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

Heyo! I'm Della! I'm 22, and a visual development artist. :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?

This will be my first game jam ever! I only very recently found out that people made small games in jam sessions about two years ago through IndieCade. First time I knew about indie games through them actually. It's really cool to see what people can make in such a small amount of time and I wanted to be a part of that :D

I hope to make friends and connections with this jam :)

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

I love games with a twist in gameplay, and/or ones that have a really nice message and feeling. Some of my favorite games are The Beginner's Guide, Journey, Undertale, Monument Valley, and it's not out yet but I did play it and loved it, Pavilion and Abzu. I also like Skyrim haha too many hours on that.

Again it was IndieCade that really inspired me to be very interested in being a part of this. For some reason I thought that there was an unspoken rule to make big games like triple A companies so when I saw games that were smaller it blew my mind!

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

For my senior thesis I made a game with two friends with Construct 2. It was very challenging since it was really just a small kind of demo to show off the animation and the "what ifs" of it. I did the background art, level design, and put it in Construct 2. I don't have any experience in programming, and I'm more interested in designing the art for the game, but it was a cool experience and I enjoyed working in a team!
Some art and concepts of the game, Empty that I made with my friends can be found on my portfolio: http://dellafolio.blogspot.com/

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

I enjoy cartoons, beautiful stories, walking in parks/hiking, and feeding my dad's pigeons. I also like watching How to videos and stop motion films.

If anyone wants to connect on early and talk, or maybe you have some game recommendations lets talk :D

I'm on Twitter, , but if you also have a Discord hit me up I'm @Dellacioso #7411

Edit: and you dont have either you can email me at dellacioso@gmail.com :)

Looking for a team!

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

What's up! My name's Elaine, and I'm a 21 y/o recently graduated concept artist. I currently specialize in stylized environments but would like to create a game of my own some day.

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 have not, this will be my first time :)
As a concept artist, my job is to create images but I've grown unsatisfied with just painting. Now I want to do even more and take it to the next level of playable pictures. I've started a personal project called Nascent (it's still in its baby stages) but I'd like to use it as a base for learning game dev and eventually make it into a game in the future.

My college was quite small so I also want to make new friends that also enjoy suffering for the love of expressing art :3c

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

I look up to games that make you feel nice but also awful, all in the lesson of learning, self-reflecting or just feeling something.
Some favorites are Journey, Shadow of the Colossus, Monument Valley, the Beginner's Guide, and Ori and the Blind Forest and Viridi. They all inspire me to tell a story than anyone can relate to, because we all feel loneliness, guilt and frustration but also hope and happiness.

I also volunteer at IndieCade and it's inspiring to hear the stories of the devs on how their small ideas and stories became a reality. Some of my favorites from them so far has been Mare, Hyper Light Drifter, Overland and Linelight.

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

I have absolutely no experience with gamedev engines :D ! But that's why I'm here :)

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

I love nature baths, plein-air painting, listening to music and watching films (and behind the scene stuff). Non-artistically, I like riding my motorbike, watching my orchid mantis eat, collecting plants during travels and challenging myself with spicy food.

Hit me up on Twitter! :D

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

I dev w/ PolyKnight Games and am a member of the Dallas Society of Play (DSoP). Your wonderful organizers dropped by and asked to help out some newbies if we had time. I'm pretty fresh myself, but I've cut my teeth on jams a fair amount by now. Also, I'm a Unity3d/2d guy.

Here to help, maybe make something.

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?

No I didn't. Here to help out some newbies. I might pump out a small jam, maybe try my hand at some programmer art.

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

This question requires an essay format. Any every game I played as a kid, even the ones that were bad looking back. I generally treat games as an art-form instead of entertainment, so I'd reference the game that made me view games as pieces of art: Sonic '06... and Planescape, Ico, Yume Nikki, SotC, Metal Slug, TLoZ:MM, Etc. This list is too long.

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

Programmer & Director @ PolyKnight Games. I work in Unity3d and normally make 3D games, but if I make a jam-game by myself it'll very likely be 2D. My real passion is level-design, but I happen to also be good at programming. Programming is in higher demand, so I do that.

10-Days of Dreaming (Jam)

Monster Truck (Jam)

FurBall (Jam)

WhiteWall (Jam)

InnerSpace

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

Dark Souls and GameDev. I won't spiel too much. I'm nice, looking forward to helping out some new gamedevs. You'll most easily find me on Twitter or in the Slack Channel.

1. I'm Leaf. :) 26, married, and a recent graduate with a degree in New Media Arts.

2. Nope, didn't participate last year, just now heard about this. I was already planning on making something this summer, seems like really great timing to do it in a game jam.

3. Final Fantasy XI inspired me beyond words. The immersive experience taught me to cherrish even the most basic interactions with people, and helped me cultivate an appreciation for my surroundings and experiences.

4. Very little. I've honestly never worked with an engine. I plan on coding something webased using Javascript/Coffeescript. I might develop the UI with Angular JS.

5. I'm an illustrator,I love art. My technical skills are also all pretty much web-based.

**EDIT 1/11/2021 This was written by my former self. I've since transitioned and my name is Clover. I removed their dead name and replaced it with what I refer to my past self as now. 

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

I'm Summer/Veo, owner of dragonGlitch Games LLC. I'm also one of the many folks from DSoP, Dallas Society of Play.

I'm 29 and female - my dayjob I am a software developer for IBM. My nightjob is working on video games. :)

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?

First time doing this jam, however, I am a game jam vet (11 game james completed, other side projects), and my main goal is help others through the game jam process. Please ask me questions and advice. :)

My other reason is to learn Shader Forge for my main project, Mercenary Leto. So my game this time will be small in scope with plenty of room to focus on the new technology.

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

My favorite game is Exile II : Crystal Souls.

Others - Super Maro RPG : Legend of the Seven Stars, Mario 3, Final Fantasy Tactics, Silent Hill 2, Undertale

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

I use Unity 2D, with Photoshop CC for sprites, and Graphics Gale for animating them. I occasionally use PaintTool SAI for sketch work.

I've made games in Php, Java, and ImpactJS, as well.

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

Reading, drawing, creating. Helping others in video games. Making my friends laugh. Cooking and cleaning for my boyfriend, whom I dearly love. :3

6. BONUS - Tips from a Game Jam Vet

After the 7th or 8th game jam I've done, I've come up with a schedule that helps me with manages scope - do this in order -

• 1/3 of the time for the jam - game is mechanically complete - ie, if it's Mario, you can jump on enemies and move and hit blocks. One screen prototype. Can be ugly, that's not the point of this step. The point is if your game loop is fun and short enough for you to build on it.
• 1/3 of the time - game is feature complete - ie, if Mario, you have all the levels and enemies and bosses you want. You can play the game from start to finish. Again, it still doesn't have to be pretty. Give to your friends to playtest at this point to find bugs.
• 1/3 of the time - make the game pretty - this is your time to polish, balance, and tweak anything that needs to be done.

* Don't have choice paralysis. Pick a game idea, pick an engine, and go. Finish it. Just do it. Even if it turns out terrible and you hate it.

* Ask for help.

* And above all, some of this advice may not work for you. Point is, all of us vets have different answers to your questions. We are all opinionated people, after all. But I would think all of us would say "just do it!" and couldn't be more proud. :)

1. I'm Autumn! I'm a 17 year old girl and I love to start projects. trying to get better at finishing them, and a deadline is a good way to do that!!

2. I did not participate in the last one (I didn't even know about it). a few people I follow on twitter are participating this time and it sounds fun!

3. my absolute favorite video game is pokemon mystery dungeon explorers (lmao). I also love persona 3 and bravely default.

4. I have no game dev experience! I drew character art for a friend's game last year (unrelated to a jam) but it never saw the light of day...

5. I'm very passionate about storytelling and this'll be a good medium for the one I have in mind!!

1. Heya! I'm Ethan. I like puns a lot, and consider myself decent at writing and quick wit.

2. Didn't participate in the last one. One of my friends tipped me off to this jam's existence, so I decided to join to try a new genre.

3. Oooh, I like all sorts of games. Really, it would be easier to tell you the ones I don't like: Fighting, racing, trading card games. Also, any game that doesn't have any sort of end goal beyond beating your own score, a la Crossy Road. I want some form of direction in my games. I wanted to make games for a long time, but never got around to learning anything until the past year or so.

4. I have, like I said before, about a year of experience. I have 6 games out on my team's website (http://www.topbunkstudios.blogspot.com/), but I only had a hand in 4.

5. I just want to make games that people will hopefully enjoy. I want to improve the world a little bit with my games. I want somebody to point to one of my games and say: "That, that right there, brightened up my day a little bit."

Good luck to you all!

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

Hey! I'm Ashanti. I'm 19, a comic artist and illustrator, and way excited to be participating in this jam.

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 hear about the first jam until it was over! Making games is something I've always wanted to do, and this seems like a really great environment for getting started with it.

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

I've always loved games, but some (old and new) favorites are Harvest Moon, Animal Crossing, Cave Story, the older Fire Emblem games, and Hatoful Boyfriend haha....I've got tons of games I enjoy, though. What I take away from all of my favorite games is a good time and a real sense of the love and care put into them by the people who made them, and I want to create a similar feeling in what I do!

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

None. I have plenty of experience with the visual art side of things, and a little experience with a couple programming languages. I'll be using RenPy for this one.

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

Storytelling! Big time. I think it's one of the most important things we can do as humans. I'd like to tell powerful stories through various mediums, including games.

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

I go by Bobby when i'm not behind a digital avatar - also Mozz and ModernModron

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?

so i'd fall under the catagory of "semi-experienced developer" however, I have never actually done a Twine game, despite adoring the format, so I wanted to use this as an opportunity to write something for once, as well as be a resource for the community :)

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

I adore adventure games, the old point-and-click as well as hybrid games that take inspiration from them. Just finished Dreamfall Chapters and im pretty hyped to doing story

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

I've used various engines, gamemaker, pico-8, puzzlescript and I usually go for games about exploration or weird games that are mostly static!

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

I really love the element of suprise you get from jam games, what people are able to pull off, the sheer creativity - I love it.

Hej!

I'm Kuroe, 24, still trying out to figure out life I guess. Socially awkward, but doesn't show much on the interwebs.

I've never participated in a jam before, nor made a single game. But I want to! That's why I'm here. So yeah, I'm very much a newbie in everything. Also I don't even remember how I heard about this jam.

I tend to be all over the place when doing something because I wanna try every damn thing. So my main goal here is to actually manage to make a game, even if it sucks. I tried to learn C++ but got bored because boring examples & exercises. I need more concrete stuff. I just finished a small class in digital painting, focused on concept art I think? (I'm not even sure anymore because really we covered the basics under a few months; it was just a short distance class with a Swedish university) I also took a small creative writing class a couple of years ago (apparently I'm good at poetry even though I don't like it). That's for the loosely related to video-game stuff.

My favourite games are Portal and Dishonored. But Portal is really on top of the list forever and ever. But I don't want to make a puzzle-like game. I don't really know what time of game I'd like to do. I guess I'll adapt it to the story that comes to mind.

Otherwise I'm not really passionate about anything. I just like stuff a lot in periods. The recurrent things are video games, comics, fantasy and legos. I love to do things with my own hands. Actually I learn way faster and better when I get to DO stuff on my own, rather than just eating theory. So yeah. I have the attention span of Dory, so I usually never finish anything (unless I really want to AND I have deadlines set by others :x ).

I really look forward to start this and maybe make friends? Who knows :D