For many, COVID-19 was both a boon and a bane. Although social development took a hit, for many, it was also a time of exploration. In this particular case, Vardaan Singhania(‘25) discovered—or rather, created— a new world through game development.
Curiosity and Creation
Staying at home, Singhania explored various rabbit holes, from the creation of websites to video game mods. With the pandemic and his initial curiosity for the subject, he had ample time to explore game development.
“I started following some YouTube tutorials and made some small basic games in Unity. The rest is history. I fell in love with game development and I know it’s what I want to do as a career,” said Singhania.
Singhania, recently finishing a 2D game, is now hoping to create a new one, this time in 3D. He decided to switch game creation engines as well, with the goal of finishing another game in the summer.
“Now, I’m moving from the Unity game engine to Godot, because Godot is free and open-source, so I’ve been following some Godot tutorials and I’ve made some basic 2D game concepts. My goal is to make a small 3D platforming/parkour game in Godot over the summer,” said Singhania.
A Journey Through Gaming
For Singhania, game development combines multiple forms of creation— from coding to art to world-building. Designing games is his way of expressing himself.
“Game design and the experiences I create are just how I’ve been able to express myself. I’ve always had these crazy ideas for stories and I’ve never been able to get them across—until I discovered game development,” said Singhania.
Gaming has been a long-time method for Singhania to relax. With game development, he hopes that he could create an interesting experience that the players of his game would enjoy.
“Games for me have always been a way to get out of the stress of daily life and absorb myself into a different reality. I think it’s really cool that as a game developer, I’m able to create those escapes for other people,” said Singhania.
Guilds and Quests
Game development is a task that involves multiple factors. Rather than a master of one, they have to be a jack of all trades. Naturally, there would be some skills that Singhania will be better at, and others that he isn’t.
“A big part of making good games is having a good environment and player and UI design. Unfortunately, I’m a terrible artist,” said Singhania.
However, Singhania doesn’t let that stop him.
“It’s been a challenging but rewarding experience trying to work around that art handicap. I’ve made use of freely available assets and made games that use only simple shapes in their design. I’ve attempted 3D modeling in Blender. More recently, I’ve experimented a little with 2D art. I’ve had a lot of fun trying different things and learning the power of simple design,” said Singhania.
Apart from that, Singhania also found a sense of community among fellow creators. By joining Discord servers, he gained experience and support from people who shared his interests.
“We bounced ideas off of each other. We talked about different concepts, and I participated in small game-making competitions called Game Jams, like hackathons but specifically for game development,” said Singhania.
Singhania hopes that through his games, the stories he’s had in mind for so long would one day be a journey for others, like how other games were for him.
“A game is like another form of self-expression, where you can tune the story, gameplay, and environment to convey just the right emotion and tone and give other people a unique experience,” said Singhania.
