If people ask me to describe my experience at Digipen Institute of Technology, the one thing I can tell them is that it is both a difficult and rewarding school at the same time. The standards of excellence are high at Digipen, and good time management skills are essential in order to succeed. Because I have always been interested in game programming, I knew for many years that I wanted to go to Digipen. It’s really amazing to be finishing up and to have learned so much. I am really very proud of all that I’ve accomplished. I think it would be accurate to say that I’m a highly creative individual with a thirst for technology. Since I was very young, I’ve always had my heart set on developing games that my friends would enjoy. On my tenth birthday I remember receiving a programmable desktop robot. It was after learning that I could program a computer in much the same way, that I dug my dad’s college gwbasic book out of the garage and began reading it. My father, although amused, was certain that I would eventually become bored reading it. However, I was up for the challenge, and it was not long before I was reading programming forums and creating my own text-based adventures. In High School I discovered the programming language DarkBasic. DarkBasic is an interpreted language based upon the concept that games can be prototyped more quickly if many of the difficult DirectX functions are encapsulated into simple basic function calls. It took me only a few weeks to learn DarkBasic and to begin creating my own 3d games. The summer after my freshman year, I attended a game programming workshop at Digipen Institute of Technology. I knew then that after high school there was only one career path for me---game programming. Further research confirmed that Digipen Institute of Technology would be the best school to help me pursue this career. I applied only to DigiPen, was accepted, and left Connecticut to move to the west coast. During my time at DigiPen, I’ve definitely had good times and bad. The demanding coursework causes most students to come close to burnout at times. I found that Digipen forced me to learn the most important skill that any college graduate can learn: effective time management. In addition, I have become an excellent game programmer. It has been a difficult ride, but I’m so glad I enrolled here and I can’t wait to begin the next phase of my life with a career in the games industry.

Personal Game Sites: [ Hauser The Hound.com ] [ IceWars ] Friends Sites: [ RussWardinsky.com ] [ CodyLuitjens.com ] [ AndyVella.com ]

Copyright © 2007, Jack W. Kern, All Rights Reserved.