Joe Booth
Vidya Gamer
Seattle, WA USA
"Your career is like a marriage—you want to chose something or someone that you’re going to be happy to be with for many years."
Career Roadmap
Joe's work combines: Education, Entrepreneurship, and Problem Solving
See more careers and stories that connect to your interests.
Take Roadmap Quiz
Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
Teach yourself to code and learn as much as you can about computers. Work on projects that are important to you.
Here's the path I took:
Some High School
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life took a while to figure out
1.
While other kids wanted to be rock stars or professional athletes, Joe always wanted to make computer games.
2.
When he was 10 or 11, he was identified as dyslexic; he was talented in physics and math, but he struggled to read and write.
3.
Around that time, home computers came out and PC games were becoming popular; he was transfixed.
4.
His family was very supportive of his passion; they knew school wasn’t a great environment for him, so they’d let him stay home to work on his games and learn how to code.
5.
At 15 years old, he dropped out of school and joined a company to help them develop a game; he was completely self-taught.
6.
He published his first game when he was 16; it sold 10,000 units.
7.
Since then, he’s worked on iconic games such as FIFA 07, FIFA 08, Rollercoaster Tycoon, and Need for Speed: Nitro.
8.
Later, in his twenties, he began to regret the fact that he’d never really learned to read books, so he took the time to re-teach himself at the local library.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Society in general:
You must be stupid because you can't read.
How I responded:
Due to my dyslexia, I had never learned to read properly and that had always frustrated me. I began to regret the fact that I’d never really learned to read books and wanted to be able to enjoy that for fun, so I took the time to re-teach myself at the local library. You just have to keep going!
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
I am dyslexic and school was a big challenge. I dropped out of school at 15; statistically, this is doesn't work out for most people. At the same time, traditional education only works out for a small percent too.