Rachel Kempen: A gamer in the making

Rachel Kempen: A gamer in the making

Game on! Anoka-Ramsey Community College student Rachel Kempen is tired of the same old mistakes in video games. That’s why she’s setting her controls for auto-pilot; destination: game design. Kempen has given much thought to what career path to choose and has settled on game design. “The reason behind being a game designer is really simple,” said Kempen, “I enjoy games; everything from Zelda, Mario, Final Fantasy, to World of Warcraft and Doom. Heck, even Tetris can keep me entertained for hours.” Kempen attributed her love for video games to her brother Ben. Among the many reasons she gave, Kempen spoke lovingly about story-lines, graphics, and game play. Beyond her love for the games she see’s much room for improvement. “The way certain areas or encounters are designed, they are just either extremely stupid and you begin to wonder, ‘who the heck thought this was a great idea’, said Kempen, “and other times they are so hard that you find yourself raging at your T.V. or computer.” Kempen went on to say that there were times during games when she felt she could do a better job with the design. She said, “I always have these ideas pop into my head about what should have happened, or what they could have done to make an event better.” All this and more is what’s driving Kempen towards game design. Looking towards the future Kempen noted that, “It would be amazing to see my own ideas and designs in a popular video game. I could point something out and be like, ‘I designed that’, Not to mention I’d have a blast having a career in game design.”