When one first hears the titles “programmer” and “video game designer”, one might think of a Silicon Valley employee dressed head to toe in millennial office attire or perhaps a stereotypical nerd pounding away at a keyboard in their basement. They might think of fancy software, lines of code, and computer monitors crammed onto the tops of desks; however, they might not picture a typical high school student. But the reality is that an increasing number of high school students are taking an interest in computer science and programming, and SPA students Anja Seifert and Maryeva Gonzalez are testaments to that.
“The first class I took was Advanced Programming, which was last year,” said Seifert, “And then from there, Dr. Lockwood told me, …‘You should do a summer program in programming’, so I …[took] an intro to programming class…at Carleton.”
Gonzalez has a similar story in that her first endeavor into programming was through a class she took during her sophomore year; however, her desire to get into programming started much earlier.
“I was playing a Pokemon game and…the developers [had] put in a little house where they put in… [character versions of] all of the different people who had helped make the game,” she said, “I stumbled across this house and I was like ‘oh man, that’s so cool,’ these guys’ jobs is just to make this game that I love playing. So when I was younger, I always thought that [programming] was like, really cool.”
Both Seifert and Gonzalez are now involved in designing their own video games, and each of them has their own unique ideas on what they want their video games to be like. Whereas Seifert’s game is a 2D multi-level platformer game that’s designed for two players, Gonzalez’s game is a single-player boss-battle game with a very distinct art style. Because the setup of the games is so different, Seifert and Gonzalez’s processes have come with their own unique sets of challenges and triumphs.

“I’m [creating my game] in [the platform] Unity and I’ve never used Unity before,” said Seifert, “it’s harder to learn, but it’s easier in the sense that once you figure out like, what you want to do and how to do it, it’s a lot simpler because…Unity is designed to make games.” Seifert also added that creating the game to be two-player will add another level of complexity, but for right now she’s more focused on creating the world that the game takes place in. “[I’ve enjoyed] designing the levels because it’s fun timing out like, how’s this jump going to work? How is this going to play out in-game? What am I going to do [for this part]?”
Gonzalez expressed similar excitement around getting to design the more aesthetic pieces of her video game. “I’m really interested in like, the graphic design stuff,” she said, “[the] character and boss design will be really fun to do.”
While designing an entire video game might seem like a big task, both Seifert and Gonzalez emphasized that getting involved in programming and game design is a lot easier than it sounds, and you can always start with smaller projects.
“If it’s something that interests you, definitely take some of the programming classes at SPA,” said Gonzalez, “I had like, no prior programming experience [coming in]to high school…[and] all of the teachers in the programming department have been super helpful and super welcoming.”
Seifert added that there’s no specific age that you have to start programming in order to be good at it. “I always thought…[that] programming was something that you had to start really young,…[but] you can just start [whenever] and it’s way easier to get into than it seems,” she said.
So next time you get an idea for a game that you can’t stop thinking about, like battling a robot boss that shoots cupcakes out of its eyes or a multiplier game where you have to escape detention in the dean’s office, take advantage of SPA’s programming resources and dive into the world of game design.