Hello! My name is Hazel. I’ve been a part of the game industry for a pretty big chunk of my life now, as an engineer and more recently as a tech & VFX artist. During my time, I’ve been sitting on what could be considered as a “dream game” of mine:

A 2D action JRPG, which would be visually inspired by the era of gaming during the transition to CD-ROMs (think the era between Sega CD and Saturn/PS1), featuring combat inspired by games like the Kingdom Hearts series, and dealing with themes of coping with self-doubt, overcoming imposter syndrome, and overall learning how to not be afraid of making mistakes and moving forwards.

Gameplay would be split between a classic 2D RPG-like overworld, and during battle would switch to a 2.5D brawler-like battle system inspired by the original GBA release of Chain of Memories and the Kingdom Hearts series in general. The pixel art style would borrow heavily from games like Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana, and the world would be populated by a cast of anthropomorphic characters (inspired by Klonoa, Tail Concerto, Solotorobo, and etc).

I actually had a working combat demo, which I called “Project Foxblade” (in reference to the main character, a fox boy named Leigh), a while ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9DJR7m4oUw

However, I have long since lost the original source code & assets. Recently, I’ve been at a point in my life where I can look at this project again, and I’ve been writing a brand new codebase from scratch. I have started to hit the point where I think I need help. I’m a solid engineer, a pretty good tech & vfx artist, and a decent illustrator, but honestly I’m not a good pixel artist and I’m an even worse writer. So that’s why I’m looking for help here!

Currently, my main short-term goal is to work on a new playable prototype which would help showcase a decent vertical slice of the game’s presentation and mechanics, as well as an accompanying pitch document, to court publishers to help with funding the team, marketing, etc.