Already 2026, Looking Back on My Life

Time, please stop..

Even now, at almost 28 years old, I still love computer games. The fact that I can have diverse experiences with just a keyboard and mouse feels truly captivating.

My earliest memory of games was "MapleStory," an RPG game I played as an elementary school student. The thrilling experience of directly exploring another world still remains in my memory. As I gradually became addicted to games and spent more time on them, I suddenly thought, "If I make games myself, couldn't I make them more fun?" This sparked my interest in game development. I wanted to make multiplayer games, but servers? Sockets? What did all of this mean? For an elementary school student like me, the field of development was an incomprehensible realm.

So I turned my attention to flash game development, which seemed simpler. After many twists and turns, I ended up creating a simple flash game where you avoid objects using arrow keys. The result looked simple, but behind it was the passion of one elementary school student. There was a website called "Flash 365" where people uploaded their own flash creations. It has since closed down as Adobe Flash was discontinued in browsers due to web standards, but there was a time when I had some recognition in this field.

I deployed my flash game on Flash 365 and monitored the comments, curious about the reactions. Naturally, it was a game of quality and fun that couldn't attract attention, and the comment count stayed at 0 for a while. But then, about an hour later? A comment appeared. I still can't forget what it said.

The game was fun. I'll support your future activities.

It was thrilling. It was a short feedback, but I was happy that a stranger showed interest in and responded to my work. Later, I found out that person was a kind soul who left similar encouraging comments on other posts.

Anyway, from this point on, I also became interested in operating games. I didn't develop them directly, but I wanted to run a private server called "Free MapleStory" (though it was illegal..), so I followed guides to connect MySQL and modify simple YAML configurations, getting closer to actual development. The best experience among these was operating a Minecraft private server. I enthusiastically worked on tasks like setting up router port forwarding to allow many others to connect, and developing very simple Java programs. The most important point was that there were financial results. My private server generated about 2 million won in revenue over several months. Of course, considering the time invested and electricity costs, it was far below minimum wage, but for a middle school student, it was a huge amount of money, and it was enough to boost a young boy's spirits.

After spending my childhood like this, I entered computer engineering without much thought (excuse: I only played games in high school and didn't study well.. haha). I enjoyed learning software as an academic discipline at school. During my school years, the parts I had passed over without understanding while operating games began to make sense one by one. I made game clients directly with Unity, and for the first time, I created the multiplayer game I had dreamed of.

But after trying it myself, I realized that game development is a field that can't be created with just one developer's capabilities. It was like architecture. Just as building one structure requires experts in various fields—architectural design, exterior, interior design, plastering, plumbing, etc.— games require deep involvement from experts in various fields: planners, designers, composers, and more. As someone who prefers working alone, this became a turning point where I lost interest in game development, and it became a concern about my future.

My classmates enlisted in the military one by one, and as I just went with the flow, I started my final semester and joined a company recommended by my professor. The company I joined focused on B2B, with a business model of selling licenses for chatbot solutions developed by their research institute to financial companies.

I somehow ended up handling technical support, and my work mainly consisted of simple "web development" and "persuading customers on behalf of the research institute when they couldn't meet customer requirements." As I worked without complaints on the tasks I received, I also started helping with sales by writing proposals and creating system architecture diagrams for customer sites. I found this interesting too.

From this point on, I started studying on my own. I received AWS credits through my company email, set up Kubernetes directly on EC2, and built a simple web service focused on backend using the trendy node + react + mongo stack (though I didn't really understand what it was). Since it was a web service, accessibility was amazing. My service could be accessed from all platforms—PC, mobile, even refrigerators. I thought, "This is amazing, this must be my calling!" I wanted to do this at the company too. I asked my supervisor for a transfer, but it didn't work out. (I knew it was an unreasonable request given the company's business structure.)

2023. So I decided to change jobs. My goal was to become a "web full-stack developer." I wanted to find my unclear goals through diverse experiences. My deliberation time was short, and I mentioned my resignation first to commit myself. I had handled projects from well-known companies, so I arrogantly thought, "Well, wouldn't top companies be interested in someone like me?" To cut to the conclusion, top companies weren't interested in me, and even countless (?) companies didn't look favorably upon me.

I was anxious. After submitting my resume, it was a time of waiting with no guarantee. My arrogance, having never experienced job hunting before, was reckless. Fortunately, I got a job after three months with the technical stack and position I wanted. It wasn't a top company, but it was a company with good people to work with, good benefits, and a reasonable, well-intentioned company culture.

From my start date in November 2023 to now at the end of 2025, I've been running hard, passionately developing and operating one service. The technical dissatisfaction I felt at my previous job was resolved in the free atmosphere of my current team, and I'm only grateful to my supervisors who give me freedom. If it had been a different, rigid team atmosphere, could I have been this satisfied?

To brag a bit, this year in my corporate life was a meaningful year for me. Because.. I was selected as an outstanding employee this year! Being an outstanding employee is really a matter of 70% luck and 30% skill, no, 90% luck and 10% skill. There were many employees who worked harder than me, and there were definitely employees with amazing performance in the company. However, I think the biggest factor in my selection was that our team, which launched a new service, was in a favorable position timing-wise. (Of course, this doesn't mean our team didn't work hard.)

I received an expensive watch. I received performance bonuses and a salary that was satisfying. But more than material or financial rewards, I really like the honor that comes from being called an "outstanding employee." I guess I'm inherently someone who likes attention. The conclusion is.. I wrote this to brag. For my future to also be honorable and attention-grabbing, I need to work hard to fill that 10% of skill.