I was BANNED from my college placements - How I learned to create games | ft. Chinmay Virmani
4From Chemical Engineering to Game Development, and getting banned by his college placements. This is the story of Chinmay Virmani in #HumansOfGaming
Chinmay never saw game development as a viable career option, he was just too focused on ‘pure’ sciences - Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics. Why you ask? Simply because he had to be. How else was he supposed to get good marks in JEE and get a good engineering college?
But you already know this story, because most likely it’s your story as well, or maybe, was. However, one unholy night Chinmay was introduced to Assassin’s Creed, and as history has shown us, there is no going back from a game like that.
”I think a major reason why I am the way I am, and what I do is because of Assassin’s Creed”
However, the charms of UBISOFT’s flagship game were still not strong enough to break the spells of the Indian education system. So Chinmay enrolled in a fancy Chemical Engineering degree at Delhi Technical University (DTU). Why he chose Chemical engineering you ask? Because that’s what he got in DTU, and he just went for it. (again, IYKYK)
But as his interests started spiraling away from the complex Polymers into a world of binary, the planets started to align for Chinmay. In his eureka moment, everything made sense in retrospect.
“Oh I love playing games, I enjoy coding. Just what if I....mix them both”
Chinmay like almost everyone else in our stories started learning game development via the mighty YouTube. But sadly didn’t find the understanding and concrete structure that he was yearning for.
And if you have been following our stories till now, you know what exactly is about to happen. Chinmay in his search of becoming a game developer found Outscal. Surprise Surprise.
But wait, I won’t bore you with how he created amazing games in Outscal and developed a deep understanding of game development fundamentals (I just did) but instead, I will tell you a hilarious thing that happened with Chinmay.
Chinmay being an Outscal student got a job in the game industry, but there was a twist. He got a job before even completing his college graduation. At this point, he is neither interested in Chemical engineering nor placements. But then, a game development company walked into the placements. Chinmay being Chinmay applied for the position and easily cleared all the rounds. But when he asked for better compensation, considering he already had a much better offer at hand - the placement committee banned Chinmay from applying to more companies.
Yeah, that happens. How dare he ask for fair compensation based on his skill level that he had given significant time honing? Blasphemous.
Today, after years of experience in the gaming industry Chinmay is working on his very own independent game.