1. Hi there! What's your name? Want to introduce yourself?
Hey! I'm Justin (he/him). I'm, uh, extremely bad at talking about myself?
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've never participated in a jam before and honestly always thought it was something "real devs" did, but I was clicking around here and saw this one and decided to take a big swing. I'm terribly intimidated but it's been fun and sort of comforting to read all these introductions and already feel a bit of kinship with other beginners here.
3. What games are your favorites? Did any of them inspire you, or made you want to make your own?
Well, I could easily go on waaaaay too long on this one, but I'll try to keep it brief. Legend of Zelda was my favorite series for a long time, but was eventually supplanted by anything BioWare (yes, that includes current BioWare; Andromeda was awesome and no one will convince me otherwise). At this point though I'm usually more excited about indie stuff than anything, and Supergiant is probably my favorite developer. Transistor is absolute perfection, and the ending makes me cry. Recently Celeste has totally blown me away, and yes I know I'm super late to that party.
4. Do you have experience with game development? What did you do/with what engine?
Years ago I found this program for making text adventures called Quest, and that got me rolling with the idea that I could actually make a game of my own, like I'd been dreaming about since I was six. From there I got into Twine, Clickteam Fusion, and a bit of Ren'Py, but I never really finished anything. I suspected for a long time that Unity was where I was headed, but I didn't feel ready for it. Nor did my computer, when I at one point downloaded it and it took ten minutes to start...yikes. A year or so and four times as much RAM later I'm finally getting going with it.
5. Tell us about something you're passionate about!
Almost anything creative. Music, writing, art, and about a hundred other things. Most of all right now I think probably worldbuilding. I've been working on the fictional world of my dream game for years, with multiple continents, tons of cultures, hundreds of years of history, a dozen different made up languages, two different forms of magic, and so many secrets to slowly reveal. Also at the moment I'm extremely passionate about the Haru Nemuri album Haru To Shura. And my cats.
6. What are your goals for this game jam?
To start to get a handle on Unity by putting a little bit of pressure on myself. I've always done better when there's an element of commitment to a project and a deadline. Of course sometimes I also fall apart for the same reason, so it's a bit of a die roll, lol. I'm also not a super social person naturally and it's good for me to do things with other people once in a while.
Cheers, everyone!