time on a journey to San
Diego, to start work on creating a Battle Royale mode for H1Z1.
Brendan was incredibly grateful to the team at Daybreak for going to the trouble of including
him in their design plans.
In all fairness, there had been nothing to stop them simply stealing his idea for their
own, and he really appreciated that the studio's heads were principled enough to give credit
where it was due.
Finally, Brendan was a legitimate games developer, working for real money on the game that he'd
been building and supporting for years.
This was only the beginning.
After the H1Z1 work was completed, Brendan was contacted by Bluehole, a Korean games
developer that wanted to take his idea, and turn it into a fully fleshed out game in its
own right.
Brendan accepted, and was soon on his way to Seoul, to make what would eventually be
name PlayerUnknown's Battleground.
Brendan decided on the name change as a way of differentiating this from his previous,
which had all born the Battle Royale moniker.
Besides, he wanted this game to be distinct enough to avoid litigation, considering how
heavily it borrowed from the Battle Royale movie.
While the team of developers at Bluehole were eager to build Brendan's dream game, friction
arose very quickly as Brendan started sharing his ideas.
Brendan wasn't a traditional developer – as he was entirely self-taught, and not much
of a gamer to begin with, his ideas often felt a little offputting and challenging.
The developers attempted to explain to Brendan that what he was looking for simply wasn't
how game development was done, but nevertheless, they listened to him.
After all, the fact that Brendan came from such a unique background was part of the reason
why his game work thus far had felt so fresh and original, so as strange as it might be
to include some of his more unusual ideas, the team at Bluehole couldn't help but agree
that just because something broke the mold of game development, it didn't mean that
it was inherently a bad idea.
And so, finally, PlayerUnkown Battlegrounds was released, in an unfinished and very limited
form, to Steam Greenlight.
Despite all of the progress that Brendan had seen over the past few years, he was in no
way prepared for the incredible success that the game experienced in a matter of weeks.
Even seasoned industry professionals were shocked.
They'd been insisting to Brendan that a really good first year would see a player
base of a couple of hundred thousand players, but as PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds was downloaded
by millions upon millions of gamers, it was clear that the momentum for this project wasn't
going to slow down any time soon.
It didn't take long for PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds to become the most popular game on Steam,
with the most players all enjoying the game simultaneously.
The appeal was phenomenal, as Brendan quickly found himself transforming from a single,
insignificant speck in a sea of people, to one of the most in-demand stars of the gaming
industry.
For his part, Brendan enjoyed the new travel opportunities best.
He could tour the world, visiting distant cities as part of his work.
While there was plenty to do to complete PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds, he was eager to take the opportunity
to see far-off places, and make friends in new locales.
He'd done it.
Somehow, against all odds, Brendan had risen from a position of complete obscurity – a
literal unknown player – all the way to the top of the gaming industry.
It had taken some ingenuity, some careful planning and willingness to move around – and
an awful lot of luck – but somehow, he'd proven himself a winner.
The moral of the story is that great success can come from anywhere.
Anyone can achieve their dreams, no matter their origins, or personal circumstances.
Brendan Greene wasn't an experienced, well-trained games developer.
He wasn't particularly wealthy or noteworthy, and at one point, he felt like the smallest,
least important person in the world.
He was wrong.
Brendan had a valuable contribution to make, and there were people who cared about what
he wanted to say, even if they lived hundreds or thousands of miles away.
You are the same.
You are important, and you are special.
You may not always feel like you matter, and you may never see the same phenomenal fame
that Brendan Greene has found thrust upon himself, but that doesn't make you any less
worthwhile.
Don't give up on yourself, and don't downplay your own capacity for greatness.
As you work hard, and try your best to find your voice, people around you will take notice,
and they will appreciate hearing your unique view on the world.
You matter, and you can succeed in your goals.
Your eventual chicken dinner will taste all the more delicious when you finally feel happy
with yourself.
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