_{Courtesy of @Karythina, thank you and bless your soul.}

Hi guys!! It's me, your pal Lys here to start the hype train an entire month early! I thought the forum looked awfully lonely without anything in it, so I decided I'd get things started by booting up a little discussion here.

If you don't already know me, I'm Lysander, your small and anxious co-admin, and I'm a writer with a passion for storytelling through various mediums. One of my absolute favorites is game development, no matter how small or sloppy the project is. I really, REALLY believe everyone should give game development a try because it opens up so many possibilities for seeing your ideas come to life! Outside of that, I'm a 21 year old noncisgendered asian american going to school for web development while also dealing with some moderate anxiety issues. I want everyone to feel welcome here and to not be afraid! I know how intimidating it can be to try something new, so that's why we're all here together!

Now that that's out of the way, please feel free to introduce yourself! Here's a little something to get you started:

1. Hi there! What's your name? Want to introduce yourself?

2. Did you participate in the last jam we held? If so, what do you plan on doing better this time? If not, what's your reason for joining?

3. What games are your favorites? Did any of them inspire you, or made you want to make your own?

4. Do you have experience with game development? What did you do/with what engine?

5. Tell us about something you're passionate about!

Let's get to know eachother!

1. Hi I'm Karythina. I'm an agender wish-I-was-a-golem-fantasizer who has self-destructive tendencies and severe problems with interpersonal relationships. Great start, now to make a game.

2. I joined the last game jam and made a command-line mini RPG in Python. I'm proud of it because I coded it from scratch and learned as I went. I'm embarrassed by it because it's really really awkwardly coded and kind of lackluster compared to what other people made. I'm not sure what I'll "do better" this time just yet, I'm still debating what and how I'll be doing anything at all.

3. I have been always fascinated and inspired by ANSI and ASCII games. I just love the abstract and yet sorta minimal-ness of simple symbols and colors representing various things. ZZT was one of the earlier games I played on a computer and its level creator blew my little mind away. Nethack and roguelikes are other favorites. BBS games like Legend of the Red Dragon, Dwarf Fortress. For more gameplay inspiration, the Wizardry and Etrian Odyssey series are some of my favorites too, I love a good dungeon crawler.

4. Well, I made that thing in Python, but I wouldn't say I have too much serious game dev experience outside of that. A couple tiny Twine games, some as a joke.

5. I'm very bad at talking about myself so I have a hard time describing my passions. I like numbers and stuff. Artificial beings are pretty cool and so is the whole philosophical aspect of it. I do like philosophy too for whatever that's worth.

Hello! I'm Steven. I like to pretend I can draw and I'm really shy. I did join the last game jam and I want to make something that is much simpler so I can actually finish. The first time, I was using Unity to make a 3D game because I felt comfortable with the engine itself but tried making all the art assets myself which was a huge mistake. I'm probably going to use Game Maker this time which I'm far more familiar with. My favorite kind of games are survival horror, particularly Silent Hill and Fatal Frame. Although these are my favorite games, they've actually given me more of an interest in movies. I have experience with Game Maker going back years but I've only made very simple platformers. I'm passionate about animation such as in cartoons and it's something I aspire to as a career.

1. Hey, I'm Zalonar/Zal and I don't know how to talk to people...hi!

2. I was in the last game jam and made a three level platformer. This go around I'm gonna try to use unity to prototype a game idea I've had in my head for a few years.

3. Some of my favorite games are LoZ: Wind Waker, Kingdom Hearts 2, and Skullgirls. They definitely inspired me to make games. Particularly MikeZ's streams showing the updates he was putting into Skullgirls made really want to make my own.

4. My main game dev experience comes from making platformers in GameMaker. I mostly just plan out gameplay mechanics in my head and draw character concepts. I'm learning Blender right now for 3d models, so there's that!

5. Mechanics! How things move! art/animation/gameplay! I love seeing how the little parts of something affect everything else in it. I'm a huge fan of Mechanics-As-Metaphor in games, so if I can tell a story in a game with how it plays, I'll be happy!

1. Hi! I'm Victor.

2. I was in the previous jam and I made Bipo's Adventure! I finished it with 5 levels during the jam, and after the jam I updated it to make the levels bigger and add more stuff. I'd like to try something different this time since a lot of the platformer engine needs I had were already in Construct 2. I want to challenge myself more this time.

3. Some of my favorite games are Wind Waker, Chibi-Robo, Xenoblade Chronicles, Kirby, Undertale, and Animal Crossing. The closest to inspiration for Bipo's Adventure was Kirby as far as the simple looking character and cute style. Almost any video game I've played has inspired me to make games.

4. While I had fooled around with some game making programs before, the first "my first" jam was... my first game(jam) ever. So my gamedev experience is I did that one jam. I improved the game around a month after the jam ended and I'm pretty pleased with how that went.

5. My passions are rabbits, music, rain, my wife, playing bass, pixel art, any magical or sci fi world, and also Overwatch right now lol.

I'm really excited to finally make a game again! I hit a rough patch so to speak right after the last one ended and never really got back to it. Also excited to see all the cool entries (or even cool stuff that doesn't get finished) during this jam! Good luck everyone! YOU CAN DO THIS!

1. Hi, I'm Jp. I'm a hardcore Nintendo fan, and I get sad about the death of Paper Mario on various occasions.

2. Yeah I participated in the last jam, was making something for school. Gotta admit I'm not that proud of what I made, not because of the programming but because of the lack of imagination in it. I blame it on my instructor because he wanted it to be an educational game. I know you can still find ways to use imagination on that, but I just didn't feel like putting my creative energy into it. There should be 0 limits to that.

This jam will take place during the summer, when I'll be away from that guy, so this time I'll be trying to make something with much more imagination, and way better gameplay!

3. I love a lot of games, but I gotta say that my favorite game will always be Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door. An amazing hybrid of a 3D platformer and an RPG. Nintendo doesn't seem to be inspired by it anymore, so I wanna make a game like it myself! Hopefully I'll be able to accomplish that to some extent this coming summer game jam, and build more on it beyond the jam!

4. Yes, I do have experience with game development. I have a lot of experience with GameMaker (still have a bunch of struggles with it) and a bit of Unity.

5. I'm passionate about making video games and maybe sometime in the future, making YouTube videos! I wanna make games in the future, but at the same time I don't wanna be an artist that's in the background. I don't only want people to be exposed to my art, I want them to be exposed to my personality, too!

So yeah, rock on you guys. Show everyone what you've got this summer. <3

1. Hi there! What's your name? Want to introduce yourself?

You can call me Xian Xian. I'm an Afro-Latina/Chinese American person who writes a lot of stuff, but has dealt with awful writer's block for the past year and a half or the better way to say it, is writing and starting projects but never finishing them. So lately I have turned to Game development. But I know nothing about game development and the most complicated thing I have ever done is Twine and I literally just figured out the If variable or Macro thing.

2. Did you participate in the last jam we held? If so, what do you plan on doing better this time? If not, what's your reason for joining?

Yes I have participated in the last jam. What I plan on doing better is not to rush, create something coherent, and feel satisfied with it.

3. What games are your favorites? Did any of them inspire you, or made you want to make your own?

I'm big into story heavy games, I guess I can say. I've always loved RPGs and books, so I can say there's a lot of stuff that inspires me. Twine is probably the greatest thing I have ever discovered bc it combines storytelling with gaming. The last game I've played that freaking knocked the hell out of me due to its coolness is freaking Virtue's Last Reward. Although I will admit the puzzles were annoying.

4. Do you have experience with game development? What did you do/with what engine?

I've been doing Twine. Playing with CSS, copying and pasting from style sheets provided on Glorious Trainwrecks and modifying them into what I desire. CSS is probably the most nerve wracking part of it.

5. Tell us about something you're passionate about!

I'm passionate about literature and creating things. I literally go to sleep thinking about plots because I fear I will forget them.

1. Hey I'm Comet or Prince! Im a television who either tries too hard or doesnt try hard enough

2. This is the first game jam I've ever done! I wasnt so sure about joining but then figured that if I did I'd have something to actually work on over the summer and have to actually try to finish a project, even if it was something small

3. Some of my favourite games are Okami, the Zero Escape series, and a lot of tiny little indie projects!! I think that by far the indie games really inspired me the most! I figured that if people can put there stuff out there for others to enjoy, I can at least attempt to do that myself!

4. I have about zero experience with any actual game development, but I've done some Twine stories and fiddled around in Ren'Py and RPGMaker. I have a little bit of coding experience that might be of use though

5. Uhhh I'm pretty okay at drawing! I'm also very much into worldbuilding and character design and I love music! My interests tend to drift a lot but those are ones that always stay

1. Hi there! What's your name? Want to introduce yourself?

I'm Ivory, queer and agender (they/them). I work part-time as a contract writer for a video game company, but also write a ton of fic for various fandoms.

2. Did you participate in the last jam we held? If so, what do you plan on doing better this time? If not, what's your reason for joining?

I didn't because I had no time due to a Mandarin immersion program I was in. And I'd really like to be able to make a game of my own from scratch, which has been on my mind a while. This will give me the impetus to actually sit down and do it.

3. What games are your favorites? Did any of them inspire you, or made you want to make your own?

I love way too many games, but some faves are Black Closet, Fallout New Vegas, and the Persona series. However, I'd honestly say that my exposure to a lot of indie projects and games (thanks to my friend Olivia) is what gave me the inspiration to want to make my own.

4. Do you have experience with game development? What did you do/with what engine?

Beyond fussing around in Twine for some small projects, not really. My job is solely on the writing side, so I don't do any of the dev work.

5. Tell us about something you're passionate about!

Putting more explicitly nonbinary characters into video games! I've already done it once, but that's nowhere near enough. Also LGBTQ+ history is a big hobby of mine.

Hey there, I'm Arachnibot. I make thing and suck at writing about myself. If you don't know me, I participated in the previous jam, but I didn't finish. I'm thinking that I should fix that this time by planning more and aiming even smaller.

My favorite games include Undertale, Dark Souls, Hyper Light Drifter, Splatoon, Overwatch, Pokemon, OneShot, and a million more.

I don't have any real game dev experience. Well, not unless you count the heaps of half-started prototypes I've made.

If I were to pick a passion, it would be making music. I'm not a fantastic composer, but I'd say it's my greatest skill.

1. Hi there! What's your name? Want to introduce yourself?

Hello~ I'm Meeshster. I'm a black... recent?(if you call two years ago recent) computer game design college grad. My ultimate goal is getting into the game design business, whether that's in indie development doing my own thing or at a company. My ideal plan is... Well, I haven't figure that out, yet. To cut to the chase, I'm generally an unsure lady with terrible confidence in my skills trying my best to find and keep motivation.

2. Did you participate in the last jam we held? If so, what do you plan on doing better this time? If not, what's your reason for joining?

I did participate in MFGJ last winter! My only goal was to find some kind of drive and at least begin the creation of something, with hopes to continue it after the end of the jam. While the first part kind of worked... The second did not. I'm actually very unsure what I should do better during this jam or even how. In essence, everything. But being that general usually doesn't get my anywhere. I'm hoping to figure it out while I go!

My reason for joining again, and continuing to join, is that, personally, it kind of 'forces' me so to speak to be creative and just do something. I'm terrible about doing so by myself, always putting excuses in front of me (mental/physical tire from work, distractions at home, current and past frustrations of my work, etc.), and since my main force of school work with a due date is gone, the next best thing is a game jam. Ideally, continuing this trend will eventually slap me into a habit of creating and building my portfolio on my own time for no reason and without feeling like it's an obligation. I /know/ I enjoy drawing and animating, I just got to get to a point where it's a habit again, like it was in school!

And while building good habits is my main goal, I also want to learn to network a bit more; meet my fellow jammers and communicate a little. I went to peoples' devlogs and commented from time to time in the last game jam, but I feel like I can be more social than that. Maybe make a colleague or a friend or two, maybe even find a potential teammate! I feel it's a good quality to have in the line of work I would like to do, and jams can be a great way to work on that.

3. What games are your favorites? Did any of them inspire you, or made you want to make your own?

My interests flip-flop often, and big changes of opinion has hit me lately. A few years ago, for example, Kingdom Hearts and Fire Emblem would be two major favorite series. Still good, just not on my list anymore! All-time favorites are mostly RPGs and otherwise that had plots I love, whether they're silly, ridiculous or a mass favorite. They also tend to have some neat gameplay mechanics to boot. I really enjoy Lost Odyssey (am enjoying-- working on beating it~), the Golden Sun series, Glory of Heracles, and Asura's Wrath.

I'm terrible with inspiration, but I would want to say that these four game series do inspire me somewhat! They give me a 'huh' faction and allow me to think of what I would do differently, whether I liked a direction they took with something, and get me raving and talking about how they make you play their game. They really do make me want to make my own games, or at least go "I'd love to do some fun stuff like that".

4. Do you have experience with game development? What did you do/with what engine?

I have dev experience mostly through school and last winter's jam. I've messed with Unity and Unreal for my classes as well as Construct, and Stencyl in the last jam. I wouldn't say I'm decent with either of them though, since I don't use them frequently enough to actually remember how to do certain things.

I also 3D model and animate with 3D Studio Max and Maya, and teaching myself a little with Blender! I find those super fun to do when I force myself to make time for it! As of last jam, I've taught myself (pseudo?) 2D pixels and animation as well. Also fun~

5. Tell us about something you're passionate about!

I really like character and world-building, and animation. Those are the 2 things that I find most fascinating in any show, movie or game. Eventually, I would like to make a living doing either of those things (animation being the go-to for a few years. But now, I'm unsure...)!

1. Hi there! What's your name? Want to introduce yourself?

My name is Yuceer. I am a software engineer and currently studying illustration and animation. I want to work in an indie game company since I would like to perform flexible roles during projects. I like experimenting and searching for new things. I don't like to spend my time doing the same things over and over again.

2. Did you participate in the last jam we held? If so, what do you plan on doing better this time? If not, what's your reason for joining?

Unfortunately, I didn't participate in a jam activity before, since I was busy with life and my university projects.

But, I wanted to make computer games since I got my first computer (a PC) in 1990. The very first games that I played with joy are Packman and Alley Cat. Unfortunately, I didn't fully commit to making a game, since I was an introvert child and hadn't friends to work together to make games. When I was growing up, I concerned about earning money, and computer games were not known for making money in those times. After a long time, I realised that I was wrong about it, and should do what I like to do as a profession.

3. What games are your favorites? Did any of them inspire you, or made you want to make your own?

Mostly, I like RPG games (such as Torchlight), and car racing games (such as Need for Speed series). I also like FPS games with branching consequences upon players decisions (such as Deus Ex series), and turn-based strategy games (such as UFO Enemy Unknown). The component that attracts me most is characters gaining skills and customising the character in both visuals and properties according to my style of playing.

For making games, many times, I got some inspirations, but I didn't put enough effort into them and left too early. Since this minute, I put my word on that I will push it to the end!

4. Do you have experience with game development? What did you do/with what engine?

I haven't completed making a computer game before, but I have some experience in Unity. I believe that I can make decent stories, characters designs, environment designs, object designs. I can also turn 2d designs into 3d models, rig them and animate them. My favorite tools are my pencil, my Wacom tablet, and Blender, but also I have some experience using Maya and 3ds Max. Additionally, I can say that I am good at using Photoshop and Illustrator, and I can make algorithms and scripts both in JavaScript and C#. But, I prefer working on art more that programming.

5. Tell us about something you're passionate about!

I am excited about experimenting, researching, and combining things to create new things: writing stories, making fictional characters and worlds.

I like being excited in the creative flow, working in an incredible synergy, and never care about anything during that period. To me, that's the total freedom! That's the real living life! My bliss is having people around me understands what I just said!

1. Hi there! What's your name? Want to introduce yourself?

I'm Hayley / Aprilcot and I'm a freshman in college for visual arts.

2. Did you participate in the last jam we held? If so, what do you plan on doing better this time? If not, what's your reason for joining?

I was in the last one! I'm going to try a different engine and do a different genre of game! I might even try making my own music, but let's cross that bridge when we get to it, haha

3. What games are your favorites? Did any of them inspire you, or made you want to make your own?

I really love Legend of Mana! It made me want to be a better person and was such a wonderful escape from my home life. I want others to experience the same feeling. Colorful games are really good, or unconventional mechanics like Chrono Trigger, Ghost Trick.

4. Do you have experience with game development? What did you do/with what engine?

I made a dating sim(?) with renpy last time. I barely finished it, but it was a blast. I also picked up html/ css from editing a website and I use that in my twines.

5. Tell us about something you're passionate about!

I love frogs! Also "How It's Made" videos.

1. Hi there! What's your name? Want to introduce yourself?

Hiya! I'm Fenfel and I'm a 22 years old guy who is in their last year of University if all goes well.

2. Did you participate in the last jam we held? If so, what do you plan on doing better this time? If not, what's your reason for joining?

Yep, participated in the last jam and didn't complete what I wanted to do but got something done! I plan to actually make something short and finish it this time and learn more stuff.

3. What games are your favorites? Did any of them inspire you, or made you want to make your own?

Let's see... Mario Bros 3, Startropics 2, Megaman X, Nuclear Throne, Zelda: Link Between Worlds, Hyper Light Drifter, and I can't really think of much more that I really really love over the rest. I'm not sure how much they have inspired me, if they have at all, but I want to make a simple platformer game that it's just a nice time!

4. Do you have experience with game development? What did you do/with what engine?

My only experience is what I did in the previous jam in gamemaker. I just made a basic platformer with some animations and stuff like being able to hit enemies.

5. Tell us about something you're passionate about!

I really like drawing! Even though it is just a hobby of mine. I also really like nice cute stuff. Aside from that I enjoy watching a few videogame streams every now and then.

1. Hi there! What's your name? Want to introduce yourself?

Dang, already did that on the last thread but, hey ho, I'm Greg. I am an honours graduate in Games Design and Production Management.

2. Did you participate in the last jam we held? If so, what do you plan on doing better this time? If not, what's your reason for joining?

This is the first time I have ever heard of this jam and, suffice it to say, I need more work on my portfolio so I have a better chance at actually getting a job as a games designer.

3. What games are your favourites? Did any of them inspire you, or made you want to make your own?

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was the first game I ever played, it taught me the power of "game feel". Skullgirls Encore taught me the nuance of a genre I once found derivative and inspired me to actually prove that fighting games can be welcoming to newcomers (Hell, I wrote a whole dissertation on it!)!

4. Do you have experience with game development? What did you do/with what engine?

Primarily fiddled with Game Maker: Studio as a hobby but proper development is sadly very lacking, hence my presence here.

5. Tell us about something you're passionate about!

Fighting games! Single Player experiences! Clever Tutorials! Game Mechanics! Throwing Myself Physically into a Presentation of My Work! Documentation! Studying Game Design!

Hey everyone. I'm Cam. I'm a designer, artist and animator. I'm also teaching myself to program (I'm a numpty).

I've been planning to do a Game Jam for some time but never had the guts to do it. I've never felt ready, I know I'll just let myself down and be disappointed with myself at the end of it. I decided it's time to jump in, ready or not.

When I was very young I'd go around saying I wanted to work at Nintendo. What I didn't realise was that I wanted to make games in general, Nintendo was just the standard I aspired to. So obviously a lot of what Nintendo have done over the years has inspired me. I enjoy plenty of obscure games, although typically they're from smaller dev teams (just seem to have more soul).

I have never made a game before, but I've done many tutorial series/courses on Unity in C#. I have very little confidence in my programming ability but I hoping this will accelerate things and give me confidence to keep doing Game Jams.

I've worked at a small but successful software company where I was in a very hands on role with UX and UI design. I've also worked as an animator on a TV show and a designer in a branding agency. I (for better or worse) set a very high bar for myself and others.

What I want most out of a career is to be able to entertain people through my work .I'd be happy to only have to work part time in a "everyday" job because my video games are supporting me.

Good luck, everyone!

1. Hi there! What's your name? Want to introduce yourself?

Hi, I'm Zen! I'm an Economic fresh grad, did some illustration and 3D models as hobby and now switching to programming. Really bad at writing plots and looks confused most of the times.

2. Did you participate in the last jam we held? If so, what do you plan on doing better this time? If not, what's your reason for joining?

This is my first game jam ever so I'm totally excited! Joining for the sake of experience and to actually complete a game project.

3. What games are your favorites? Did any of them inspire you, or made you want to make your own?

Mostly RPG and puzzles games such as Zero Escape Series, Undertale, Journey, Monument Valley, Final Fantasy VII, Tales Of series and more!

4. Do you have experience with game development? What did you do/with what engine?

Made a VN using Ren'Py few years ago and breakout-pong game clone with javascript recently. Also, a little bit experience in RPGMaker and Unity. Art-wise, photoshop and blender are my best friends.

5. Tell us about something you're passionate about!

Learning new stuff especially in design and technology. I think I'm gearing towards anything related to interactive media

1. Hi there! What's your name? Want to introduce yourself?

Mmm hi, I'm Zack. Not really. I study literature and I'm pretty awkward and quiet :D

2. Did you participate in the last jam we held? If so, what do you plan on doing better this time? If not, what's your reason for joining?

Nope. I want to try something new... and it felt like it was now or never.

3. What games are your favorites? Did any of them inspire you, or made you want to make your own?

It all started with OFF... then starbot... and i kept looking for games like those. They totally inspired me but I want to make my own.

4. Do you have experience with game development? What did you do/with what engine?

None, I´m a blank sheet.

5. Tell us about something you're passionate about!

I enjoy reading and making up stories in my head... i guess that's all.

(I'm not a child, i swear)

Hello! You can call me Savi! I'm in my first year studying Information Systems. English is not my native language so I apologize for any grammar mistakes.

I love drawing, playing music and programming so I thought making games was the perfect way to combine all those things. Since I'm learning C# in college, I chose to make games with Unity. I also tried GameMaker but I end up using Unity anyway…

I've been inspired by many games (Papers,Please, Undertale, Pokemon, Bioshock, Professor Layton, Cave story, Phoenix Wright, OFF, Super Chroma Squad, No-one has to die, and basically all Daniel Linssen's games) and I wanted to make a simple game where I could use everything I learned from those games about game design and telling stories so, last year, I began making very basic platformers using Unity. I found out about this jam through Louie Zong but it had already ended so I waited until summer to join and now I'm here! I haven't decided yet but I'm considering making a team for this jam! Up until now I've been using Unity, Photoshop (pixel art) and Famitracker. I also tried to drag a friend to join the jam but he doesnt know if he will be able to...

So I guess that's it. I hope to meet many people and have a great time making games.