Designing video games can cost virtually nothing

Indie video game designer Nathan Hurde, a senior in political science, is creating his second game.

By Gina Russell

Nathan Hurde has always wanted to make video games.

All it took to get started was a simple Google search on how to design them.

“And the rest is history,” Hurde, a senior in political science.

He started learning, designing and experimenting in the game development world after discovering programs such as Gamemaker, C++ and Java.

In the first of Hurde’s completed games, “Hasty Food Master,” players must run a successful restaurant. Download it for free.

He’s currently working on his second game, “Fields of Fresh,” in which users must try to take down competitors to make their farm successful. He hopes to have a demo ready by December.

Hurde makes indie video games, which differ from traditional video games because of their creators, Hurde said.

Hurde hopes to have a demo of his second game, “Fields of Fresh,” ready by December.

“Indie games are usually by people like me, in a dorm, garage or coffee shop, making games,” he said. “Traditional games have huge offices with millions of dollars spent.”

He finds a balance between work, school and creating games with the mindset that all of his hard work will pay off in the end. His main goal is to create a video game to release into the market and one day own his own video game development company.

“I know many people have come to UIC and would like to make games and I’m happy for them,” he said. “I would like to just keep encouraging them by saying: Google, design, network and stay the course to the goal now. It all starts from somewhere.”

• Gina Russell is a sophomore in communication