Video Games Help Guide Students Towards a Career
By: Riley Cottingham
Staff Writer
Many students at Green River College need to take a break from studying, and some choose gaming as the way to relax.
Whether students are playing billiards or are at a table playing cards, often playing casual games or participating in heated competitions, students love using the Student Union’s gaming lounge in the River room for recreational activities.
Although students usually come to the gaming lounge for recreational activities, there are some students that play games for different reasons and stand out for their hard work ethic.
Jerry Chow, an international student at Green River College, said he plans to be a game designer and work for a game company, so he came to America where there are more opportunities for game designers. Chow has learned many things about game design from his favorite games such as Hollow Knight, Celeste, and Smash Ultimate.
“You get to see what developers put in the game and you get to see how the game’s mechanic work and what to avoid putting in the game,” said Chow. Chow is interested in game design because he wants to find enjoyment in the things he does.
Chow values games that are easy to learn but hard to master and have different aspects such as visual aesthetic, nice movement, challenging gameplay, competition, and plenty more. Game designers usually see more in a game than most players do.
Still though, to become a game designer would require having hands on experience programming and designing games. A recent graduate of Lake Washington Institute of Technology in Kirkland named Noah Lucas is also looking for a job in video game design.
Lucas was into video games from a young age, as he played games such as Katamari and its sequel, as well as the entire Smash Bros franchise. He learned a great deal from hands on experiences from his classes about video games.
“The process of learning from mistakes is important,” said Lucas. “When designing the video game environment, you’ll learn from repeating mistakes and fix glitches in the game environment. When the game glitches, it’s not your fault.”
Much of a game developer’s time is spent on the environment of the game. If the game does not have a functioning environment, the game will glitch out. Writing the story for games also makes up for a huge chunk of the workload of game design.
“If you make an action-based game, you got to make the story entertaining. A [good] story has an interesting opening and keeps you engaged. Skyrim or Fallout 3 are examples.”
For students interested in playing games with other students, the game lounge is open to all from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every weekday. There is also an Esports club on campus that meets in the River room Fridays at 2-3 p.m..
Photo Cred: Scott Farnsworth
