"There’s nothing as good as being able to share your deepest love with somebody and have them look into the same little obscure glass with 35 years of games industry experience and say ‘I get it.’ It’s worth its weight in something far more valuable than gold."
- Brenda Romero.
Brenda and John Romero have each forged notable careers for themselves in the game industry, and in a new feature published by Develop the couple sheds some light on how they balance their shared passion for game development with the practical realities of raising a family together.
"Our whole life is games. We don’t even act differently around the kids. This is all we do: make games and talk about games," John Romero told Develop. "We own our company together, we get up and walk to work together. We work all day and then come home to see the kids.”
What's especially interesting about this feature is the picture it paints of what it might be like to grow up in a home where the "family business" is game development. That's presumably still a rarity, since video games are a relatively young medium, and it's intriguing to note how growing up in such an environment is influencing the Romero children.
"He's probably the best example of what a kid looks like when they're totally raised in a game dev environment," said Brenda Romero of one of their younger kids, Donovan. "We don’t talk to him like everything’s cute, either. If he thinks one of his ideas is interesting, we ask him why and what would make it good as gameplay. He even talks like a game developer, referencing core loops and so on."
For further insight into what it's like to grow up with game developers for parents, check out the full feature over on Develop.