Introduction

  Many people can look at themselves and think that they truly know their skills and what they learned from them. Looking into the skills and the artifacts that they made can help a person fully understand what and who they are. I have done the same in order to fully understand myself and give myself a strong reflection. In this essay I will go over my Leadership skills that originated from leading the engineering club known as the Monarchs Makers Organization, 3D Modeling skills from my Visual design fundamentals class, and Programming skills that got stronger during my game development classes and programming classes with artifacts in order to understand that while making these artifacts and honing these skills I was learning from each of them, and all of these skills are important for being a video game developer.

Leadership

The Monarchs Makers Organization is a club where I was the founding vice president of the club. In this position I was responsible for helping make the declaration for what the club was about. This was exciting for me because it focused on me being able to help others within the organization. Creating the declaration for the club seemed to prove difficult for everyone leading the club. Some of the club activities can include using equipment that can harm you such as saws or 3D printers. What we did was we listed out everything we wanted to allow people to do and the rules and guidelines in order for no one to get hurt. This showed me that when trying to lead either a club or organization it’s ok to get assistance from another. This is a vital skill as a game developer since these types of problems and needed communication arise within game development and it is shown when McGill states “Interpersonal & Personal Abilities – Problem-solving skills,communication skills, interpersonal skills”(McGill , 2008, p. 92), are required skills of a video game developer.

One event the Monarchs Makers Organization had was the Prosthetic hand event. This event detailed on creating a prosthetic hand for a child who lost fingers when they were born. This project was fueled with a lot of passion from the members of the club including myself. We were able to put the club into multiple groups which allowed for more ideas to flourish. I was able to lead the group by ensuring that everyone involved, including myself, was able to make progress on the design and creation. I helped out the group where I could, and if anyone needed help in an area that I had more expertise in, such as a 3D printer jamming or breaking, I would assist. This allowed the club to produce prototypes for the child and for them to use. From this I was able to learn more about how to notice if someone needed help with something without them asking. The workplace environment I am creating is important since According to Sverke “Favorable work conditions may promote dedication at work and mitigate the negative impact of job demands” (Sverke, 2009, p.241). The mitigation of negative job demands at work will allow other video game developers, including myself, to have a higher moral with one another. This is important skill to have because employees must “Collaborate with software engineers, designers, and subject matter experts to translate mission requirements into technical solutions.”(Obsidian Solutions Group LLC, 2026, para. 1), and having all employees getting along with each other will increase productivity. 

After this experience I was then elevated to become President of the club for the Monarchs Makers Organization, and I started the project for making toys for the nearby children’s hospital. This project is one that I am proud of because of the organizational efforts I put into it. The project needed many toys, thus it was decided that people would be organized into groups that could make 3D printed toys for the children since many of the toys were trending at the time, and others could also make wood milled toys. This allowed for the club to make many toys during this time period with every toy being organized into respective groups so then transportation would be much easier for both collection and giving them to the hospital for christmas. This organizational skill is incredibly important to have and the strength of this skill is reinforced since Bethke states “Game developers need to master their production methods so that they can produce their games in an organized, repeatable manner- a rigorous manner that creates great games on budget and on time”(Bethke, 2003, p.4).

3D Modeling

While studying at ODU one class I took was Visual design fundamentals (Game 214). This class taught me many skills when it comes to 3D Modeling, especially since this was my first time learning the skill. The first task I was given was to model a simple bedroom. This task gave me more trouble than I initially thought since I thought it was simple to make a bedroom. The amount of time I worked on the project was more than I originally expected. What I did was I dedicated multiple hours a day and I planned out how I was going to model the bedroom. This allowed me to properly complete my work. This project helped me understand how long it takes to 3D model something, and how important it is to schedule times for work when working on something as complex as 3D modeling. As stated previously in the leadership skill set, having the ability to organize is key, but this skill is transferable between different skillsets such as between leadership and 3D modeling. This is why organizational skill is so important for a video game developer. 

A plate of food was required for me to make for the Visual design fundamentals class. I had to make a plate of food, but I was constrained by how many polygons it could be, because of the polygon limit for the object. I had to make them lower poly since many of the same object was needed, thus what I did was to make the object stylized so then it could look good while also being usable. This taught me to prioritize more stylized objects in the future so then I can make objects that can run better for videogames while still looking good. The ability to 3D model to the point of understanding stylization is something that many video game development companies look for in game developers. This strong understanding can be seen in the “Must haves” table that a person should understand Maya which is a 3D modeling software (thatgamecompany, 2026, table 2).

The last and most important object I had to make for the class was a level where I had to design a tavern combined with a courtyard. This did not seem too scary for a project, until I had to start placing all of my objects within the level. I had to not only ensure that a player could move around in the game, but also that the lighting would illuminate the objects  that were considered important. I had to move around objects multiple times and had to learn how to do proper lighting techniques for the model to look good visually. The model did look good in the end, however I need to work on my design skills for rooms, and buildings in order for me to more efficiently create 3D models. I was able to make the entire room be explorable in Unity and all of the objects had collision with no bugs. Understanding Unity like this is an important skill to have in the modern era of video game development since “…the Unity and Unreal Engine 4 provide more sophisticated and customizable editors, which require programming experience in C# and C++ respectively to build 3D games”(Young , 2021, p.143). Even if my skills need improvement for room design, the skill of understanding Unity on my tool belt is still a strong one to have, and I was able to make this easily due to my previous experience in Unity with Wizard Fishing.

Programming

One of the first games I made while studying in ODU was Wizard Fishing. This assignment was from my Game Balancing (Game 333) course. In this assignment I had to create a game within Unity and balance it by myself. I was initially overwhelmed with how much I had to learn all at once since I had to learn the programming software of Unity and the Language of C#. I had to take pieces of what I needed to understand and tried learning in bite sized pieces. This allowed me to complete the game within the time constraints that I had, whilst making a fully balanced game and functional game. Wizard Fishing taught me that if a project requires a programming language or software that I do not understand, I can comprehend it by looking at it in bite sized pieces. As stated in the Leadership skillset, having this ability to problem solve and learn is essential to being a successful game developer is essential, but so is having “…Previous experience in the gaming industry as a game developer, engineer, game titles shipped, game design,game programming and game play experience”(McGill , 2008, p. 92) and Wizard fishing shows these skills from its very existence since I made it and had playtesters on it. Companies are also looking for people that have skills with C# programming (thatgamecompany, 2026, table 2) and knowledge in Unity since it is stated that a “Unity 3D Developer Intern to support the design and development of immersive simulation environments.” (Obsidian Solutions Group LLC, 2026, para. 1), and a Unity 3D Developer Intern entails the understanding of the Unity software.

In Video Game Storytelling (Game 395) I was tasked with programming a narratively focused based video game. This was nothing that I had programmed anything like before since it used renpy as an engine and python as its code. I did not think that I should have used this type of engine and code because they were notorious for being poorly made and people who use these types of engines are not highly skilled in programming, but using them made me think differently. The engine and code still required skill in order to use and make the game I wanted, and others in the class were struggling with getting it to work. This project taught me that even if others may say using a certain software to complete a project will degrade you, it may not be true since they could not be thinking of others and only themselves. Knowing multiple game engines, even if some of them are seen as easy, is an essential skill to have as a game developer since “Game engines provide graphical user interfaces (GUI), such as editors, that streamline the process of putting assets into a digital game”(Young , 2021, p.143).

I had to program a doctor / patient portal for an assignment in my Programming with Java course (CS251).  For this assignment I had to ensure that the doctor / patient portal worked well with users since it was intended for many people to be using it. One problem I encountered was trying to find the right balance between design and functionality. I remembered from my time within the MMO that I should try and make it more accessible and easier to understand so that many people can use it. The program I then made became one with simple user interaction but with the best user understanding, and this type of thinking can be seen by Koscianski in A design model for Educational Multimedia Software when it is stated that “The field of HCI (Human Computer Interaction) has established criteria that helps guide software design and avoids most evident flaws.” (Koscianski, 2024,para 22).  This skill is also sought after by game companies since it is stated that “…technical systems and tools highly tuned for the level of rich feedback and player immersion that helped define our games.”(thatgamecompany, 2026, para. 1). This means that using this skill allows me to create games that feel smooth when being played.

Conclusion

These skills and artifacts are different in their own way, but they all each help elevate me and my education since I learned from each of them. The artifacts from my leadership skillset shows that I learned how to receive help from others when stuck, notice when others in a group are in trouble and help them, and understand when organization is needed for group projects. 3D modeling and the artifacts I made from using this skill helped me understand how long it takes to 3D model something and how important it is to schedule when working on something complex, prioritize more stylized objects for better computing efficiency, and that I need to work on my design skills for rooms. Programming can be a complex task but the artifacts I made with it showed me that if a project is hard to understand it is best to understand it in bits, use tools that will be best for the project you are working on, and make software that is easy for users to understand. It is important to understand multiple different skills that I have learned since they can bleed into each other since some are interdisciplinary skills. Interdisciplinary skills are ones that can be used across multiple different disciplines, One of these skills that was prevalent through out this essay was C# programming and understanding Unity. This knowledge of Unity allowed me to not only make the game Wizard Fishing, but it also allowed me to turn a 3D model of a room into an explorable scene with all of the objects having collision with no bugs. Another skill that was shown to be interdisciplinary was my organizational skills, these were useful for both my leadership and 3D modeling skills since they both needed me to think ahead and plan things out before I started. It is heavily needed to be an interdisciplinary thinker as a game developer because of how many different skillsets from different disciplines you will be using on a daily basis.

References

Bethke, E. (n.d.). Game Development and production. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books

Koscianski, A. (2014). A design model for Educational Multimedia Software. Scientific Research An Academic Publisher. https://scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation?PaperID=52668

McGill, M. (2008, November). Critical skills for game developers: An analysis of skills sought by industry. In Proceedings of the 2008 conference on future play: Research, play, share (pp. 89-96).

Obsidian Solutions Group LLC. (n.d.). Unity 3D Developer Intern. Monster. https://www.monster.com/job-openings/unity-3d-developer-intern-fredericksburg-va–260cdd9d-4b68-4ba6-8bb1-0bd0128b95fe

Sverke, M. (2009). The importance of the psychosocial work environment for employee well-being and work motivation. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 35(4), 241–243. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40967784

thatgamecompany. (n.d.). Technical game designer. Hitmarker. https://hitmarker.net/jobs/thatgamecompany-technical-game-designer-1931404

Young, C. J. (2021). Unity Production: Capturing the Everyday Game Maker Market. In O. Sotamaa & J. Švelch (Eds.), Game Production Studies (pp. 141–158). Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1hp5hqw.10