Lauren Nishikawa
Game Design major
Hometwon: Wilmot, NH
Plans to use her skills to increase the AI in future video games
A seriously impressive game designer.
A big-time video game enthusiast, Lauren Nishikawa loved watching her friends' reactions whenever they played a particularly enthralling - or sometimes scary - video game. "I've seen people throw the controller down out of fear," she says. "It's fun to see people get that excited about games." She brought her passion for gaming to Champlain College, where she's currently studying game design. "My first year at Champlain was amazing. It was everything that I was looking for."
Lauren's goal is to create video game characters with very lifelike artificial intelligence, or AI, to help provide a more emotional experience for users. She spends much of her time at Champlain's Emergent Media Center, where she's working on several "serious" games. Lauren was one of the infamous Champlain Four, a group of four gaming students who designed several video games in the span of two days at a educational gaming conference in Orlando.
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