- [Announcer] Channel F, the home entertainment system
that never gets old.
Plug in a new video card and change the fun.
- Games should be some kind of goal and objective,
but to learn something.
Do something that makes you think about the next generation.
- When I think of Jerry Lawson, I think of an innovator,
a trailblazer, someone who forged a path forward,
and made the game industry what it is today.
- [Davionne] Jerry Lawson is the father of modern gaming,
going from the distributing games on a cartridge to now,
we put it online and anybody can access it,
it all started with him.
- An inner city kid from Brooklyn
moved out to the Silicon Valley,
creating the cartridge based system,
helping usher in a world where
studios can create video games.
Growing up now, that was just dad.
I remember testing the cartridges,
it would get a lot of the carpet inside of it.
My sister and I laugh because feel like I might have been
the first person to ever blow inside a cartridge,
which is actually not the right thing to do.
Hi, my name is Anderson Lawson, I'm a software developer,
and the son of electronic engineer Gerald Lawson.
My father's entire life was all about science,
and as a kid, loved challenges.
In his early school years, he created a radio station
out of his room in Jamaica, Queens.
Later on, went to college and then packed up with my mother
and drove cross country to the Bay Area.
Landing a job with Fairchild Electronics
and started making games.
He was creating a coin operated video game
using the Fairchild microprocessors,
which later with a team of people led to the creation
of the gaming cartridge and Channel F system.
- Being a gamer my entire life, it's really a big honor
to be a part of this interactive Google Doodle.
Hi, my name is Lauren Brown, I'm an illustrator
and game designer based in Atlanta, Georgia,
and I'm one of the guest artists
who worked on the Jerry Lawson Doodle.
The concept starts with the Player as a little Jerry Lawson.
This takes us through anecdotes about Jerry's life,
parts of his journey that he went about
to create the cartridge.
Once you complete the level, you then get to
create your own game with an editor
that allows you to reimagine the level design,
and innovate like Jerry Lawson did.
- With the Doodle, the thing that resonates for me
is the fact that it's interactive,
that you could actually build your own game.
It's been great looking at all the different ideas,
working with the team and artists, which provide some input.
- So for this Doodle, I work together
with a few other guest artists,
and we had to create our own games in our own aesthetic.
I'm Davionne Gooden, I'm a game developer
based in Cleveland, Ohio, and I was one of the guest artists
for the Jerry Lawson Doodle.
I really just wanted to make this simple
but fun escape room type of challenge.
I did a whole bunch of mock-ups, art, story, and characters,
figuring out like what do I want this to look like?
What I want it to feel like?
I love retro pixel art aesthetic, magenta, neon colors,
and then mechanics, and the actual editor itself.
So the point in my game is escape the internet,
to get home, get out,
and keep your life and your sanity in one piece.
- At the start, I knew that I wanted my game
to have some kind of narrative
about support and cooperation.
I started in my sketchbook and then I translated it
as a watercolor and eventually went over to digital.
So you are a natural girl guiding a butterfly
around the level to collect coins for you.
You can't progress without the butterfly,
and the butterfly can't progress without you.
And you'll have to defeat a few enemies
while you get through, but the ultimate story
is about cooperation with the butterfly
to achieve a common goal.
- When people see and try this Doodle,
I really want them to walk away feeling
that they can actually like just make their own game.
Express yourself.
Look into Jerry Lawson, and who he actually was,
his contributions to the gaming industry and beyond.
- When people see this Doodle,
I hope that they feel inspired to be innovative
and maybe have a learning moment about history
and educate others about it.
- When people play this Doodle I hope they're inspired
to be imaginative, and I hope that some little kid somewhere
that looks like me and wants to get into game development,
hearing about my father's story,
makes them feel like they can.
(video game music) (coins plinking)