November 28, 2012
By Marcus Priaulx
Hours of playing computer games instilled a dream within Jacinta Bligh.
The 17-year-old would plug her Nintendo 64 into the tele and sit for hours as she tried to get Mario to rescue the princess.
Mario is now long-gone and the Murgon State High School graduate is about to enter the realms of high-definition graphics when she studies at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane to become a computer games designer.
Animation and 3-D design will be part of her three-year Bachelor of Games and Interactive Entertainment.
Jacinta is calm about the prospect of moving from her country town to the city, a three-hour drive away.
She admits she wasn’t a great academic at school but she went to class every day and passed her subjects.
She also helped a friend already studying the course she is about to begin with his assignments.
“It will be great to work together and maybe go on to give people something fun to do and possibly entertaining millions of people,” she said.
Her future may well lay in Japan or the United States where many computer games are built.
“If I could, I’d rather stay and if that means grouping with people and starting a small company then so be it,” she said.
Jacinta will be joined by 16 other South Burnett Year 12 indigenous graduates at Murgon Town Hall tomorrow night (November 29) to celebrate the end of their schooling and take their first steps into the world of jobs, careers and bright future.
