Ben is a IT Games Design student at Deakin University. He tells us a bit about the kinds of things he does as part of his degree and where he'd like to end up when he graduates.
Where do you study? What's the name of the course?
I am studying at the Geelong campus of Deakin University. The course I am doing is the Bachelor of Information Technology Games Design and Development.
How did you find out about the course you're doing?
I had already started a course in Computer Science and Software Development and heard about the new games major at the end of my first year at Deakin University.
Was the course easy to get into? What did you have to do to qualify?
Because a number of the classes were common to both courses and there was a lot of room for electives I was able to pick up the games major with out any problems. To get into my original course how ever I needed to get a high enough ENTER score.
What made you decide that you wanted to study how to make games?
I have always enjoyed playing computer games and had also enjoyed toying around with computer programming and in my last years of high school I had started some more serious attempts at making games, since then I have always been working on a game of some type and so when the opportunity to study games a university came up I just had to take it.
What sort of things do you study as part of learning to make games?
In the course I am doing we have practically covered every aspect of game development. My favourite part would have to be games programming, we also did 3D modelling and sound asset creation. We looked at game mechanics. We also covered the business aspects of games development such as managing a team, building a portfolio and selling our game ideas.
What's the hardest part about designing a game?
The hardest part of game design would have to be finding inspiration and ideas to make your game special and fun.
What's the most fun part about designing a game?
The most fun part of game design for me is being able to play around with what you have created.
How big a part of your life are games?
Games are a big part of my life. Of all the things I do in my spare time playing games is defiantly number one. I also spend a fair bit of my spare time developing games.
What's your favourite game? Why?
My favourite game would have to be Grand Theft Auto. I enjoy being able to walk/drive/fly freely around a game world and just explore and at the same time have an interesting story to follow.
What kind of job do you want to end up with?
My dream job would be programming a game engine for a major developer, but getting into any form of games programming would be great.
