whaddup, i’m gar g. (19, she/her)
i love making funky games, so much so i’m currently getting a degree in games design & programming.
i grew up watching lets-play youtubers, got bored 2020-2021 (?) and started playing around with ren’py.
i also draw in my free time (when i can find some), mostly of my d&d ocs and current interests.
for professional, indie dev & jam enquiries: workinggar[at]protonmail[dot]com
i had the idea through secondary that i wanted to go into something creative but technical, but hadn’t pinned down exactly what.
i knew i loved games though, having fallen in love with tomodachi life on the 3ds and a variety of series through lets-play-youtubers (markiplier & jacksepticeye were central to this, thank you ogs).
i remember the exact game playthrough/domino effect that led me to downloading my first games engine, going from markiplier’s video on angela he’s 'you left me', to itch.io for a quick ‘browse games’ scroll after i wondered how the game was made, back to a VOD of gloom playing brianna lei's ‘butterfly soup’, to itch.io again from the link in the description.
itch.io allows developers to include extras about the game in a more information right at the bottom of the page and butterfly soup was tagged as being ‘made with: ren’py’. i downloaded it, and over the course of a single week made an absolutely terrible opening scene for a vn before never touching it again.
fully illustrated using the touchscreen of my school chromebook.
when a friend of a friend transferred to a creative (sixth form) college, i looked into the place and found a specialised course that fit my interests and that i could see myself genuinely enjoying.
i applied, knowing i had a hobbyist’s portfolio full of nothing but concepts, and already accepting that i would be rejected.
to my surprise, i was accepted (!!!) and i took it as a sign to pursue game design & development wholeheartedly.
i learnt and grew so much creatively, and now i’m at university, still with my nose to that grindstone!
tl;dr: lets-play youtubers are the key to discovering indie titles. be cringe, be free and try making your own. no matter what tools you may or may not have at your disposal. you’d be surprised at how far that gets you.
this makes me sound really cool, but i would like to emphasise the gamedev student experience is still a uni student experience, meaning you actually feel like below:
