For their first event of the semester the Computer Science and Technology club hosted “A Field Guide to Common Nerds” on September 23rd. Although the terminology of the presentation about people in the game coding industry may not have been understandable to all, the presenter’s story is one that we should all learn from.
Jason McDonald is the CEO of a company that is “dedicated to creating innovative solutions for education.” MousePaw games was started as a senior project and has evolved into a company capable of offering internships to numerous college students and graduates looking to get into the software development field.
When McDonald was a sophomore in high school he fell down a staircase and hit his head on a banister resulting in a grade three traumatic brain injury. When he woke up from the accident he couldn’t even read. Many doctors told him he would not be able to graduate high school or go to college. He thanks his mother for not accepting this answer and continuing to search for a doctor who could help him.
Eventually he was able to recover and graduate high school with a 3.9 GPA.
“Educational software was such a key part of that,” said McDonald.
Wanting to help kids going through similar experiences gave McDonald the drive to start MousePaw Games.
“There was once a lot of good educational software out there and most of it has ceased to exist. It’s left a market gap big enough for a truck to drive through,” said McDonald. “I wanted to ensure that whatever I built was going to be something that kids with learning disabilities, kids with head injuries, kids with autism or dyslexia could use the same game.”
Trailcrest, one of the games currently being developed by MousePaw games, is designed to match the players intelligence, lowering difficulty in content when the player struggles and increasing it as the player excels. It also gives teachers the ability to adjust the content that the students are seeing.
McDonald attended NIC for three semesters but has decided to focus on his company for the time being. He is currently tutoring NIC students in math and science and hopes to release his educational software by this time next year but says in the world of coding “it’s done when it’s done.”
