Take the Nova Star 1.0 Challenge (*Free!!*) Space Action Shooter Game on itch.io
By: Apple Dragon
Tags: Free Game, Game Development

I have worked on the tech industry for over 30 years, from the Bay Area (Silicon Valley) to the Beltway (Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area), and back home in Hawai`i, and I can tell you that there is no greater investment in an employee for the employer, than in their continuous learning. Employees feel valued and are able to contribute increasingly, are fulfilled (lowers attrition and burnout), and renewed and inspired to give back, indefinitely. There is conflict between business goals and investing in employees to keep ahead in a fast changing and rapidly improving technological climate today. Hawai`i has always been months and years behind on this front. There are some advantages to that, but the cost is that we are stuck in a cycle of out of state outsourcing. We get our children educated, but do not provide an economy for them to survive and thrive in (moving away and staying away provides them a better chance for a good career and life). Sadly, many actually want to stay and return, but we have not been able to provide hope for a decent future for them.

This calls for a different paradigm to thrive and survive, especially in these islands, where we are chasing after the curve (hiring out of state as consumers instead of being a technology authority and source). Something’s got to give, and based on my observation over several decades, I have been a firm believer and advocate of viewing investment toward technological advancement and invaluable step toward achieving that. I believe what ACI/EDAH has provided in this internship breaks the gridlock, and if continued, will move us closer to becoming a technology source by giving our own people a boost, keep more developers here on island, and be more inviting to those wanting to return to our islands for hopes of equal or greater opportunities we have not been able to provide adequately and consistently.

In my career with large corporations who were at times able to provide paid learning opportunities (time and income) over a few or several weeks, my greatest contributions were immediate and ongoing, and my success today continues to reap the benefits of those investments. For the companies that did not invest and increasingly demanded more, it ended in severe burnout - great personal career, financial, relationship, and health costs.

Most businesses cannot financially provide the training necessary to meet or beat the tech requirements of continuous improvement to be competitive. That is why this ACI/EDAH effort is vital to our ability to release the gridlock. This model, with the right content providers, in my experienced opinion, brings out the true potential in our people, and gives them a boost to show what they really can do when given a chance and an area they are passionate about. This has been incredible to witness what our people are capable of in such a short amount of time.

This pandemic, for all its devastation, has actually shown us ways to improve our economy, and if played out and refined for a few more months and as needed beyond that, could prove to be worth replicating to scale in other communities around the nation. I see a definite long term return on this type of investment.

ACI/EDAH has provided over 65 interns what many have expressed to be a real gift —an opportunity to rise to meet their moment — to surprise themselves, their leaders, and each other with unimaginable achievement in starting to build highly challenging skills in such a short amount of time.

We hope additional funding will become available to help complete the cycle for the current interns and to replicate this process to additional teams and projects at GDHQ in 2021 and for all other ACI/EDAH wide efforts!

Mahalo Nui Loa!!