Meet the Winners: Kyle Roke

Commended by the judges for exceptional storytelling, 13-year-old Kyle Roke’s game, Artificial, invites players along on a robot’s intense, heartfelt journey to self-discovery. With over 40 levels, patience and problem-solving skills are integral for success. Thanks to his attention to detail and meticulous gameplay development, the Foxboro, Massachusetts-based student took home the Middle School Gamestar Mechanic title in the 2017 National STEM Video Game Challenge.

Kyle learned the fundamentals of the Gamestar Mechanic engine in a class at school, and his love of playing video games provided further motivation to try and create his own. Throughout the development process, he gave himself freedom to revisit and revise elements of Artificial as needed. “Nothing is set in stone,” Kyle reminds aspiring designers. “You can always feel free to go back and change things—that helps the process.”

When he’s not creating or playing video games, Kyle enjoys reading and playing soccer. In the future, he plans to pursue math and video game design.