Christian Taylor was 8 years old when he brought home his first video game system. “We got our Wii from someone at church, and we just loved playing these different games,” he remembers.
The games sparked something in him. He didn’t want to just play them; he wanted to make them.
In middle school, Taylor joined an after-school computer science and game development club. “I had people to talk to that had the same interests as I did, and I developed many different games like puzzle games, maze games; I learned how to add moving backgrounds to different games and add different elements.”
By high school he was hooked. His mom, an elementary school teacher, knew those games weren’t just kid stuff, they were they making of a great career. “My mother told me about different schools that had this major directly.” One was right in his backyard.
High Point University offers a major in game design.
“HPU was my top choice, but I knew that we did not have enough money to pay for me to go there four years.” Just a few weeks before he graduated from Grimsley, Taylor learned he was awarded a Say Yes Guilford full-tuition scholarship to HPU. “I was speechless. Wow, this is happening. I am going to be going to my dream school in the fall.”
Taylor is excited about his future and credits his parents for keeping him grounded. “They tell me to keep my calm, to plan ahead and to make sure to have fun. They’ve just been teaching me to apply myself to every situation and not to neglect my education because these are some blessed opportunities that I’ve received.”