Hello, I am Laith Alfadhli, as you could probably tell by the number of times my name has appeared on this website. I am an aspiring game programmer qualified to graduate from Macquarie University in 2021. I have completed all the required units to graduate with a bachelor degree in Information technology: majoring in Game Development.
Since I was three years old, I have been an avid gamer when my family had bought a PlayStation 1. I remember spending multiple hours playing with them and completing the challenges presented. The game I played the most during that time was Spyro the Dragon.
As a child, my family was often moving due to work, and I had switched schools multiple times. It was difficult for me to connect with my classmates initially; however, we would eventually create bonds by playing games together. These games included halo, killing floor two, Counter-Strike Source, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 or competing in racing games like Need for Speed Most Wanted.This trend continued as video games became a tool I would utilise to connect and keep up with people I could no longer see daily. The ability to communicate with others over a shared medium we enjoyed and the relative ease of the entry barrier for games compared to other hobbies inspired me to work in the industry.
I started to enjoy programming games when in university I programmed my first game group project, "The Golden Dive", and sent a version to my friends so that they could playtest. Their feedback and discussions on how the game could be improved or their expressions of what they would have done differently reminded me of the discussions I would have about any particular game we were playing at the time. This moment solidified that I wanted to make the people's games rather than be a reporter or critic. The programming side of things also felt more comfortable to me than the artistic side, so I decided to keep pursuing games programming as my major.