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...)!