As the world becomes more and more connected, with phones in nearly everyone’s pockets, computers and laptops abound at both home and work, and video games embed themselves as a significant part of modern culture, Madux Pickering feels right at home.

From a young age, Madux has engrossed himself in a variety of tech-related endeavors, from graphic design and app development to 3-D modeling and animation.

“In second grade, he sat me down and decided we needed to figure out how to make MODS and texture packs for Minecraft,” Madux’s mother Annie Cowley said. “Playing it wasn’t enough. Madux wanted to be inside the game, wanted to control it. This grew into wanting to build his own computer, lots of photoshop memes, watching hours upon hours of other people playing with and manipulating computers.”

Video games like Minecraft, Pokemon, and Mario served as some of Madux’s initial inspirations, but now he’s focused on games such as Ark and Fortnite. He loves video games, and can see himself creating games in the future. This love is what led him to becoming the Highland Sterling Scholar in Computer Technology.

“I really enjoy the storyboarding aspect [game design], and I think that creating video games would be really fun,” Pickering said.

And while he takes inspiration from the games themselves, their designers are equally influential for Pickering,

“In terms of video game designers,” Pickering said, “I think Hideo Kojima is up there [on my list of role models], because he puts all of his soul into his work, and he makes it into his own personality, his games aren’t just copy and pasted, like Call of Duty.”

Hideo Kojima has developed some hit games including the Metal Gear Solid franchise as well as the 2019 game Death Stranding. Each game outdoes the next, with better, more realistic graphics that bring strange game ideas to life, and make them flourish.

That’s one benefit of video games and electronic technology: it’s constantly thriving and expanding as companies compete to have the best, most cutting edge games and technology. This constant drive forward means that games are always improving, and often become more accessible.

“I really love how accessible computer science is”, Pickering said. “Like you can do a lot of it on your phone, and it’s crazy how far it has come in the last few years. You can now take Skyrim on the go with you, which is crazy because that game was before its time and you can now take it on a Switch and play it on an airplane, which is crazy.”

With video games and computers constantly expanding and becoming more accessible, the world of tech is constantly growing and needing more workers and developers. For Pickering, his already strong background in tech will be a great help in landing jobs in such a competitive, growing field.

“Technology is overcoming our world at this point,” Pickering said. “And every job nowadays needs you to know how to work a computer. Especially with Covid, you need to know how to do everything from home.”

And it’s true. Everyone seems to have or use a computer, from grade schoolers to grandparents, and the need for people to create accessible apps, captivating forms of entertainment, and helpful tools is ever growing, and Madux is ready to jump into that field.

“He can fix anything on a computer, Mac or PC, can make anything on Photoshop, design a website in a matter of minutes, and so much more,” Cowley said. “He is just wired for the computer world. He will change the computer world, someway, somehow.”