Hey there! My name is Kurtis Kiai, and I live far away in Nairobi, Kenya. I was born in Boston, which makes me a dual citizen and makes travelling so much easier. I was an IMGD Tech major not too long ago but decided to change to IMGD Art since it allows me to take more IMGD courses, which I really love. I wanted myself to be a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to game development, so I decided to take the design concentration.

I used to take quite a few art courses during my high school life, but sadly dropped them because of a change in teachers. I have recently been picking art back up into my life in WPI, and I am hoping to continue evolving my art as I grow. Towards my future as a game designer, I feel that it is my responsibility to understand every aspect of a game, from the visuals and asset creation, to the audio and level design, to the creative writing and storyline.

Most of my art career has been in traditional art mainly based around pencil drawings and a few pastel drawings I made in AR 1100. I never really got into digital art making apart from level design, so I am hoping that this class will be an exciting challenge to help develop my 3D art skills. Apart from art, I have also ventured briefly into game audio in IMGD 2030. To build on my writing skills, I did my humanities seminar in creative writing. During high school, I got also got the chance to take part in school plays and musicals.

I decided to make a career in game development quite early into high school after my cousin convinced me that my love for games is the future. I eventually began looking at various Unity tutorials through YouTube and copying what I saw word for word, pixel for pixel. Although I have never fully released a game (which pains me to say,) I have worked on several projects from 2D to 3D in Unity.

When it comes to games that I find visually appealing, the first game that pops into my mind is Horizon Zero Dawn. The world presents a forgotten civilization taken over by nature and animal-like robots that have taken control of the lands. The weapons in the game are a mix of simple, ancient designs such as spears and bows, combined with advanced technology such as EMP trap arrows. The image of hunting robots with a bow and arrow presents such a unique and refreshing art style to the super-realistic market currently present.

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An extract from my humanities creative writing seminar, which explored the horrific scenes of gang violence in modern-day UK:

The two men dropped to the ground before Danny, their mouths gargling with blood. The unmasked man’s blood shot eyes stared at him as though they were cursing him for the misfortune that he brought upon them. Danny noticed the masked man beside him, crawling for the blade that had dropped from his pocket. Then another bang laid him to rest, his hand still reaching forward. Danny watched as the blood seeped away from both their bodies and paint the alleyway red, with an audience behind them laughing and smiling at the sight of dead rival gang members. Danny was shocked yet amazed. Before him he had just witnessed two people die helplessly, but Danny’s gaze was averted toward the gang members. They looked like a family that had just won big at the amusement park. Laughter. Smiles. Happiness. Something that Danny had never experienced himself. Danny could imagine his dad among them, laughing along with them, even at the sight of two dead people. It felt enticing to Danny.