UCAS Application + Full personal statement
UCAS application – Draft #10
Question 1 - Draft #3
My original passion for games design and development has been a long-standing interest of mine for many years of my life. This grew from early education, through secondary school, all the way into college, where my love for games development shifted from not only playing games to the creation of them. This is where I became particularly interested in the development lifecycle for multiple games that millions of people play daily. I looked into many games in my spare time and deciphered how they were made and created over the years of production that it took whole teams of developers. Alongside my college work, this is where I started to teach myself games development and the lifecycle of how a good game is created as a solo developer. I learnt how to make some basic level games on my college course using Unreal Engine, as well as Unity outside of college. The point at which my interest became more serious this was when I programmed a sprinting mechanic in Unreal Engine using Blueprints. Implementing this mechanic required me to consider player movement closely. Achieving smooth and precise movement helped me understand how mechanics affect player experience as a whole.
Question 2 - Draft #5
Studying at Loughborough College has given me a really good foundation for my future, as I have learnt a great deal about the games development cycle and how game creation works. Over the two years I have studied at the college, my knowledge has significantly increased, and the way I approach and complete my work has changed due to the professional standard of the course. We used tools to develop games and programs across multiple projects, requiring us to learn and apply new skills within short timeframes. Most projects lasted between six and eight weeks, which required strong time management and the ability to adapt quickly under pressure, closely reflecting an industry-style working environment. During my A1 project, I created a full medieval town environment in Blender, which required me to plan and produce all assets alone. Managing the creation of these assets helped me develop an understanding of asset creation and consistency, which are essential skills for building games. In particular, learning Blender within these time constraints helped me understand the full work of creating game assets, turning it from a hard tool into one of my best areas and making me ready for asset creation within games development.
Question 3 - Draft #5
Through independent learning, I started using Visual Studio Code (VSCode). This was to experiment with different coding languages outside of my college work. This then led me to teach myself HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which I learnt and applied within a short period of time before starting one of my main projects. Using these languages, I created and published multiple websites using CloudFlare for people I know, which has benefited them in many ways, as well as working with like-minded people on more advanced coding languages to expand my knowledge. This in turn has boosted my love for programming and development and has given me some practical experience working in a team of different developers. I have also learnt how to use Git, from knowing absolutely nothing about it before to having a better knowledge of how it works. I mostly used this software to track and review my work so I could gain perspectives from other people outside of my circle. I have published multiple lines of code on Git and have had countless reviews, which have helped me become a better programmer independently. I have also started to learn the macOS Terminal, which is a simpler but very effective tool to use and opens up a whole new world of opportunity for me in my coding journey. Overall, these new experiences have really changed my perspective on coding and how I should present my work to people who have more knowledge than me. I believe that all of these outside experiences have really prepared me for university life and how I can adapt to new things quickly.