BONELESS WITH CHRISITAN GREY
Boneless w/ Christian Grey
We caught up with Christian Grey, an incoming freshman who placed second in our recent Game Jam. At this event, current students, prospective students, and alumni were invited to create a video game in under 60 hours while incorporating a limitation that everyone must implement. Read on to learn more about how Christian’s winning entry was created.
What’s your hometown?
I live in IL. I moved in the week before the Game Jam started.
What sparked your interest in game development?
My interest in game development started when I began learning to code because it was the only thing I thought to create. I’ve always come back to it since I get to have fun making things that other people have fun with. My continuing project is Glap.RS, a 2D modular spacecraft game.
Have you been able to take any computer science courses in high school? If so, which ones? If not, how have you taught yourself about programming?
My introduction to computer science was quite obscure. When I was in first grade, I discovered and reassembled a Windows 95 desktop that was my parents’ wedding gift. I realized that since I was the only one that knew how to operate it, I didn’t have to share it with my three younger siblings. I spent probably a bit more than the recommended amount of time with it. My introduction to programming was accidentally opening the Macro Editor in Microsoft Word. MS Word allows you to record your actions and save them as a Macro for repetitive use, but it does this by automatically generating code in the VBA language. The computer was too old to use Wi-Fi and our family computer was still off limits, so I essentially brute-forced my way to understanding code by recording macros and looking at the code they made over and over again.
I’ve largely kept the same learning style since: pull up the official tutorial, read some relevant portions, and then get my hands dirty with some random project. At IMSA, my high school, I’ve had the opportunity to take Microcontroller Applications and Machine Learning. I’ve also been participating in FTC Robotics since 9th grade (go 17576 TITANS!!!). I’ve really enjoyed getting to learn and code beyond just standard software.
How did you hear about Neumont?
Your bright yellow envelope with simplified iconographic glory arrived in my mail.
What inspired you to participate in Neumont’s Game Jam?
Those of us in the class of 2025 have a Discord we all chat in. With moving to a new house and my summer internship, I hadn’t really had the time to interact very much. I saw the Game Jam as a way to block off time to involve myself with the Neumont community. It was a partial success, but after three days of nonstop coding I took about six days of nonstop nothing, so I didn’t get to do as much review of other’s games as I would have wished.
What was the most challenging aspect of creating your game, Boneless?
The most challenging aspect for me was not using a game engine. I didn’t use a game engine simply because I’ve never learned a game engine! I’ve also never been in a crunch scenario like this, and I figured out pretty quickly that time spent reinventing things that could have been provided to me is time spent not fixing bugs and adding more content.
Excerpt from the Game Jam award ceremony.
How did you feel when you found out Boneless took second place as a high school student competing against current college students?
When Ryder messaged me saying I was in the top five, I thought “Awesome I somehow managed to get #5!” Boy was I surprised! I was actually feeling quite bad about my performance since there were four more levels that were discarded after I made an error I couldn’t revert. After I was announced as the second place winner and looked at how I scored on the Itch website, I realized that what I had managed to put out worked, felt decently complete, and showcased the mechanics well. I must thank my two brothers for that – Aaron for animating the character for me and Gavin for creating the background music, as I’m sure both of those helped immensely with the reviews to the game. It felt awesome. My family went out to dinner to celebrate afterward, and now I have something to my name when I arrive on campus next year 😉.
Which game was your favorite game (excluding your creation)?
No See Demons. It tied for fifth place. I tried to make the curse in my game an impediment – something that would force you to plan your actions and compensate for it. Their blinding mechanic does exactly that: you need to make sure that wherever you go you’ll have access to light in a reasonable amount of time, otherwise you end up waiting for your vision to recover anxiously hoping a creature doesn’t jump you in your unaware state.
What degree do you plan to pursue?
I’m not sure, and that’s why Neumont stood out to me! I’m looking forward to getting to try all of the degree tracks freshman year.
What’s your dream job post-graduation?
Similar to above ^. If I had to choose right now, it would either be working on decentralized software or augmented/mixed reality.
Star Wars or Star Trek?
Star Trek. To clarify, I’m not against Star Wars, I’ve seen some and it’s all been good, but I’m magnitudes more interested in the concepts and plots of Star Trek.
Marvel or DC?
Neither. I think I have yet to watch a Marvel or DC focused movie. I don’t really plan on it either.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯