What have you been up to since the CodeNow workshop?
I am a senior at Cogswell Polytechnical College where I’m majoring in Game Design Engineering. I‘m also the Vice President of Cogswell Engineering Society, my school’s software engineering club. CES strives to help other students in their coding endeavors by providing resources, workshops, and hosting other events.
Game Design Engineering is a really cool major. Have you always been a gamer?
Honestly, I wasn’t much of a gamer. As a matter of fact, a lot of people in the games industry don’t necessarily play games because there are a lot of different tasks within it. It’s not really a heavy requirement to be a gamer but it’s always helpful to be passionate about what you’re working on.
CodeNow helped spark an interest in computer programming.
What led you to choosing Game Design Engineering as a major?
I focused more on art than computer science at first, having taken 2 AP Art classes in high school. Until my senior year of high school, I thought I would be attending an art school for illustration. Codenow helped spark an interest in computer programming. What led me to choose Game Design Engineering was that it is a bridge between art and engineering.
What is the coolest thing that you have done with your major so far?
I went to GDC (Game Developers Conference), and it was really fun! I actually wish I was able to go to more talks because I learned about technical art, which is something that I’m really interested in pursuing. Now, I’m really looking forward to graduation so that I can take some time to explore the two fields. With technical art, you get to write tools that can help the artists avoid having to do the same tasks over and over again. With graphics programing, it’s about optimization so that all the cool stuff that they put in the games can actually run on all the machines.
It’s never too early to start studying programming languages and concepts!
What do you think has been your strongest attribute going into your studies?
My strongest attribute is the ability to Google properly. There isn’t always going to be someone to hold your hand through the process of learning — it’s important to figure out how to teach yourself. I’m also pretty good at finding answers to even the most complicated questions — you have to break it down into smaller components, and then see how the example codes posted online can help your project. However, it’s also a great way to mess things up, as you can’t always trust what people say.
Another strong attribute is that I stay on top of my math skills. I tutor calculus an physics at my school so I’ve been pretty strong in those topics. For some reason Calculus III isn’t required for my major but I figured I’d need it since Calc III is very vector math-based, and that’s something that you’d need for game programming because you’d need to do things with vector and 3D math. So I’ll probably end up taking it after I graduate.
Do you have any resources and tips for students who might be interested in pursuing Game Design and Development?
Twitter is actually a great place to follow people in the games industry. Some of the big developers within the industry post really interesting links as well as little snippets of what they’ve been working on. What’s really cool was that I follow some indie developers, and while I was at GDC I got a chance to actually see their work. That also leads me to my next point, which is to start looking at the different options within the industry. I wish I had found out what I wanted to do earlier so that I could have spent more time focusing on that. Start taking your core classes early!
Any final tips or advice?
Another helpful resource I would like to share is the askagamedev tumblr , where an actual game developer answers questions from curious minds. It’s a great insight to the happenings of the industry, which can be mysterious to an outsider. He also has several posts detailing different types of jobs in the industry, and what you’d want to study to pursue those job roles.
Learn more about what Bella has been working on! Check out Bella’s portfolio.
Liked our post?
CodeNow would not exist without individual contributions from people like you. Whether it’s $10, $100, or $1,000, every dollar helps a student get introduced to the world of technology.
