Austin Paukert is a coder and programmer here at WAHS who develops his own video games. He is a freshman this year at Western who makes “high quality games,” according to Calvin Kaufman, an eighth grader at Henley who has been involved in many of Austin’s projects. Paukert has had much success with his own company, Sloth Studios, has competed in game jams, and completed many different programming projects. With this, he has also had the opportunity of doing a week’s internship virtually with Apple.
He knows sixteen different programming languages, along with his way of keeping his games free for everyone to enjoy. “Outside of my old development in Roblox, I have yet to earn profit from games,” he said. “I like to keep all of my games free so everyone can enjoy them as much as possible.” He spoke of how games in the future will require money for creating, so eventually there will have to be some cost to play to keep up with the costs of creating.
Paukert recalled his first glimpse at the beginning of his programming future when he was around six years old. Paukert picked up programming on his own from the experience of video games. “I’ve always been interested in video games,” he said. For Paukert, starting out “was very frustrating. Took me about three years before figuring it out.” He got the idea to start his own company from when he first started programming. He had the mindset that he could turn making games into something big, so he started Sloth Studios. “I have always had a love for the sloth animal,” he said, “and thought it would be the perfect and fun name for the studio.”
“For promoting my games,” he said, “the primary way is to tell friends. Every time I have done so, they usually play the game and tell more people about it.” Paukert doesn’t use any ads to promote his games, and uses the “word of mouth” method. He also occasionally will send out emails to promote his upcoming games and updates.
Along with his daily programming, Paukert is heavily involved with the band here at WAHS and has a star ranking with Scouts BSA. With all his dedication to other activities, Paukert works hard to keep up with all his busy extracurriculars. “In band, I currently play the tenor saxophone. Both coding and music are heavily demanding, but I make it a priority to keep practicing and improving at the saxophone while at home.” With this, while weekends can be stressful with coding, Paukert tends to take a break from programming to play saxophone on the weekends.
He said his family “has been highly supportive of programming. From the start, they listen to whatever crazy or good ideas I may come up with.” Paukert said how his parents have helped him a ton with keeping his games safe, and by making Sloth Studios a legit company. “I probably wouldn’t be at the same skill level that I am today without them.”
Paukert took inspiration from the video game “Undertale,” by Toby Fox. “‘Undertale’ has recently been the absolute greatest inspiration for a ton of ideas and projects currently in the works. As well as continuing to push myself to create something extraordinary.” According to Paukert, “the game [‘Undertale’] is full and rich with the best gaming story I’ve ever encountered, along with a 100+ song soundtrack, all created by one person.” With this, Paukert doesn’t have a favorite video game of the ones he has created. His games go from horror games to progression games, making a wide spread of variety amidst all the genres.
With Sloth Studios, Pauker stated that, “I hope to achieve something that when someone plays it, they get a happy feeling or it becomes their new favorite game.” He also wants to inspire others to keep programming what they love. “Don’t give up” is Austin’s advice for anyone who wants to succeed with programming. He says that after that rough patch in coding, it is smooth sailing.
