Find out more about me
My Past
Hi, my name is Raynard Christian, but people just call me Ray. I’m a video game developer and programmer from Indonesia. I will be graduating from the University of Utah in Spring 2024 with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science with an Entertainment Arts and Engineering emphasis.
I have always loved playing games ever since my parents got me my first console, a Gameboy Color, when I was 6 years old. This love of gaming turned into a passion for game development and game design to share the joys and the thrill of gaming to others as so many developers did for me.
I started my game development journey by making campaigns in Dungeons and Dragons that involve creating characters, kingdoms, and stories, as well as making board games with friends by mixing different games together. My favorite was Unopoly, a mix of Uno and Monopoly. Now I’m learning and developing games using Unreal Engine 5, Gamemaker, and continuing to make my own board games. To see some of my projects, head over to the Portfolio tab.
My Philosophy
The most important thing to me in game development is finding the fun in the game as soon as possible. I believe games are truly the new age of art forms, but to me what makes games stand out from other art mediums is their ability to put the player in the shoes of the main character and actually be in the story. A game’s ability to immerse the players in their world is what I believe to be the most important design decision during any stage of development, and the fun is paramount to the success of immersion. A game can have the most incredible story and plot, but if it's unfun no one would be fully immersed in it as a game, and it ends up just being a movie where you click buttons. A fun game elevates its story and characters and makes players feel more invested in the story. That is what I believe makes good game development.
My Influences
I love learning the design choices as well as understanding the processes that goes about the development of my favorite, so in addition to playing the games, I would often watch conferences and streams of my favorite designers. I love watching Riot August’s streams as well as Masahiro Sakurai’s videos about designing video games.
I am still a gamer at heart and play as much as I can in my free time to broaden my knowledge of game development. I am currently playing League of Legends, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, and Baldur’s Gate 3.
