Game Design is one of the most rapidly growing industries in entertainment. From huge studios run by giant companies like Nintendo to small indie projects with just a few developers working, there are countless job opportunities for anyone interested in any aspect of the process of video game development. And be it art, programming, level design or something else entirely, CCHS’ CTE Game Development pathway likely touches on that aspect.
A CTE (Career Technical Education) pathway is a set of classes aimed to teach students skills that they could use in a real-world career. They are available at high schools across the US. Some pathways available at CCHS include dance, architecture, child development, sports medicine, and, of course, game development. The idea is that the teachers have real job experience in the subjects they’re teaching, better preparing students for a career in that field.
For example, Kian Darien, the Game Development teacher, has worked as the Head of Content and Community Marketing at electronics company Razer and as US Programming Manager at Red Bull Gaming as well as working to create his own indie game. A few years ago, when Holly Gable, the AVPA Film teacher at CCHS, decided to start a CTE Game Development program at the school, she thought of Mr. Darien, whom she’d met a few years prior. She wanted to create a program to help students in a growing career field. The only issue? Funding.
Then, Ms. Gable heard about the Epic MegaGrants. These grants are provided by Epic Games, the company that owns Fortnite, and are given to game-developers, studios, and educational programs. In 2022, thanks to Ms. Gable, CCHS received a $100,000 grant to start its Game Development program. The money was used to purchase thirty brand-new gaming computers, and the program continued to grow from there.
The computers were placed in what is now the CCHS Game Dev Dojo (the name many know Mr. Darien’s classroom by), which is filled with neon lights, huge TVs donated by Sony, and a dozen arcade machines. The space hosts not only game development classes but also the Yearbook staff, the AVPA Film Editing and Screenwriting classes, and the Team Kairon Esports team, which recently came first place in a nation-wide Fortnite competition. As Mr. Darien puts it, the room is “a community hub . . . where kids have found their friends and their passion.”
The Game Development pathway itself has also been very successful. In the 2024-25 school year, Mr. Darien taught three periods of Game Development 1 and one period of Game Design 2. Throughout the year, students in the introductory class were exposed to many aspects of the game-design process through the curriculum that Mr. Darien wrote himself. At the end of the year, the students in both classes were able to actually build video games, and show off these games at the first ever CTEXPO in June, an expo that also featured other CTE pathways like Theater and Robotics. The expo was a huge success, with over 300 people in attendance and 8 games on display. By building these games, Mr. Darien hopes the students have gained a real taste for what it’s like to work on a real indie game development project.
Several former students have actually gone on to pursue Game Design as a career, many at UC Santa Cruz which has one of the top Game Design programs in the world. One current student, Nico Antani, has actually been able to use the games he created in the class to create a portfolio and get hired to work as a developer.
All in all, the Game Design program and the Game Dev Dojo have become an incredible resource for any student who loves gaming. These students have a safe space to create and play video games, and an amazing class in which to build their skill set and get a real head start on planning their careers, which is what a CTE is all about.
