BVU Seniors Affirm Career Choice at Game Developers Conference
Benefactors fund experience for students at national event in San Francisco
Buena Vista University seniors Erin Strohmyer and Deniece Radford approach their professional passion—video games—from opposite ends of the production spectrum.
Strohmyer, of Storm Lake, majors in animation, studio art, and graphic design. Radford, of Omaha, is a computer science major who dabbles in music production and plays alto and tenor saxophone in three BVU bands. Strohmyer and Radford recently returned from the national Game Developers Conference, a weeklong visit with industry leaders in San Francisco that, for them, was funded through generous gifts from BVU benefactors.
“It was great having sources we could go to at BVU in order to make this experience possible.”
Erin Strohmyer
While Radford attended a variety of sessions on game programming, Strohmyer participated in sessions on the influence and execution of art in games.
The students were accompanied by Taylor Carlson, BVU Assistant Professor of Animation & Graphic Design, and her husband, Peter Carlson, who works as an artist with Gold Creek Games, an independent game developer based in Des Moines. Both Strohmyer and Radford have interned with Gold Creek Games, an experience Strohmyer continued as a part-time job this semester. Both students connected with Peter Carlson when he served as BVU’s first Artist-in-Residence in 2021.
“I want to work in game programming of some sort,” says Radford, who reached out to industry pros throughout the week at the Game Developers Conference. “I was able to see different aspects of the career at the conference while expanding on my own knowledge to become a better programmer and game maker.”
“I got to meet the lead artist for a brand that developed the console version of Minecraft, which was my first big video game,” Strohmyer says. “It was crazy to meet someone who had worked firsthand on that.”
Both seniors await word on their application to graduate school at the University of Utah, an institution known for having one of the top master’s programs in gaming. Strohmyer’s older brother, Nate Strohmyer, a 2020 BVU graduate, earns his master’s degree in game engineering this week in the prestigious program at the University of Utah. Nate Strohmyer is going to work for Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite.
For their BVU senior show, Radford and Strohmyer collaborated to create a video game called Heart of Hampstead. The game features four different endings.
“I took a VR (virtual reality) class at BVU my freshman year and it showed me that this is something I wanted to do,” says Radford. “Working with Gold Creek reaffirmed my career choice.”
Strohmyer says the experiences at Gold Creek also led her to view gaming as a career pursuit, a choice solidified through the experience in San Francisco this spring.
“Continuing education is critical in games and animation, growing fields where industry-shaking changes happen every year,” says Taylor Carlson. “By investing in game education through experiential learning opportunities like this, BVU helps position our students to be industry leaders.”
Best of all, support from the Stine Family Endowment, BVU Value Added funds and Dean’s Fellows funds allowed both students to complete the experience without having to tap into their own savings.
“It was great having sources we could go to at BVU in order to make this experience possible,” Strohmyer says.