Hey, my name is Camden Vaughan. I am a self taught programmer, who loves to make things and learn new technologies. So if you want to know why I have a blog, that is pretty much it, I want a place to share what I am doing, how I am doing it, and any interesting roadblocks that I encounter. I really enjoy this process of learning and making new things that used to confuse me, and I needed a new outlet to share on because I think my wife was getting pretty tired of me telling her about the Vulkan API.
So I have a blog because I want to share my journey as a programmer, but who am I? I will admit, answering this is hard because I am not good at talking about myself and I am pretty new to blogging… So here are t̶w̶e̶n̶t̶y̶ nine Questions and hopefully that will answer everything you need to know.
What is your full name?
Camden Mack Vaughan
How old are you?
I am currently 22 years old.
What do you do for work?
Its complicated… I wear several different hats. Most importantly I am a stay at home dad to my 6 month old son. But I also divide my free time into several areas that I describe as work. Some of my time goes to learning, because I want to get a programming job one day, so I spend a good chunk of time, learning new technologies and new ways to improve as a programmer. I also have been doing freelance game development on Fiverr recently. Expect to see a blog post about that, because I have a lot to say on the matter but it has been really cool to finally earn some money from my skills as a developer. Lastly I do occasional work for my dad’s business, he runs an engineering company and I help out on the IT side, I fix, build and maintain computers there. I usually spend about 1 or 2 days a month at his office handling that so its not part of my day to day.
So you are 22 married and have a baby?
yes
How did you start programming?
When I was 9 I got an Ipod Touch and was obsessed with mobile games. I wanted to make my own but we did not have a mac, so I would beg my parents for one. Then when I was 11 our family computer died so I convinced them to get a mac and on the same day that we got it I had them buy a “Objective C for dummies” book from Barnes and Noble because I saw that you make apps using XCode with Objective C as a language. Horrible choice. I could not wrap my head around it and gave up. Later I found a program called Game Salad that would let you create games with a visual scripting language. That year I created and released 2 ios games that I made in Game Salad… They were horrible and here are the logos for them which give a good feel for the general quality of the games.
After publishing those games, I tried to make a third I tried to get back into learning Objective C but it eventually just discouraged me and I stopped programming games all together. I eventually got back into programming in college.
So how did you get back into programming?
I would always have little ideas for games in my mind but I didn’t really pursue any of them. For some reason despite the fact that I had used a game engine before (Game Salad) I was under the impression that real games were made in from a complicated and intense process involving incredibly complex math and that every aspect even down to the 3d models and music had to be programmed in. Which yes games are complicated, and do involve math, but it is not that hardcore, and looking back I wish I knew that sooner. But I eventually just looked up on youtube how to make a game and saw a Unity tutorial from Sebastian Lague and thought, “Hey I think I could do that”.
What did you go to College for? Computer Science?
No, I actually went to school for film. For a long time I had a huge passion for filmmaking and when I graduated high school it was one of the few things I was interested in. Looking back I do wish I did computer science for several reasons. I wasn’t super fond of my schools film program and I spent all my free time coding. But to be completely honest I didn’t feel that my degree would have a huge impact on my life either way so I just stuck with the route that would have me graduating sooner. I did pick up a minor in Game Design which gave me some really fun classes and helped me learn a lot about the industry!
Why did you decide you wanted to get a job in Programming instead of Film?
I just figured out what I was actually passionate about. I remember hating when people would ask me what my favorite movie was, or who my favorite director was, or anything about film because I didn’t really know, or honestly care. But if I even overheard someone talking about video games, I was inserting myself into the conversation. I do still really enjoy filmmaking but I just realized that it was more fun to have as a hobby. In all the film jobs I had, I started to hate it.
Do you have any hobbies?
I do! Obviously video games as I have talked about that a lot. But a huge part of my life has been with action sports, specifically wakeboarding. I started wakeboarding when I was 10 and it was a huge part of my identity. I started competing when I was 11, then when I was 18 I moved to Orlando to pursue becoming a professional and eventually went pro when I was 19. My professional career didn’t last long as I quickly tore my ACL then after healing tore it again about a year later. I still do wakeboard but not competitively. I also love skateboarding and snowboarding.
Well I think I have written enough about me for today. It was fun to think about questions I would ask myself and then answer them. These aren’t things I think about often so it feels good to give them space in my head.
If anyone does happen to read this, I would encourage you to think of some questions that you would ask yourself, then answer them. You could do that in a comment, or email it to me, or just do it for yourself. Either way, thank you for taking the time to read this, it means a lot.