Growing up, what helped me the most in processing my newfound adolescent emotions was immersing myself in video games, books, and poetry.
I obsessed over the Zelda video games, all the books in the Twilight series, and I loved creating and reading poems articulating these strong middle-school-aged emotions on Hello Poetry.
I felt such an intense attachment to fiction, whether it was the characters of my favorite video games or through imaginary scenarios I’d curate within my poems.
But, what interested me the most was the fact these creations were all made through technological mediums, something we don’t associate with the human experience. Yet, all of these creations are the product of human emotion and feeling.
This semester, I wanted to tap back into that creative process I lost since middle school.
As a psychology major obsessed with video games and writing, I wanted to combine these two and create something of my own. That’s when the idea to create a short visual novel game was born.
I wanted this short game to capture the feelings of an adolescent growing up and learning how to reflect on their life and friendships. I also wanted to combine my own experiences of androgyny, gender envy and heartbreak to make this game more nuanced.
Although I am no computer science major and have very little experience coding and designing, it was very doable when I put my mind to it. Using the game engine called Ren’Py, I started to put together my vision.
To make the process simpler I began by doing things I had already known how to do.
I know how to write reflectively and how to write poetry. I also know how to do photography.
To create my own visuals, I took photos and then I edited them in Photoshop to make it look more like a game.
Totalling about twenty hours of pure focused work, my short visual novel was made using real pictures I took and reflective words that I wrote.
I’m happy to say that I learned a lot from this experience.
Firstly, I learned that if you have a vision, you can execute it, even if you feel you don’t have the experience to do so.
The game engine I used didn’t require much coding; it was a fancier slideshow-maker, as I would call it. But it still taught me how to solve problems that arose in my code.
From solving these problems I was able to gain stronger independence and self-efficacy knowing that I could do something I put my mind to.
This project also taught me discipline, because sometimes you just have to sit at the computer for hours on end completing one little task. This may be common knowledge for the average computer science student, but this threw me for a loop.
During spring break, my friends and I went to the library and all just completely locked in, without headphones and without distractions. The amount of work I was able to accomplish was a lot and I was able to dramatically change the look and feel of my game in a short amount of time.
Reflecting back on it now, perhaps if I was able to stay as focused throughout the entirety of the month that I was working on this, it probably could have been finished in just a few days.
But that gives me hope that in the future I can make more short-form games efficiently if I put my mind to it.
I think now, many people are disillusioned at the thought of starting their own project, that it could be a potential time-waster. However, with the rise of AI and the separation of technology and human impact, I’d say we need human creativity nowadays more than ever.
In making this game I realized that without humanities in the game industry and the tech industry at large, it will forever have something missing from it if human connection is not integral to its design.
People are developing critical people skills in their adolescence, and tech will continue to play a huge part in this. Founding the tech we use daily upon humanity and creativity will only benefit us in the long run, and I hope I can contribute my lived experience towards this mission.
How do you explore your creative side? Let us know @HerCampusSJSU!