So how old should you be able to start learning to create your very own video game? Looks like by 16 you could find the basics to undertake developing your very own game. This is proven by the four students of Kolej Tun Datu Tuanku Haji Bujang who managed to be flown in all the way from Sarawak to showcase their game at Comic Fiesta 2016: Diabetes. While the game itself may not be doing anything different- it’s a 2D platformer designed for mobile with a pretty sweet (ahem) art design, but it’s the story of how they got here is what’s fascinating the most.
It all started as a just a course of learning the Unity game engine. Then one of teacher that hooked up these students to the course established a team to start working a game project. Eventually they ended up participating a state-level game design competition that they won and were then showcasing what they have made at Comic Fiesta. They were certainly proud with what they have accomplished. Not only they are aware of what they could still improve with their current build, all the coding and art were all made from scratch using the Unity game engine, which involves a bit of C# programming. The way they presented to us did not give away that they will only be going in Form 5 next year!
We have to thank the government agency MDEC for pushing towards gearing up a game industry here in Malaysia. Aside from Level Up KL that was recently held, they have been pushing more initiatives to get more Malaysians into game development, like the Level Up@Schools initiative that are currently introducing secondary schools to game development.
With the knowledge and exposure to undertake game development getting around more we can expect to have a booming industry right here in a few years time. It is certainly left us hope that more budding young Malaysians will be able to make video games. Not only it will help the country’s economy in the long run, it sure will be something us gamers would be proud of.