 Once upon a time, a young teenager named Omar set out to make his very own Wonder Boy game. He was obsessed with the game series. While Wonder Boy titles weren't nearly as popular as other, larger games of the time, these 80s classics won Omar over with their unique blend of platforming and role-playing, as well as their cute eye-catching character designs. To Omar's dismay, his attempts to make his own Wonder Boy game ultimately fizzled out, as he moved on to different projects. One day, though, over a decade later, he'd return to his plans in order to resurrect the long-dormant Wonder Boy series. Eventually, Omar would achieve his childhood dream and earn a place within the legacy of Wonder Boy. Omar, called new, was, his friends agreed, the biggest master system nerd on the planet. It was hard to argue with his title. Omar was proud of his expansive master system collection. He owned over a hundred different titles, including games from all over the world, many of which had needed to be imported especially to his home country of France. Nintendo hadn't been all that interested in the European market when Omar was younger. The company focuses nerds' efforts in Japan and the United States, meaning that many gamers in plenty of countries, including France, Britain and Brazil, were introduced to video games thanks to the master system and its library of colourful titles. Soon, Omar's obsession with the master system grew stronger. Instead of merely owning these rare pieces of gaming history, he wanted the chance to share them with others, who might not have easy access to the technology needed to run classic games. Omar began working on an emulator for master system games, and using his expansive collection of games, he began uploading as many ROMs as possible onto the internet. This wasn't particularly legal, but that didn't stop Omar from his efforts to share games with his friends online. He christened his emulator, Mecca, borrowing the name from a character from the Wonder Boy series, a small reference that fellow master system enthusiasts would appreciate. While he built his master system emulator by night, by day, Omar was working to build himself a career as a games programmer, creating brand new titles that he hoped would grab people's attention. His passion and his profession intersected in the form of one game for the master system, named Wonder Boy 3, The Dragon's Trap. This game had been released many years previously, as part of the iconic Wonder Boy series, and provided players with a blend of role-playing elements and fast, energetic platforming. Omar was obsessed with Wonder Boy, and wanted to learn everything he could about the game's various secrets, hidden doors, and easter eggs. He even went so far as to reach out to Ryuji Nishizawa, the original creator of Wonder Boy, and the director of The Dragon's Trap. The celebrated game designer was very gracious, and provided Omar with design documents and code for the title, in order to help him look for the secrets he was hoping to find. As he poured over these treasured files, Omar started reverse engineering the code for Wonder Boy, trying to figure out how the game's original developers had built their architecture, and how everything fitted together. As he kept working, Omar began finding this experience more and more enjoyable. And before long, he realized that he'd done so much to rebuild Wonder Boy's code, that, with the right push, he could create a full remaster of the game. Excitement filled Omar as he began thinking about his fan project. He reached out to a good friend, Ben Fiquet, to ask if he wanted to get involved producing art assets for the fan game. Ben and Omar had worked previously together on a professional game project, and had a shared interest in the classic Master System titles. Ben had mentioned before that he was thinking about starting his own Alex Kidd fan project, so Omar was confident that he'd be happy to help with the Dragon's Trap remake. Ben didn't come to the project from the perspective of a standard game artist. He was an animator at heart, and was inspired by the cartoon movie tie-ins of the Master System era. Games like Aladdin and Jungle Book, which emulated the exaggerated animation of popular movies, were fresh in his mind as he approached Wonder Boy. Ben really wanted to give the remastered game a feeling of motion and life that was perhaps lacking from the original. A product of its time, the Master System version of the Dragon's Trap featured very simple character animations and a low frame rate, so Ben wanted to bring a little more movement of levity and humour to the game through the use of an energetic cartoon art style. The gameplay wasn't altered much, at least not on a technical level. But Ben felt that by pushing the art to tell a more dynamic story, it dramatically changed the way that players interacted with Wonder Boy, and it made a somewhat dated game feel fresh and modern. All it took was the right graphical update, and this little-known classic began to shine. Throughout their work on the game, Omar and Ben kept sending messages back and forth with Wonder Boy creator, Ryuichi Nishizawa. The veteran game designer was very happy to talk with the pair, but he wasn't entirely convinced that anything would actually come of their work. At least, not at first. Finally, with a playable demo of Wonder Boy completed, Omar shared a better look at their work with Ryuichi, along with a pair of eminent designers who'd been instrumental in the series up to that point. The trio grilled Omar and Ben over every detail of their project over Skype, before ultimately giving them their blessing to release the game commercially. Omar and Ben were thrilled. Their hobby project had the potential to become a genuine Wonder Boy title. There was no way of knowing how fans would react. The Wonder Boy series had a cult fanbase, but these few gamers were hardly a strong vocal force within the gaming community as a whole. To many who saw the announcement trailer for Wonder Boy, The Dragon's Trap, this was an entirely new experience without any nostalgic value whatsoever. It didn't seem to matter though. Ben's work to create a compelling, eye-catching art style for the game paid off as new fans of the series fell in love with his beautiful designs. Meanwhile, old-school Wonder Boy players recognized the hard work that Omar had put in behind the scenes, recreating classic levels in a way that felt organic and modern. As the game launched, an even larger audience fell in love with the game. Every meticulous detail that Ben and Omar had included, such as the ability to instantly switch between old and new graphics and sounds, were celebrated by fans who prized the game as a shining example of what remastered games can be when done correctly. Wonder Boy fans rejoiced. They'd received a beautiful, faithful tribute to one of the series' most beloved games, and Omar and Ben had become gaming heroes in their own rights. The moral of this story is that if something's worth doing, it's worth doing right. Omar had spent decades wishing for a chance to make his own Wonder Boy game. He'd tried again and again to bring the project to fruition, and it took several attempts to really succeed. What drove him, though, was his own passion for the project. He was willing to sacrifice and to work his hardest to make it happen, even if it took decades. Just like Omar, you might not succeed at your goals on the first attempt. Sometimes it takes a lot of effort to make your dreams come true, and it can be disheartening to have to put your projects on hold to deal with other, more pressing matters in your life. If you keep working at it, though, and if you're passionate enough, you won't be bothered too much by the effort it takes to get where you're going. Take joy in the process of learning, and before you know it, you'll have developed the skills you need to achieve your lifelong dreams.