Nelson Sexton:
Nelson Sexton is 23 year old a game developer from Calgary Alberta. He started developing popular titles on Roblox in 2013 under the alias DeadZoneZak. At the age of 16 he created one of the most popular free PC games Unturned, an open world survival game.
I chose Nelson as the person to interview since I have a passion for video games and learning how they’re made. Unturned also happens to be one of my most played games on Steam.
Picture of the Unturned:
Questions
Why are you passionate about your job or role?
I love game development, especially programming. It is incredibly satisfying to be able to bring ideas in my head “to life” on the screen interactively.
What obstacles have you faced to get you where you are today?
Personally I have been very fortunate with parents who supported me pursuing my gamedev projects, and then incredibly fortunate with Unturned’s success to work on it full time. It was challenging to balance my school work with weekly updates for the game, and back in 2014 getting Greenlit on Steam was a big hurdle.
What advice would you pass on to someone interested in what you are doing?
Make lots of games! Complete plenty of small games and work your way up. Even though I work on Unturned full time I still build lots of little game prototypes on the weekends.
Would you be open to further Your own question. contact from Riverside students and if so, how can someone contact you?
Sure, email me at: nelson@smartlydressedgames.com
MY QUESTIONS:
After you’re finished with Unturned 2.0 what do you plan on working on in the future?
For the foreseeable future I will be continuing with Unturned. There are so many areas I intend to improve and expand upon the game, so it is hard to imagine focusing on anything else for the next 5+ years.
How difficult was it to switch from Roblox to Unity?
It took a few months to learn the ropes, but every game engine has a lot of similar features, so once you get an idea of “where everything is” so to speak they all operate similarly.
What’s your favourite thing about Unturned and its community?
