Women Who Reign: Dana Christo

“Try not to mistake what you have with what you hate.” (C’mon — Panic! At the Disco, Fun)

Tell us about yourself along with a fun fact!
Hiya! My name is Dana, I’m a fifth year computer science student at NC State, with a concentration in game development. I’ve been making video games since I was 16 years old, and honestly I don’t know what I’d pursue other than game development. I started out making digital art on forums when I was 14, which got me interested in 3D modeling and animation during high school, which got me interested in doing that for video games.

When I was in my junior year of high school, my tech teacher showed me Game Maker, and I started making my own games completely. For senior year, I decided to do an independent studies class in technology where I made a game to see how the camera affects gameplay (or really player experience) using the Unreal Development Kit. Since then I’ve made games in classes, like Unseen, and also in my free time for fun, like Corgi Petter!

This past summer I was a programming intern at Bethesda Games Studios, and it was honestly a dream come true. If someone had told 17 year old me what I’d be doing while still in school, I’d have died of shock (in a good way!). I worked on mostly gameplay and UI tasks, which was really awesome since I’d…