Using a gaming console for the first time at only three years old, senior Jorge Jordan sparked an interest in gaming before most, continuing in his curiosity by studying video game development in middle school, as well as watching YouTube videos on video game design. Wanting to evolve from watching other people develop video games and take the process into his own hands, Jordan began working to create his own game, using his years of learning to lay the groundwork.
“I’ve been working on my game steadily for the past four months, but my interest definitely started way beyond that,” Jordan said. “I don’t know why I took so long to really get my hands dirty with the stuff, but I’m glad I have.”
Entering the world of video game development, Jordan was faced with the challenging task of learning each uniquely difficult step with no experience, turning to YouTube tutorials and online forums to learn the foundations.
“When I was trying to figure out what I need to do for the first time, it was a mess of 10 different web tabs of the Godot documentation, online forums, and YouTube tutorials that maybe have what I’m looking for, all for a relatively simple action that’s so hard for me simply because I didn’t know how to do it,” Jordan said.
Jordan’s game, titled Galaga-Clone, is an arcade shooter-style video game in which the player controls a plane, shooting at enemy rocket ships to earn points. Using the game engine Godot, which allows users to create both 2D and 3D games with various programming languages such as C++, C# and GDScript, Jordan used free resources such as Godot game editor and library to guide him in the process. Despite this, Jordan often had to rely on his own programming knowledge when facing a roadblock.
“My game is in the Godot game editor, which is free and open source, and while there are plenty of tutorials out there, I felt like they were too specific to the projects made in those videos to teach a person to make games in general,” Jordan said. “I had to start without really knowing what I was doing, so the learning curve has easily been the biggest challenge. Learning how to navigate the Godot Editor, what its functions do, and what code I need to use to do a specific action.”
Another obstacle Jordan faced during the process was the overwhelming amount of steps needed to create a functioning game. While most video games have a team of developers, Jordan has to face each problem on his own, with each action needing to be perfectly programmed and de-bugged.
“A person or organization making a video game has to consider the game engine they’re using, programming their video game, testing, bug fixing, and even marketing the game,” Jordan said “Just gameplay can involve how smoothly the player character moves around the world and the individual mechanics in certain portions of the game.”
Despite these intimidating aspects, Jordan has not wavered in his enjoyment of video game development, believing the finished product is worth the hours of coding and programming.
“My favorite part of the process has to be seeing my own ideas come into fruition. I’m the one in control of the end product, and so it’s my ideas that feed into it. Having a playable game that I made in the flesh is one of the most gratifying things out there for me, and it’s that feeling of putting my ideas into a real thing that really gets me excited whenever I sit down to work on it,” Jordan said.
Putting his game into the world, Jordan has begun beta-testing, in which people play his game and share feedback, such as unnoticed bugs or glitches. While still incomplete, taking these steps is essential in preparing for Jordan’s goal of Galaga-Clone being released on game stores such as Steam and Epic Games, as well as helping in his aim for a technology-related career.
“I haven’t selected my career path or college major just yet, but I know for a fact I’ll be doing something involving computer programming or technology as a whole,” Jordan said.
