Brian Christian is a high school student with years of experience in programming, much of it focused on game development using GameMaker: Studio via self-teaching the GameMaker Language. He has also worked in C++ and JavaScript programming along with some web development. Additionally, he is knowledgeable in topics such as data formats and interpretation, compilers and interpreters, and networking. Other languages he has used include Intel x86 assembly, Lua, Ruby, and Python. Brian's spark for computer programming began with an online Ruby course from Codecademy. Since then, he has been fascinated with how computers and the different programming languages worked. Since he wanted to know about this, he taught himself C from the second edition of The C Programming Language book, followed by the more advanced C++ language. Wanting to try his hand at making advanced games with a language predominantly intended for it, Brian became invested in the GameMaker Language since he'd already been using the drag and drop functionality, but found it limiting. He spent a lot of time learning how different parts of the language worked and how to use them.