A love for video games is nothing unusual for today’s youth, but 11-year-old Caden Austin of Bruce sees something different when he turns on his computer.
“I love playing them to try and see how they work,” Austin said. “I like trying to figure out how they did that.”
Austin looks at the games not as much as a player, but a programmer. He’s attended iD Tech summer camps the past two years at Vanderbilt University in Nashville where he gets a crash course on game design.
“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “I really learn a lot when I’m there.”
“iD” stands for internal drive, which is the fascinating aspect for Austin. During the camps, he stays in the dorms on campus like a college student and attends classes where students age 7-17 learn how to build iPhone/Android apps, video games, programs in C++/Java, movies, programming, film, robotics and more.
“It’s challenging,” said Austin, a seventh grader at Bruce High School.
He explained the teachers show them all the basics to programming and then allow the students to be as creative as they like.
Austin continues to work on a game he calls “War Games.” He utilizes idTech software to design all aspects of the game.
“We’ve done a lot of different things but I really like the RTS?(Real Time Strategy) genre,” Austin said. “These games require a lot more thinking, more strategy. That’s what I like to work on.”
Austin is one of the top students in his grade, especially in math, which goes hand-in-hand with his passion for computer programming.
“I really love algebra, and you have to be good in algebra to do computer work,” he said.
He also plays in the band, but doesn’t consider himslef a musician.
“I love the band because of the social aspects,” Caden said. “I have a lot of friends in the band. We have a good time together.”
After school each day he’s quick to grab his “Alienware” computer and see what he can do. The best games to play and design, according to Austin, are multi-player games.
“I like that interaction with people in my games,” Austin said. “I think it makes it more interesting.”
Once complete, Austin said he will share his newly designed game with friends, but will hold off on trying to distribute it beyond that.
“I want to get a lot better and really design something bigger before I get into trying to distribute it everywhere,” Austin said.
The next step in that design process is acquiring Clickteam Multimedia Fusion Developer for his computer, that will allow him to do more detailed design at home. He also plans to return to Vanderbilt this summer and is interested in taking some online courses in design.
“The next course I want to take is how to program Java code,” Austin said. “That’s important for all game design.”
Austin, the son of Claire and Kyle Clark of Bruce, and Cody Austin of Randolph, said his family has been “very supportive.”
“They’ve really allowed me to pursue this,” he said. “My computer and a lot of the software can be expensive. Last year, my grandmother (Shelia Austin) had a big garden and they let me sell melons to raise some money. Unfortunately, a lot of the melons went bad, but I appreciated it.”
What started with a Gameboy a few years ago, has turned into a passion, and possibly a future career for Austin.
“I don’t know what exactly struck my interest, it just did,” Austin said. “I’ve learned a lot about how computers work and what you can do with them. It’s definitely something I want to keep working on.”