.Games provide a much deeper form of interaction and escape by incorporating design philosophies that take inspiration from hyper-realistic worlds! Akshay Ghag, our next pathbreaker, works as Senior Game Designer at Miniclip (Lisbon, Portugal), a developer and publisher of mobile games. Akshay talks to Shyam Krishnamurthy from The Interview Portal about working in different studios on entirely different genre of games, which exposed him to game design and the idea of making games that appeal to their core audiences. For students, making a career in games in no cakewalk, but no problem is big enough to overcome. Keep experimenting and figuring things out for yourself, but with lessons from your previous experience and feedback from other creatives. Akshay, can you share your background with our young readers? I grew up in Mumbai as a hyper-active child. I loved playing any and every sport, reading and exploring on my own. Any time I did not spend playing outside or climbing trees, I would spend reading. By 14, I had completely exhausted my school's library and a smaller one in my neighborhood. Both of my parents worked day jobs. My mother is a government worker and my father is an engineer in a private company.I was clueless about my future. I wasn't bad academically, but I couldn't make up my mind on what I wanted to pursue. During the late 90's I found out about computers, internet and video games and felt a connection. I was extremely curious about how and why this new form of media was so engaging and ground-breaking. As a family we couldn't afford a PC initially, so I went to my friend' homes or cafes. While playing a particular game, I happened to come across the editor tool used to create content and decided to make something of my own. I think this is what pushed me towards my journey. What did you do for graduation/post-graduation? I did my diploma in computers followed by engineering, and finished my post-graduation from DSK Supinfogame (a branch of Supinfocom Rubika from France) in Pune. The original university was shut down in 2017 and a different branch was opened in Pune. What were some of the key influences that led you to such an offbeat, unconventional and cool career in gaming? Initially after school, I took my father's advice and started my Engineering path with a Diploma in Computer Tech. I had a vague idea of aiming to become someone in the gaming or animation sector, using coding. I disliked my time during junior college, none of the subjects were interesting and I found myself reading to finish my exams rather than learning. I spent a lot of time out of classes, playing video games with friends and barely passed my finals. My turning point was when I started my Bachelors in Engineering with the same mindset and got held back. I thought I had failed and couldn't do anything in life, I did not like anything about Engineering and wanted to stop and try something more closely related to Games
