I'm Cynthia and I like illustration, mysteries and colorful stuff. My work can be found here, if that gives any insight on my interests and the look I want to achieve.

I've thought of making games before but I never really knew how to approach them, so what better way to get myself in gear than by going headfirst into My First Game Jam! I spectated the first one back in January and was disappointed I couldn't join at the time, but this time I'm going to try my best!

The game is code named to be Family at the moment, but I'm not sure I'll be sticking with it since I feel it's a bit revealing. I don't want to share too many details on the story of the game since my primary focus is actually building the game itself, but I will be considering the optional theme of it being loosely based off a popular story.

Concept

I want to create a game with a focus on interaction with the environment in first person. Similar to how investigation scenes in Ace Attorney games work or how escape the room scenes in Zero Escape play out, I want the have the emphasis on the inspection of items. My goal is to make an exploration adventure game driven by narrative.

I thought about using a text-based engine only, but I don't really consider my writing up to the task, haha.

Engine

I've decided to settle on using and learning the Unity engine. I foresee a lot of my time going into working with the engine, and not so much as working on artwork assets, but I'm prepared to take on the challenge since I thought the 3D environment would be the best to boost my game concepts atmosphere.

Goal

My idea is to construct the game based on my limits of artwork and writing, not so much coding. My goal is to follow a game through to completion, so that means cutting out things I don't understand to save time on having to learn them.

The bottom line for me is to learn how to compile all the assets and idea into a working game.

Thank you for reading and I hope to keep my devlog updated on any progress or learning I come across on my journey!

(This is also my Day 0/1 log since I spent the day 1 researching engines and finally deciding on Unity...!)

x Cy

Heya! For Day 2 I threw myself right into the heart of the storm- 3D MODELING?!

There are going to be three characters total, including the player. SO! I drew up one of three characters' front and side view, as shown below, for my modeling reference. Unfortunately, drawing a character was as far as I could remember in terms of preparing for modeling a character so I was going headfirst into model mystery...

A basic design so I don't go nuts trying to do something super complicated, haha...

I haven't used Blender in literal years so there were mistakes to be had all over the place, but I was UNDETERRED and very entertained by the silly, small mess ups I've made.

Yes, sprout gills for me.

That's okay. Break time/dinner for me after many fiascoes.

Afterwards I got right back into starting again from scratch.

I've finally conjured up something decent at... 2am.

I tend to hop around between different things when doing anything to keep myself entertained while working, so aside from flunking and trying to model over and over again, I've also did some reading up on Unity and learning about the basics on getting things going in it. Lots of resources to be digested tonight!

And of course, I was spinning my narrative through my head all day- I don't have any notes to share since they're obviously FULL of spoils, but I'm really excited to be piecing a story together.

Day 2 recap

• Modeled a character like, five hundred times and got stronger after each failure.
• Studied Unity.
• Brainstormed a ton on the narrative and characters (read: watched a suspense movie for inspiration).

Days 4 and 5

Sorry for the lack of updates, but I scared myself so bad believing I irreversibly messed up on Paz's model but I didn't and all is good! The not good part is that I was so upset thinking I couldn't fix anything that I stopped working on any like, visual pieces and just spent my days in temporary grief and plot development. That, and I've been getting my butt kicked coming home from work ultra tired. What a tale!

Day 6

I figured most of the model out and went ahead with texturing. My SUPER friend Tucker helped me solve all sorts of awkward weirdo probs I've run into with Blender; bless him.

I played around with the textures and got something I really like that's close to my art style and I'm real pleased especially considering how much trial & error I went through, omg.

However, now that I think about it, I highly doubt she'll make it into the final cut before the game jam ends, so it was fun while it lasted! I'm very attached to the story I've written so I hope to flesh out the rest of the game afterwards when I'm not on super crunch time, haha.

Beside spending a bunch of time in Blender, I also messed in Unity with the first person camera as well as wrote flavor text for some items. Not much to show on that part.

I hope to spend a lot more time in Unity now that I've realized I OUGHT TO PRIORITIZE THAT LOL.

x Cy

buhh same i always get home really tired. this is model is really awesome though i hope you continue with it after the jam!