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This is me and my beard circa December, 2010.  It's two months longer now and the moustache is untrimmed.

Hello all.

My name is Ryan Smith.  I am a 26 year old male from California.  Contrary to popular belief, this state is not perpetual sunshine and bikini-clad supermodels.  Where I live, the ocean is a three hour drive away, it snows about an inch once every five years, and the summers get to be 110 degrees F on average.

I used to casually post on these forums off and on since the 90s.  I first discovered AGS when it was DOS only, and known as Adventure Creator.  I have never made anything noteworthy, and the closest thing I ever came to finishing anything was an adventure game styled art portfolio for art school back in 2002.  The default Roger Wilco character walked the halls of a museum with some of my artwork posted on the walls.  You could examine the work close up, and a holographic tour guide answered questions from the lobby.  It was neat.  I got an A.

I've wanted to make adventure games since I was a wee lad playing Space Quest 1-3, and the first King's Quest titles.  My fondest memories are sitting next to my mom,watching her frustrate herself trying to get past the man-eating plant in Space Quest 3.  I still haven't made that dream a reality, and I've been in quite the creative rut since dropping out of game design school in 2003.  I've been trying to pick up the sketch book more often, but my skills have regressed considerably.  I hope to reverse that trend.

I am happily married, and have a wonderful 2 1/2 year old son.  I like to teach him how to do things his mom doesn't appreciate, like how to have a proper lightsaber duel, and how to pretend the remote control is a laser gun.

I sell cellular phones for a living.  My teenage goal of being a game designer by my early 20s went mostly out the window.  I've given up on designing games professionally for a big company, but I still have aspirations to get into the indie scene.  I admit, I am extremely rusty, and don't yet have much to show for my efforts.  It's not too late though.

I enjoy cycling, and rain or shine, or sweltering temperatures, I use my touring bike to commute to work, 10 miles, round trip.  This allows me to consume vast amounts of bacon and beef without weighing 300 pounds.  I still have a gut to show for my efforts, and occasionally I feel self conscious about it to want it gone.  These efforts never last long. 

I have a gigantic beard.  No, really, I do.  I used to keep a neat, trim goatee, but last September I just stopped shaving all together.  It is fast approaching epic status.  I have no plans to stop growing this beast, and when it's long enough I'm going to braid and tie it off Viking style.  I get mostly positive commentary about my beard, but my family hates it.  Especially my wife.  She still loves me though.  My son likes it.

I have not set any hard goals for the near future, but I plan to make a solid effort to get back into the drawing habit, and get cracking on AGS.  I fired it up for the first time in years today, and it looks totally alien to me.  Looks like the "easy" way of doing things has been scrapped in favor of an all-script approach.  This is fine by me.  I've learned scripting systems before, I can learn this one.  It's not too difficult, really.

Part of my lack of artistic interest lately I think has to do with a lack of feedback.  I can't show my wife.  She just says everything I do is nice.  I miss the constructive criticism of high school and college, and I don't get that much anymore.  It gave me incentive to improve, and I am my own harshest judge, so that doesn't help much.  I hope to enlist the power of The Internet to replace that void, artistically.

I look forward to conversing with you all.