When playing video games, players often strive to beat them as quickly as possible or focus on game mechanics to be the most technically skilled. However, there needs to be a player or two who look around and enjoy the details of the game; those are potential future game developers.
Seattle University Esports and Gaming, in partnership with Seattle University Association for Computing Machinery, held an event April 16 for Nathan Moller, a video game developer, to speak. Moller has worked on popular triple-A titles such as Star Wars, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Halo and Destiny. The Esports Club invited him to talk about the struggles and rewards of being a game developer.
Abigail Kim, a third-year marketing major, is the president of the Esports Club. Kim noticed a large number of students interested in computer science or game development in the club and wanted to find a way to cater to their interests. Seeing that the club had the proper resources and connections to get in touch with Moller, Kim made the event.
“I think a lot of people just kind of think of the ‘programming’ and the ‘software’ you need to do to run things and whatnot. I think with Nathan Moller, it was a lot about telling that story, telling the narrative, because he worked on so many amazing games…My favorite is Scribblenauts, if you know that silly game,” Kim said.
Aidan Lyum, a third-year computer science major, was particularly excited about the Q&A portion of the event, as he is interested in entering the video game development field.
“I had a lot of specific questions. I asked him, like ‘what are the most common mistakes in video games that he sees,’ and I asked him whether or not he thinks every game has a story narrative,” Lyum said.
Lyum enjoys video games and is drawn to the idea of working for an indie video game company. Asking all the questions he had for Moller further excited him about the prospect of entering the gaming industry.
Similar to Lyum, Kamilla Makhmutova, a second-year computer science major, is also interested in the gaming world and game development. Though the gaming industry holds some anxieties for Makhmutova, Moller’s insight left her feeling more excited about the notion of entering the field.
“I’ve been interested in game development and I like video games. So I was looking forward to learning more insight from someone that is in the gaming industry, and knows a lot about it, and has experience so that I could know more about how the game industry looks like to work on a game,” Makhmutova said.
Students continued to ask questions into the night. The topic of generative AI and its use in game development was discussed extensively at the end of the event. Makhmutova asked about the issues that the use of AI could bring to game development and if there would be any protection against it, as it’s a rising concern in that gaming world.
Currently, AI is often used in video games to modify and perfect imagery and to create digital opponents by feeding AI information about the gameplay. As AI progresses and artificial intelligence is implemented in various facets of media, conversations like the one between Moller and students will become increasingly complex.
The Esports Club strives to help students who attend, especially those interested in gaming, learn more about the gaming world and provide them with the proper resources. The game developer talk was marked as a success in the Esports Club’s book, as it helped encourage and motivate all the aspiring game developers to enter the world of game development.
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