Austyn Brumbaugh turned to computers and gaming early in his life because his unruly hands made activities like sports, art, and simple tasks like playing with Legos a challenge.
“Basically my hands mimic each other subconsciously,” he said, holding them out to prove it. “I’ve always been terrible at fine motor skills.”
The condition hasn’t held Brumbaugh back from academic success. Thanks to achieving a greater than 90% grade point average at Jamestown High School, he was eligible to join SUNY Jamestown Community College’s Honors Program when he started college in fall 2022.
A Computer Science major who is set to graduate this week, Brumabuagh has engaged in real-world projects like creating a video game, writing a program to help the Psychology department with test scoring, and creating cryptography with artificial intelligence while at JCC.
“I have trouble doing a lot of manual things,” he said. “The good thing about computers is that it’s all typing. So, instead of having to use your hands, let’s say, if you’re a mechanic, to turn valves and stuff like that, you just have to write code and test it. It’s all virtual and all digital. It’s a lot less about you as a person and a lot more about how you can think.”
JCC’s Honors Program requires students to complete two project-based courses. Brumbaugh created a story-based adventure video game for his first project. Titled “Ashes of Sombtir,” it is available for $9.99 on Steam, a video game digital distribution website.
“I used AI to generate a couple images and a story, and I used game engine (software) to stitch all those ideas together into a game,” Brumbaugh said. “I took what the story was giving me and I translated that into game levels and ideas and enemies and stuff like that. It helped me create the basis of what I wanted to do.”
Brumbaugh continues to add to, tweak, and improve the game. He also aims to create more. He enjoys story-based games where the main character affects how the plot moves and the outcome.
“I’ve always kind of loved computers,” Brumbaugh said. “I play video games like ‘Minecraft.’ I’d be like, ‘I want to do this, but it’s not already in the game.’ I started off making mods, which is a common thing for people. That kind of evolved into wanting to go to school for programming.”
“Mods” are modifications made to basic video games to customize or enhance the player’s experience.
“Let’s take ‘Minecraft,’” Brumbaugh said. “That game is made of blocks. Let’s say you want a block that jumps for you. If it’s not already in the game, you can program it into the game.”
By finishing in the top 20% at Jamestown High, Brumbaugh came to JCC with the USA Scholarship, which pays all tuition not covered by waivers or PELL and TAP. Being part of the Honors Program, he received additional benefits, including one-on-one time with faculty to create projects, networking opportunities on and off campus, additional library services, the opportunity to complete class scheduling before general student registration, and, as Brumbaugh said, “connect with people with similar interests and goals.”
Brumbaugh isn’t sure what’s next, but resting isn’t an option.
“I think I’m going to keep going to college, but I’m currently working on more projects,” he said. “The thing with computer science is that a lot of jobs don’t look at your degree any more. They look at your quality of work. If you can do the work, they kind of care more about that than if you have a four-year degree.”