Ethan Uy’s pathway is playing out like an action-packed RPG: fast-paced and full of side quests
Ethan pressed play on his career in game design while he was still in high school. As a fan of PSP and PC games, he became particularly fascinated with their look and feel, deep-diving into advanced animation techniques and playing around with code – from his bedroom.
“One of my favourite games was Team Fortress 2, and there was a program that was free to use called Source: Film Maker,” he says. “From there I learnt how to code with my first language being Lua – and making some of my first games in Roblox Studio.”
Ethan leveled up his passion at school, where he took classes in python and basic website design. And when he started looking into post-high school pathways and learnt that game design could be more than just a hobby? Game over!
“Finding out that it was a possibility – and that we had a great course offered here in New Zealand – changed everything,” he says. “I’ve never looked back!”
Level up
Enrolling in a Bachelor of Software Engineering at Media Design School set Ethan up for his dream career. On top of the awesome assignments and industry-led lectures he managed to launch an indie gaming start-up with a bunch of like-minded classmates, releasing the successful sim Bronzebeard’s Tavern.
With a CV full of real-world experience before he’d even graduated, Ethan scored a junior game developer gig at BIGA straight out of final year, and now spends 9ish to 5ish hopping from project to project, programming features and creating games from scratch.
And yep – button mashing all day is legit part of the role. “I’m always fiddling with a controller,” he admits. “Sometimes we have to play the same scenario over and over to squish a weird bug.”
Continue or quit
For anyone keen to get into a creative tech career like game design, Ethan recommends slugging it out on your own first – and getting together a portfolio before you’ve finished Year 12.
“There’s no better way to show off your personality and experience with basic games that you have designed/programmed yourself,” he stresses.”There are so many amazing online tutorials out there.”
But the most obvious way to get skilled up, whether you’re an undergrad or seasoned python whizz? “Keep playing games,” Ethan stresses. “Expose yourself to everything!”
Ethan’s study and career pathway to becoming a junior game developer
- Bachelor of Software Engineering (Computer Software Engineering), Media Design School
- The Mermaid Mnz, Project Manager, Back End & System Programmer
- Game Developer, BIGA
This content is sponsored by Media Design School and originally appeared in our Careers with STEM: Technology 2024 issue.
