Creating a Video Game

In 2013, back when I was still in elementary school, I took a course which taught me how to make a video game. It took a year to complete but I learned a lot about programming and game design. The course was really challenging, but it was also really fun. I loved being able to see my progress each week as I slowly but surely built up my game. By the end of the course, I had created a fully-functional game that I was really proud of. It was an amazing feeling to know that I had made something from scratch that people could actually enjoy playing.

While creating a video game was certainly a rewarding experience and I learned a lot about programming, I also learned a lot about how computers work at a software level. Things like dependencies and functions became familiar to me. Though I think the biggest benefit of it all was getting over the intimidation of code. Typically, people who are less experienced with computers will be very hands-off when dealing with code or command lines as they are afraid of breaking something. The course taught me that sometimes the best way to learn is to just dig right in and not be afraid of something breaking. If something breaks, now you have an opportunity to learn how to fix it. That kind of mentality is something I've always carried with me when learning new things in IT.