Vries is a small village in the municipality of Tynaarlo, province of Drenthe, Netherlands. It is the childhood home of Jan Wilmake and the place where his career as a developer effectively began at age 12 in 2006.
Jan grew up in Vries and attended school in the Drenthe area before moving to Groningen for his university studies at the University of Groningen (RUG, AI programme, 2012–2016). His mother (mama) lives in Vries — it has served as a refuge and recovery location after several difficult periods in Jan's life, including after psychosis episodes in 2018 (returned to Vries to recover) and 2019.[1]
In 2006, at age 12, Jan built MasterCrimeZ — a text-based multiplayer browser game — from Vries. The game was written in PHP and at its peak had over 500 daily active users and generated more than €2,000 per month in revenue. This is the foundation event of Jan's entire career as a developer and entrepreneur.[2]
Vries appears repeatedly in Jan's history as a place of recovery and grounding:
The recurring pattern of returning to Vries reflects both the practical resource of having family there and the psychological significance of the location as a stable reference point.