During the NHSGA program, my primary role was as a programmer, though I often helped with the music (BGM) production as well. I started composing music two years ago, and my style has always been quite distinctive. In Chris’s Cryssus, for example, I created the final boss battle BGM, which was meant to feel intense and aggressive. Even though my musical style is rather unconventional, I was glad to find someone who shared a similar taste — Aaron (He’s also in my group during the original round). He also enjoyed composing in those kind of genre I do, and we communicated quite a lot about music.
I truly loved my time at NHSGA. After the final presentations on the last day, I walked down Morewood Ave., feeling as if everything had suddenly come to end. At that moment, a wave of nostalgia hit me — it was so unexpected.
The following are some of my reflections on my experience at NHSGA.
First and foremost, participating in the NHSGA definitely gave me a much deeper understanding of game development. Before this program, I usually developed games on my own and only reached out to others for specific art assets or technical help when necessary. This experience taught me that teamwork is far more challenging than it seems.
When dividing programming tasks, it was easy for us to fall into situations where each person thought the other’s code needed improvement, which often delayed progress. I also learned a great deal about game production — these knowledge that completely reshaped my understanding of game development. It’s far more complex than I had imagined.
However, the most important lesson I learned was about listening (to others). NHSGA is a program that truly tests a team’s efficiency in collaboration. Our team didn’t fully complete the game by the end of the program (I finished the remaining parts by myself afterward). One of the main reasons was that I didn’t communicate effectively enough with my teammates.
Our team leader was an artist, not very experienced in managing programming tasks, so most of the task assignments were discussed between me and another programmer. Things didn’t always go smoothly — I didn’t trust him enough. When he finished some parts, I always felt there was room for improvement and rewrote some part of his code. He did the same to mine. This constant rewriting slowed us down since each of us had to spend extra time understanding the other’s changes.
After the project ended, I realized that I actually needed to listen more and trust others — to let people take ownership of their parts while I focus on mine. I believe this was the most valuable lesson I learned from NHSGA.
Even so, I truly enjoyed every day in the program. I spent entire days coding, often staying up past midnight, yet I never felt tired. I was fully immersed in what I loved — making games. After returning to school, I told my classmates who are interested in game dev that they absolutely should experience NHSGA. It’s honestly one of the best programs I’ve ever participated in.