IL Labs – A Message to the Community

Steam post image Hey everyone,

I'm Big Shook, and before I was a game developer, I was just another gamer like you! Video games have always been more than entertainment to me. They've helped me through some of the toughest times in my life—stress, anxiety, depression, and all the chaos that comes with being human. Games were a place where I could escape, recharge, and sometimes just forget about everything else for a while.

At one point, I thought streaming was my future. I spent years creating content and building a community. I even got close to reaching Partner status after becoming an Affiliate. But somewhere along the way, I realized something important:

I didn't just want to play games.

I wanted to make them.

That realization started a journey that has been anything but easy. Over the last seven years, I've spent countless late nights in Unreal Engine watching tutorials, taking courses, supporting creators on Patreon, building systems, scrapping systems, starting projects, deleting projects, questioning my sanity, and then doing it all over again the next day.

If you've ever opened Unreal Engine, stared at a blank project, and thought, "Yeah, I can totally build the next big game," only to end up reorganizing folders for three hours... trust me, I've been there.

More times than I'd like to admit.

But every failure taught me something. Every abandoned project taught me something. Every mistake pushed me one step closer to creating something real.

That something is Operation Black Genesis.

This isn't a game designed by a marketing department, a boardroom, or a spreadsheet. It's the game I've always wanted to play. The game I've spent years dreaming about, learning for, sacrificing for, and building piece by piece.

I've poured my time, my energy, my savings, and honestly a little bit of my sanity into making it.

As an independent developer, there's no giant studio behind me. No army of developers. Just a passionate gamer who refused to give up on a dream.

Whether you've been following the project from the beginning or you've just discovered it today, thank you for being here. Your support means more than you probably realize.

I hope you enjoy exploring Operation Black Genesis as much as I've enjoyed creating it.

Now if you'll excuse me, I probably have another bug to fix.

— Big Shook