Junior Edward Hottendorf has explored computer programming casually for about two years and aims to work with gaming company Blizzard Entertainment.

Hottendorf, a computer science major, said his inspiration for programming comes from logic and video games.

Northern Star: Do you have any experience in the computer science field yet?

Edward Hottendorf: No, I haven’t. But, basically, I got into computer science through a website called Khan Academy. They had a computer science section that had a little bit of JavaScript code that you could create little Flash animations with, and then I started to learn the programming logic, and I just kind of fell in love with it.

About a year and a half later, I finally got the application process done for NIU and now I’m finally going to school at NIU.

NS: With your major, what would you want to do after college?

EH: You know, really, I’ll be happy if I just [get] paid to program, just get paid to do what I love. But, obviously, I do have some dream jobs. … The most typical one is Blizzard because I am a gamer. The other one is Google or IBM. Those are the dream jobs. But, really I’d be happy working anywhere that let me do what I love.

NS: When did you start playing around with programming?

EH: Casually, it’s been about two years. But, it didn’t actually become a serious thing until I started taking a class, and then I realized how well I’m adapted to it.

The way I think about things in general is a very logical way and very analytical. It does help with programming. It truly does, and it makes it fun because finally I can use logic with something and not have it be like, ‘No, I’m not changing my stance at all because no logic.’

NS: Earlier you mentioned being a gamer. Was there a specific game that inspired you to go into computer science?

EH: You know, not really. Gaming was more of a hobby for me and I had a lot of spare time growing up — at expense to school — but I’m doing much better now. I’d say what really inspired it was knowing that I could actually create my own. And everything that the games have done wrong, I could kind of remedy that in my own creative way. I do think that had a big influence on me. I did like problem solving games like ‘Portal’ and ‘Portal 2.’ I love those games; those are my favorite games, but aside from that there were RPGs.

NS: Have you done any independent work, and is there anything you are proud of?

EH: You know, it’s all a learning process. I’m proud of it for a while, and then I learn easier ways to do it and such.

I did create a few games on Khan Academy that were very interactive. One I called quadra pong because you get the pong with the ball going between the two sides, but then I just added a new element to the top part so that you can’t hit the side wall or the top or bottom.

… It is about simplicity when it comes to game rules. That was probably the proudest accomplishment before starting school. Then I added new levels as you reached higher scores.

It was just showing that I could create something that I never thought I could create before. I wasn’t exposed to computer programming in general until then.