I am Shubhankar. I was part of GripTape cohort 3, and my GripTape challenge was about game dev.
In the first week, I met my champion on our first call. We talked about my project: making a game. That week, I mostly planned out what I needed to learn and how game dev works.
The first problem was that I didn't have a laptop or PC, and game dev needs one to run the engine. I told my champion, and we tried everything: an app to make games on my phone (couldn't find one), a second-hand laptop under 10k (too old, or couldn't handle the engine). Nothing worked. In the first two weeks, we'd also decided I should pick either game dev or coding, since learning both would take longer, but I chose both anyway. By week 4, we still had no laptop, so I'd only learned a little. I still had to fill in my dashboard every two weeks with my learning progress.
By week 5, I was at my lowest point. No laptop, no options, and I was scolding myself, ready to quit from the stress. Then my champion called and talked me through it, asking questions that got me motivated again. Around the same time, I told Sanjana Didi about the problem, and she arranged a laptop for me. I was so happy.
Week 6, the laptop arrived, but it took me the whole week just to get used to it since it was so new to me. A friend who knows game dev pointed me to some tutorials, but I couldn't sit through one for more than 45 minutes to an hour, thanks to my very low attention span from too many reels and shorts. I also made a tic-tac-toe game in Scratch that week. By week 7, I gave up on tutorials and turned to AI instead, asking ChatGPT for roadmaps, how engines work, anything to get started. I made the player for my game, but it was frustrating: the AI kept giving me buggy scripts, and even one spelling mistake could take hours to fix. Sometimes the whole game just got deleted.
Weeks 8 and 9 were maps, levels, and design, and working with AI was so hard I nearly gave up more than once. I kept hitting the AI's limit for screenshots, and on top of that I had exams eating into my time. But by week 10, it was almost done. I coloured the game, finished it, and felt amazing. Then I realized the showcase was only days away, so I started learning coding from scratch, just so I'd actually understand what I'd built. I was still trying to build an enemy for the player right till the end, and I couldn't finish it in time. Still happy though.
Overall, GripTape gave me the freedom to do what I wanted and the support I needed to actually do it. I learned basic coding, AI prompting, game dev, communication, and problem-solving. I'm glad this opportunity showed up right when I needed it.
Freedom matters most to me, and GripTape gave me that: the liberty to learn new things and try new experiences. I think every student wants that, something beyond studies, and the freedom to make their own decisions. I picked this project because I've always loved games and tech, so game dev just made sense. It changed a lot for me. Before this, I was stuck taking instructions and orders, buried in the school syllabus, never trying anything new. After these 10 weeks, I got a real sense of other careers and options out there, and I got a lot better at communication too. I think GripTape is the best thing for students because it opens up a space to learn, explore, and actually get to know yourself: what you're good at, where you struggle, and how to fix it.
I think this kind of practice is great for students, because these are skills that'll make them stand out at jobs later. While other new employees are still figuring things out, someone who's done GripTape will already be used to it, and way faster. I'm really excited for this journey. Thanks, GripTape! :)
