Paul Davis '25

Paul Davis is a fourth-year undergraduate computer science and mathematics student specializing in game development and software engineering. The Westford, MA native is a member of the Commonwealth Honors College and Co-President of BUILD UMass, a student-run pro-bono tech consulting club servicing Amherst-area nonprofits.

This summer, Davis will spend 12 weeks in Orlando, Florida, pursuing his passion for the digital entertainment industry with an internship at Walt Disney Imagineering. We sat down to discuss Davis’s summer internship, from the application process to his advice for students who want to pursue a similar career path.

1. How did you become interested in game design?

I’ve always really loved video games because they’re a great way to connect with friends and have social experiences, especially through COVID—of course, my interest began way before then. Games have been a big part of my life for a long time; I started with playing Minecraft during fourth grade. I think they’re one of the most effective vectors of storytelling and art. I appreciate that there’s so much creativity and passion in the industry. There’s so much variety, from art and music to technology. It’s a space full of wonderful people that excites me to work in.

2. Can you tell me a little bit about the scope of the work you’ll be doing this summer? 

The team I’ll be joining builds technology in Unreal Engine for ride development. Some of the newer rides in Disney World or other parks integrate Unreal Engine into them; there’s one ride called Smuggler’s Run that is an interactive Star Wars ride set on the Millenium Falcon. The cockpit windows are big screens that shows space flying past, with outcomes based on choices the riders make. All of that is powered by Unreal Engine.

While what I’ll be doing isn’t game development directly, it is very much in the same vein.  It’s working with the same technology I enjoy using, telling stories and creating memorable experiences for people while furthering the brands that so many people know and love.

Disney Imagineering is at the forefront of so much innovation in that space—I mean, it’s Disney. I’m just so honored to support the storytelling efforts that Disney engages in.

3. What inspires you? 

Art that makes me feel something new, or something familiar presented in a new way. I very much believe in the power of storytelling, the weight it carries in social change and in helping us understand each other and ourselves.

I have three games in my mind as pieces of art and media that have fundamentally altered the way I experience the world: the first is Dark Souls III, which has wonderful storytelling, incredible thematic arcs, and some of the best character work and world-building in the industry. It opened my eyes to the different ways to tell stories, particularly through environmental storytelling. 

The next is Outer Wilds by Morbius Digital, where the whole experience is based on you uncovering knowledge of how to navigate the solar system you’re in and unraveling this mystery of “What’s going on?” Once you figure it out, you can beat the game in fifteen minutes. The player’s journey of gathering all the pieces is a unique form of storytelling. 

The third is Before Your Eyes, which is a lovely game you play with your web cam. You look around with your controller/mouse, but the game detects when you blink through your webcam and triggers the story to move onto the next scene as a commentary on life’s missed moments. Amazing music, amazing art all the way through. 

Those three games, specifically, anytime I think about them—and I think about them daily, weekly at least—really remind me of the kind of work that I want to be doing, the kind of projects I want to be on.  

4. What advice do you have for students who want to pursue a similar career path? 

Firstly, if you want to do it, just do it. And this goes for any specialized field that people caution you against pursuing—there’s so much uncertainty. The way I see it, if there’s something specialized that you want to do, it only gets harder to switch into that as you progress through your career. I was considering taking a more traditional path of software engineering initially and trying to get into game development later, but then I realized I could do it now. Maybe fail. And if I fail, I fail. When we’re young, we should try to fail fast and often. I also think a lot of the time you end up not failing and succeeding at the thing that you want to do.

You need to build a support system. I’m very lucky to have a strong external support system of friends and family; I also had a wonderful mentor, Michael Barba ‘22, a CICS alum who works at Lightforge Games. Additionally, CICS Careers has been so helpful. Brian and Casey at CICS Careers were the ones who initially connected me with Michael and they’ve been nothing but supportive, offering great advice, resume tips, and mock interviews all along the way.

I always recommend finding someone on LinkedIn who followed a similar path to the one you’d like to pursue: reach out to them to ask them what they did and how they got there. I found people—especially in the games industry—are incredibly willing to chat or to offer advice, because it’s a very tight-knit community. Personally, I am more than happy to share my experience and tell them what I did and how I got here. If people want to reach out to me, they can!