Game Design
Video games offer all the ingredients for top-tier engagement - visual stimulation, immersive sound, compelling story, and interactivity! What we have here are some early experiments and Game Jam projects to gain a better understanding of the game development process, including art, sound, storytelling, development, publication, and project management.
Right: A final boss sprite I designed and animated using a combination of keyframe and frame-by-frame techniques.
Above: Title screen lettering and animation. Sound design by Nematic Fifth Music.
‘The Crucible’
The Crucible was my second video game jam, and I wanted the experience of assembling, collaborating, and succeeding with a team. I was fortunate to find a fellow artist who enjoyed creating a multitude of level prop art, cut scene stills, and character designs for dialogue.
Above: I created the concept for the overall look and feel of the game. My art team co-member (Printergeist) took the lead on creating the narrative character art and props, while I focused on environments and UI. We also collaborated closely on the script.
Teamwork makes the dream work
Our team included an aspiring Godot game engine developer, a sound/music designer, and someone without any prior, specialized experience, but with a keen interest in game development, who was mentored by the teams developer throughout the project. The art team led the charge on drafting the script and organizing the teams efforts via Trello and Discord.
The rules of the game jam capped the number of team members to five, and I was grateful for the support of our second artist, who was wonderful to work with.
Above: Working under a tight timeline magnifies the importance of efficiency, and our team used Figma to flowchart the games progression, incorporate scripted elements, and illustrate the placement of artwork and UI elements, creating a clear vision for everyone to follow.
A race against the clock…
The night before the game jam deadline, there was still plenty of work to do. Our heroic dev team worked through the night and fought through a critical system crash to make the game functional, submitting it with only 4 minutes to spare!
How to make your first video game
‘The Spreadening’ was my first foray into game development, and submitted as part of the Pirate Software Game Jam.
I quickly discovered that the learning curve for most video game engines would be too steep for a noobie in a time crunch, but I eventually found Ren’Py - a visual novel-focused game engine that was a perfect fit for the hand drawn art style I envisioned. To elevate the visual novel into a proper (simple) game, I learned a pinch of the Python programming language to build a basic rock-paper-scissors mechanic, and voila!
Above: A few of the hand drawn environments that made the cut. Many sketches will forever lie on the cutting room floor due to time.
Works in progress…
I’m currently working on a few indie game projects that are in the early stages of development. Below are examples of concept sketches, title graphics, and character sprites that I’ve created.
