Digital Gaming Personal Statement Example

The video game industry has always interested me and I have vivid memories of playing games on my parents Sega Mega Drive when I was very young. As both my parents are gamers I experienced a wide variety of genres on different consoles throughout my childhood and my fondest memories involve games. Gaming and subsequently game development is something I am very passionate about.
The BTEC course, Creative Media Production (Game Development), has further developed my curiosity in and enthusiasm for this field. It allowed me to study different areas of the design process including both the artistic elements and the more technical. In the first year of the course I was taught how to utilise Autodesk Maya, an industry standard package for 3D development, and successfully design and implement a character for my computer game idea.

Design and Technology A Level, gives me knowledge of the production industry and how the company and the consumer think. It allows me to improve my skills by designing the best products for a particular market; I learn how to use the software ProDesktop to create 3D designs of my ideas. I am self-motivated, learn new skills quickly and determined to undertake any task set before me to the best of my ability. To enhance my knowledge I have been using online courses such as Code Academy to help me understand basic programming languages such as Python and JavaScript. I find them really interesting and often spend a lot of time contemplating how a certain site or game was programmed; in the hope that I will be able to understand better I am trying to learn these languages.

I experiment with different software and recently I have been looking at Unreal Engine 4, Unity, Blender, and RPG Maker. These software packages allow me to fulfil my creative aspirations, I really enjoy Maya for modelling and love making different characters and objects. It allows me to be creative and design different characters or creatures for any game idea I may think up, or attempt to improve my skill by modelling objects around me. Unreal Engine and Unity have allowed me to try and create different environments, scenes and attempt to use some programming to make different scenarios work such as constructing a ball and programming it to roll in different directions as it responds’ to commands.

I attended work experience at the Image Centre in South West College. This work shadowing allowed me to see what a career in the video game industry is like within an educational setting. Working in this environment for 3 days also allowed me to see the basics of what working for a gaming company would be like, as the Image centre had been hired for work on a game and I was involved in discussions in relation to their response. It helped me develop my IT skills as it involved producing videos of how to create certain objects on the software Maya. These videos will be used to help children during special open days, introducing them to the software.

The work shadowing allowed me to see all of the different areas available for the gaming community; I might be directly working in a company on specific projects, working with an independent group who design their own ‘indie’ games and also aiding other groups with their projects. I learned how to develop a game design document and to adapt an agile approach to problem solving, becoming better at adapting to client change and working as a member of a small team.

Nearly everything I have done during my time in school has helped me decide who I want to be when I am older, such as my academic subjects, the exhibitions I attended and the talks I have participated in. They have helped me to determine my dream of going into work every day and enjoying what I am doing because I know that I am creating a product that many people will enjoy.