I had hoped with all hope that I'd never have to do another fundraiser for myself, but here I am.

I'm Dave Potter and I'm 55 years old. I was a video game developer for around 19 years, including a few years of unemployment, as finding a new job in gamedev has always been hard unless you're an accomplished computer programmer and engineer, which I'm not.

I started out as an artist in 1995, then switched to game design a few years later when it became clear I just wasn't good enough at art to compete in gamedev, which features some of the best artists in the world. But I wasn't good enough at video game design, either, and after yet one more game studio closure and layoff in 2011, a colleague leaving his position helped me replace him, getting his former job as a gameplay programmer and Lua scripter in 2012. I moved from Southern California to the Bay Area and was able to start building up my savings again, despite the ever-increasing cost of living.

In 2014 I was told I was not good enough at that job, either, and fired. Everything has gone downhill from there.

Realizing I could no longer trust the big-time game industry for employment and with most of my life's savings still intact — I live simply and alone, and save regularly while working — I tried to become self-employed with the indie PC game Cheer and Track, launching in early access in 2019. But it failed utterly, still today never earning enough to generate even a single payout on either Steam or Itch.

And in 2021 came It Takes Two, winner of many "Game of the Year" awards and maybe the best two-player co-op game ever made (but I haven't yet tried the follow-up, Split Fiction, as full-price games are just out of the question for me right now). Like many, I love the past and present work of Josef Fares and his collaborators. I came to believe in games you could play with friends, and that genre is thriving even more today, but my attempts to contribute just didn't. After It Takes Two launched to so much rightly-deserved acclaim and success, and still without a single payout, I could no longer muster the effort to further develop Cheer and Track.

Things kept getting worse.

I started a YouTube channel which also failed, never attracting enough viewers to be monetized despite uploading over 2000 videos of mostly no-commentary gameplay from some of my favorite video games, including Fall Guys, Nine Sols, Outer Wilds, and Hollow Knight: Silksong.

I lost my mom in 2019 and my dad in 2023, both in their 80s.

In 2024 I could no longer afford to live in California, got behind on my rent, and was evicted. I lost almost all of my video and computer game collection dating back 30 years, and maybe three-quarters of everything I'd ever bought. I filled up my tiny car with what I could and drove across the United States to where I grew up, back to our family home in Tennessee.

Before leaving, I sold my most valuable video game and only one with such high value, a factory-sealed copy of Rule of Rose for the North American PlayStation 2. That and my first two GoFundMes covered my expenses for a couple of months, and I want to thank everyone again who helped me in that time, and apologize that I'm asking for help again. I no longer have the money to pay the auction fees and shipping to sell things online.

In December 2024 I started a new job as an agent in a financial call center. I received mostly good customer service surveys, but I couldn't meet the other metrics for the job, taking too long on each call. Finally, after being diagnosed with diabetes, I started new medication and one day forgot to eat before work. I lost my temper on my first call, getting a very angry caller and unable to stop myself from responding in kind, and I was fired. There is zero tolerance for my behavior, and I understand why.

I never expected to be fired in my life, now I've been fired twice. And because I lost my job through my own fault, I don't qualify for unemployment assistance in Tennessee. That job was the first bright spot in my life in quite some time, and I blew it.

In closing, some good news to report: I've found another job! But I don't start for another week, so my first paycheck is probably at least three weeks away, and I'm behind on many bills. I sold my PlayStation 5 and my Nintendo Switch to pay one, although I do still have my PlayStation 4 and some other older working consoles I managed to get home (most, including the PS4, now only worth around $20 each).

So I'm asking for help again. I have about $250 of essential expenses I hope to cover before I can expect my next paycheck, but anything will help. Please donate if you can.

Thanks for reading about me.