Coding, Video Games, and Velociraptors: “Life Finds…A Way”
A few years ago, my tech veteran aunt suggested, for the first time, that I enroll in a coding camp. She brought up coding camps pretty much every time I saw her. Clearly, she thought that I could be doing more with my life than working at a restaurant and playing video games. I saw her again at the start of quarantine, and she again brought up coding camps. But something was different this time that made me listen to her words a bit more carefully.
I had recently been admitted to the video game design program at Depaul University. What most people saw simply as a waste of time and the reason that I am always a shade of pasty white, was my true dream. I have always loved video games and have always wanted to make them my life. I was excited to start my education at Depaul. But then the entire world was hit by a collective curveball. At 27 years old, the prospect of taking on thousands of dollars in debt and spending two years of my life doing a virtual game design program was not appealing. But how else could I finally get into game design?
I was looking for this answer six months ago as I stood in the kitchen listening to my aunt disparage my sleep cycle and tell me, once again, that I should enroll in a coding camp. It finally occurred to me, however, that coding could be the opportunity I had been looking for. After all, programming is the origin of video games. The video games that I love and play every day are just lines and lines of code operating simultaneously, changing and reacting to external inputs. All of the early game directors got their start with computer programming — Richard Garriott, John Carmack, Mark Turmell. I, too, could find a career in game design through coding! I enrolled at Flat Iron.
As I learn more and more about programming, I am frequently reminded of a thought that I had long ago. If I were to be stranded on an alien planet, the language that I would most want to know is the language of computers. If I can communicate with computers, I can get myself out of any situation and be my own Deus ex Machina — a la Lex from Jurassic Park’s “It’s a UNIX system… I know this!” Bring on the velociraptors.
