The BIG update

Hello fellow Gamebuinians,

I haven’t posted on this blog for a while. Partly because I posted on Facebook and Twitter instead (like and follow!). The truth is I was too busy to tell you what was going on here. Now I owe you all a BIG update about what has been happening. Let’s start from the beginning.

I started Gamebuino as a student in engineering, doing this project for fun, on my free time. I wanted to share my love for programming, electronics and video games. I wanted to allow anybody to learn programming with fun. My only goal with the crowd sourcing campaign was to create a small community around these ideas. I wasn’t even sure I could sell one hundred units. So when after a month on Indiegogo, more than a thousand units were sold and 30 000€ raised, let me tell you I was both very surprised and really excited. So I gathered my friends and family, and we managed to ship all the units in time. The development was progressing well, and the games list was getting longer. Cool project were popping here and there, Gamebuino clones started to appear. People kept asking to buy a Gamebuino, so I opened the online shop.

The online Gamebuino shop

By this time, I was still a student. I had my engineering degree going on, and I took extra courses to get a master at the same time. As I felt I wasn’t knowledgeable enough in entrepreneurship to handle Gamebuino growth, I registered to yet another degrees, having classes during evenings and week-ends. I was also working in an adaptive robotics company where I was making innovative 3D vision and gripping solutions, and some other awesome projects I’m not allowed to tell you about. This took me yet another day of the week, and my holydays.

Where it all started

Then, I spent all the time I had left on Gamebuino. Early in the morning, late in the evening, and on Sundays (often during classes too, but I shouldn’t tell you that as students may be reading…). It wasn’t enough to do everything I wished for the Gamebuino, so I had to address problems by priority. The main problem was quality issues and delays from the providers, it took LOTS of time, but that’s all sorted out now. Assembling, testing and shipping orders was pretty time consuming too, but most of it is outsourced now. Then I had to continue development and help people on the forums. Finally, I posted a few updates every now and then on social medias, but never took the time to do a proper post. That is going to change from now on.

Gamebuino ready to be packed and shipped

I eventually graduated last September and continued to work in the robotics company full time, thinking it would leave me enough time for Gamebuino. Well, I quickly realized it wasn’t. So I started to work part time at 80%. It’s wasn’t too long before I realized this still wasn’t enough. There were so many things I wanted to do for Gamebuino. That’s why I quit, two months ago. I moved in a dedicated Gamebuino office, and I’m now working full time on the project.

The new Gamebuino office

You’ll ask me, what’s the difference ? Well, for starters products are in stock, and orders are shipping weekly. But’s that’s really not the point. The interesting part is what’s going to happened next. I, or rather “we”, are working on a new project that’s going to be unveiled soon.

Until then, keep making, keep sharing, keep being awesome. And if you want to talk about the future of Gamebuino, let’s meet at the Rome Maker Faire on 13-14-15th October. That’s just the start of the Gamebuino European Tour !

If you can’t be in Rome, let us know what you think in the comments