I've been playing video games since I was just a lad. I know, very original, but it's true. Despite this, I didn't truly know what I wanted to do with my life for a long time. I went into undergrad majoring in astronomy, for the simple reasons of I thought space was cool, Neil deGrasse Tyson was a popular astrophycisist, and I was kinda good at science.
As the years went on and I struggled to maintain a 3.0 GPA through the ball-bustingly difficult physics courses, I realized that I had no real aspirations or life goals. It wasn't until I spent a summer learning python as part of my major that not only did I not hate coding, I was actually pretty good at it. After that door opened up, I started having ideas for games I wanted to make. I participated in a few game jams, took a few game dev courses, and enjoyed myself way more than anything I'd ever done in astronomy. I could see two paths ahead of me. Spend the rest of my life on a mountain waiting for ideal observation conditions, writing stuffy research papers and teaching other astronomy majors. OR. Grab the steering wheel, take a hard turn, and start focusing on games. Since you're reading this, obviously I chose the latter.
I finished my degree since I was only a year out from graduating, and then spent the next two years at community college which thankfully had a game dev program. Wanting to learn more about game development as a whole, not just programming, I pickued up a tablet a took a few classes in animation and life drawing to supplement my programming work. Games have to have visuals after all, and if I'm going to make games I need to make them look nice. To this day I still find time to draw, and I've even picked up Blender and enjoy modelling and rigging characters from time to time. After that, I got my masters in game engineering from the University of Utah.
And that brings us to today! Thank you if you actually read all the way here, I really do appreciate it. If you're a fellow game dev looking to hire or just wanna chat, message me! My email is willwrock529@gmail.com and I'd love to hear from you.
It's a rather niche interest, but the Etrian Odyssey series is a minor contributor to my desire to pursue game dev. First-person dungeon crawlers fell out of style about 2 decades ago, but when I bought on a whime 4 while it was on sale, I was hooked. It takes full advantage of the dual screens provided by the 3DS, by asking you to draw the damn map yourself, but without having to pull out a pen and paper. Combat is difficult enough to where I have to constantly engage with the mechanics and think about my actions, but not so difficult that I can still just chill and crawl some dungeons. 5 is the pinnacle of the series, it experiments with new mechanics in both combat and exploration and does them very well.
A childhood favorite, though most people who played this game while young will likely tell you the same. Just playing this game makes me happy. Every boss has a unique theme, every chapter a new set piece, every new party member a fun and memorable character.
Another childhood favorite. Just sailing from place to place, filling out the ocean map is fun. The ocean itself is dotted with things to explore and do. This is easily the most expressive incarnation of Link. His eyes track nearby objects of interest, he jumps for joy when beating a boss, and gest dizzy after doing a big spin attack. This pick is purely out of sentimental value, if I had to pick an objectively favorite Zelda, I'd have to go with Majora's Mask.
These games activated long dormant neurons in my brain. The music, the graphics, the gameplay everything is just *Chef's Kiss.* The sequel improves on everything it could have from its predecessor.
A classic return to the 3D platformer. I nearly tore my hair out beating Death Wish but it was worth it.