I'm Matthew Johannes, a game designer, music composer, and creative. I love all facets of game design—concept and story development, world building, character design, strategy, game balance, animation, and soundtrack composition. Game design capitalizes on all my obsessive interests. I'm a quick, dedicated learner and mostly self-taught. When instructors expose me to a new tool or software, I immediately dive all the way down the rabbit hole to make it my own. I spend hours each evening working on my game, chatting with fellow creatives, and composing orchestration. Chasing new ideas and fine tuning old ones brings me endless satisfaction. I never get bored, and it never gets old. For a bigger picture of my journey to choosing to pursue a BFA in Game Design, I've included my Common App essay, along with childhood photos, below.
I'm Matthew Johannes, a game designer, music composer, and creative. I love all facets of game design—concept and story development, world building, character design, strategy, game balance, animation, and soundtrack composition. Game design capitalizes on all my obsessive interests. I'm a quick, dedicated learner and mostly self-taught. When instructors expose me to a new tool or software, I immediately dive all the way down the rabbit hole to make it my own. I spend hours each evening working on my game, chatting with fellow creatives, and composing orchestration. Chasing new ideas and fine tuning old ones brings me endless satisfaction. I never get bored, and it never gets old. For a bigger picture of my journey to choosing to pursue a BFA in Game Design, I've included my Common App essay, along with childhood photos, below.
ABOUT ME
Game Designer . Music Composer . Creative
I'm Matthew Johannes, a game designer, music composer, and creative. I love all facets of game design—concept and story development, world building, character design, strategy, game balance, animation, and soundtrack composition. Game design capitalizes on all my obsessive interests. I'm a quick, dedicated learner and mostly self-taught. When instructors expose me to a new tool or software, I immediately dive all the way down the rabbit hole to make it my own. I spend hours each evening working on my game, chatting with fellow creatives, and composing orchestration. Chasing new ideas and fine-tuning old ones brings me endless satisfaction. I never get bored, and it never gets old. For a bigger picture of my journey to choosing to pursue a BFA in Game Design, I've included my story, along with childhood photos, below.
MY STORY
I’ve known what I wanted to do with my life since I was five years old.
I was a little kid with obsessive interests. At three, I loved tornados and wanted to become a storm chaser. At four, I dreamed of becoming a volcanologist—until I learned the dangers of climbing an active volcano. After realizing I didn’t have the disposition for a life-threatening career, I found my true passion.
In Kindergarten when people started asking what I wanted to be when I grew up, I proudly answered, “video game designer.” Even at a young age, designing games came naturally to me. I regularly invented card games, rebalanced family board games, and won a few level design competitions for mobile games.
My confidence didn’t last long though. As I hit upper elementary school, teachers insisted video game design wasn’t worth my time. My gym teacher told me I was “too old” to talk about video games, and my fifth grade teacher said she preferred kids who were “more well-rounded.” My creative thinking was often mocked and misunderstood. I didn’t love video games just for fun—I loved the long-term strategy, complicated game balance, character design, soundtracks, story arcs, and humor. When teachers criticized my love of video games, they weren’t just criticizing my dream career; they were devaluing the way I think, what brings me joy, and who I am. By the end of fifth grade, I’d become a shell of myself and refused to speak aloud in the classroom. When people asked what I wanted to be, I stopped answering game designer because I didn’t want to hear the inevitable, “That’s not a real job” or “You could do better.” I learned it wasn’t safe to share my true self.
Things only began to turn around when I took a computer science class in 8th grade. I was finally learning things I was interested in from an encouraging teacher. It was a relief to learn that I was actually good at coding and game development. For my final project, I created a small video game, similar to Pokémon. It wasn’t much, but I designed my own characters and gained the tools to take the project further.
The following year my band teacher taught a unit on music composition. It clicked immediately, and soon composing music for my game became part of my daily routine.
I was accepted into a specialty design program in high school. The supportive environment was exactly what I needed. The collaborative atmosphere and team-based projects slowly rebuilt my confidence and armed me with more tools. I’m so grateful for the inspiring, accepting teachers who stretched me and believed in my creative future.
In my free time, I continued to develop the game I started in 8th grade. With over 250 unique characters, 24-hours of gameplay, and an 80-song soundtrack, it required serious dedication. I devoted every evening, and several summers, to completing the project. I even formed a small development team with a few friends along the way. I’m really proud of the final result and how much I learned in the process, and am already working on the next one.
After those rough early years of teachers shooting down my passions, choosing a BFA in Game Design feels like a victory of its own. Today when I say I want to be a video game designer, I say it with confidence and pride. One day I plan to start my own studio. I know what it takes to do well, and I am excited to put in the effort, and to take the next step into the future I've always wanted.