SunnyKatt (Zach Kehs)

Hey world. I’m an 18 year old guy from the eastern USA. I’ve been programming games since I was 12 (or 11, I don’t really remember) and haven’t stopped loving it. Over the years I tried to become skilled in every aspect of game development, from all the Programming, to the Design, to the Art, and the Sound.

Bio (why not!)

I was a weird little kid. In elementary school (age 6 – 12) I excelled at nearly everything ( I certainly wish I had that luxury now) and wound up in the Gifted Program. I was extremely artistic and creative. My teachers were concerned because I would spend all day drawing fire(ages 6-8 or so) or dragons (8-12 or so). At home I had a restless brain that would always compel me to make board games that I would maybe play once and then move on to something else. As a little kiddo I wanted to be an author or something. I wrote a bunch of crappy little 10 page books too.

When I was 9 (or 10) my parents enrolled me in martial arts (Tae Kwon Do, to be specific). This gave me a place to throw all my energy, and I stuck with it to this day (I got my black belt a year or so ago). In my opinion, the most important thing I learned there was responsibility and respect (Respecting someone even though you don’t like them, always returning kindness even in the face of otherwise) – believe it or not, it helps you great deals on the internet! Without such skills I would never have gotten a Moderator job at YoYoGames or been able to help bring Nation Of Design to be the great state that it is today.

<Skip ahead to the later teen years after I had discovered game programming!>

For a while in my life I thought I wanted to major in Graphic Design and be a cool photoshop artist. In that stage of my life I founded Nation Of Design (then called [logo], but was later merged and went through a renaming process), a successful volunteer art community focused around helping indie game developers get the art help they need. I spent a lot of time keeping the website running strong and trying to make the best decisions for everyone. Being in a crazy leadership position taught me a lot, and made me stray away from my previous hopes of becoming a digital artist and brought me back to the thing I had loved to do all my life – make Games.

Years ago I had joined some of the older YoYoGames competitions while I was still kinda new to the whole programming thing. I didn’t fare too well. After taking programming classes in high school and working hard on my skills I began work on my dream game: Bleare Kingdoms. The project is now on hold until after Koya Rift is done, and then I will be trying to put together a group of people from whatever university I am attending then to make it in an awesome, professional manner.

Which brings me to right now. I’ve been working on Koya Rift full time over the summer – every day, waking up early, staying up late, pouring my heart and soul into this game before the IGF deadline. I rely on Koya Rift for my future – right now I don’t have the money to pay for college (let alone food once I’m there), so I’m hoping my income from selling Koya Rift in 2011 will help out (or at least get me a small income to eat off of while at university).

I’ll be studying at Penn State University for Computer Science starting in the 2011-2012 school year.

Contact:

SunnyKatt@live.com