When I grow up, I want to be a game designer. Even if I can’t do it professionally, it’s something I’d like to do in my spare time. I’ve always loved playing video games, and as I got older I got interested in what makes them work, how they’re put together, and what makes them fun. It started out with the naïve idea that video game testing would be the best job in the whole world, but eventually moved to an interest in the development and design aspects. I particularly remember playing Pokémon Yellow Version for the first time and just losing myself in it for hours and hours at a time, and I want to create that kind of experience for other people.

Several years ago now, my dad signed me up for a week-long summer program for kids wherein we were divided into groups to create a coherent idea for a video game, and pitched our idea to some industry professionals at the end of the week. The collaborative process was enlightening and fascinating, and we came up with a pretty good idea in the end. I later learned that one of the most important skills for a game designer is writing, and fortunately I turned out to be pretty good at that. I’ve developed my writing skills in most of my classes over the years, and particularly in college courses. I even wrote a full game design document for a project one semester. Recently, I’ve been working on developing some programming skills so that I can work more intimately with game engines and create my own games more easily.