I am Nick Heutmekers, twenty-four years old and passionate about video games. I was introduced to video games at a young age by my parents playing with them on a PS2, with the first game I actively remember playing being Kingdom Hearts while under supervision. After which I played many more games on that console, which later became a Wii, DS and eventually an old PC my parents allowed me to use. This led me to experience a wide variety of genres and appreciate most (barring puzzle games). And sparked a curiosity to experience more of what games had to offer, both in gameplay but also story, art and music.

As I got older, I started being more interested in how games were created, along with the systems which made them all function. This interest blossomed into a desire to create myself, which at the time I started by building in games primarily, Terraria and Minecraft.  And eventually turned into me running Dungeons & Dragons Campaigns as a DM for my group of friends (which happened by accident). From this experience, I learned a lot by altering rules and appealing to players, making their choices feel impactful and their adventures fun, and for me, it solidified the goal of being able to create my own video games to provide those feelings to many more.

My primary expression of this is via systems, as these are the bedrock of what the player interacts with. From their character controller to how NPCs react, and the rules to manage it all. I have grown to appreciate this aspect of design because of how intricate but also broad it can be. Every design brings something new, and two systems are never the same, even if two inventories are not alike, while they may share some commonalities. This makes the learning and possibilities endless in my eyes, and along with the joy these systems can bring, it motivates me to push forward to improve both my systems and the experience they provide.