\u201cMy whole life I secretly wanted to make video games but was scared. I didn\u2019t think it was something that I was allowed to do because it seemed too fun,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Now, almost every day is fun for the Stamford native who just earned his MFA in game design from NYU, has his own independent studio, is working with the Neag School of Education<\/a> to create educational software, and has interviewed for senior-level positions at some of the largest companies in the industry \u2013 at 24 years old.<\/p>\n \u201cFor a lot of my life, I thought I would do things around video games, like make the art or make the music for video games. It was only once I had a high school class in game development that I realized there was a path for building video games,\u201d he says, explaining that class prompted him to consider colleges with game design programs, which led him to UConn\u2019s Digital Media & Design<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea that I could get a degree where one of the words in the degree is \u2018games\u2019 is really amazing and those programs are hard to find,\u201d Hirshfield says. \u201cUConn has one<\/a>, it was accessible, and my parents loved it when I told them I wanted to make video games. Finding and pursuing a passion really matters to me and my family.\u201d<\/p>\n As an undergrad, Hirshfield loaded his schedule \u2013 almost overloading it – with independent studies, one year even acing all his classes and adding 48 credits to his transcript. He says he would pair a class like Interactive Storytelling with an independent study to produce projects that paralleled the lessons learned in class.<\/p>\n Another independent study coupled him with the School of Business<\/a> to create an interactive training program for the Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery. That program, The Recovery Files<\/a>, aims to train recovery coaches in what to say \u2013 or not say – by presenting them with interactive sample text messages for a variety of scenarios.<\/p>\n \u201cMost video games are fun. Most are about bringing enrichment to your life. But some tell sad stories just like film or TV,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd serious games are this idea that by sharing an experience you can perform social action. The idea of The Recovery Files was that you would play it and the serious function of the game was to train and enrich the minds of those who are going to help others.\u201d<\/p>\n Hirshfield says he cares deeply about this genre of gaming and wants the opportunity to make a difference, like with Courtroom 600 – a production from Greenhouse Studios and other UConn departments to document the Nuremberg Trials<\/a> – which Hirshfield worked on one semester while an undergrad.<\/p>\n Then there are other times when gaming just needs to be about gaming \u2013 an escape from reality.<\/p>\n \u201cI get made fun of a lot because I care about social action games and then I go and make the most stereotypical video game ever,\u201d he says of the first-person shooter game Godwalker<\/a>, in which the idea is to shoot the bad guys as quickly as possible to gain strength.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not very long, it\u2019s not very big, but I did make it on my own,\u201d he explains. \u201cI didn\u2019t buy any assets. I didn\u2019t have anyone make anything else. It all came from my computer and my brain, and to me that\u2019s an invaluable piece of work to have. You can present it to someone and say, \u2018This is something that I made, and I think it\u2019s really cool.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n He told people a variation of that in April when he trekked to Troy, New York, to demo Godwalker at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute\u2019s annual GameFest, an event that draws game designers from throughout the Northeast to compete for a series of awards \u2013 real-life awards<\/a>, not ones handed out in a game world after virtual play.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first game I ever made, Aether, went to RPI GameFest because I just wanted to show it to people and see how they liked it. The judges ended up giving it the award for Best in Game Feel, which is really cool,\u201d he says of the game that was developed mostly during high school and finished at UConn.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/30be96f7-0ef7-4801-9bc3-312ec55116a5_rw_1200-188x300.jpg\")
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