CyLabs and Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), Carnegie Mellon University
Platforms: Unity WebGL, C#, Python, Photoshop
Scope: Built in four months with team of four
My role: Artist, writer, programmer during crunch time
“Mind Game”
A pixel art game that complements a capture the flag hacking competition for students.
We had no artists on the team, so I opted to take on the roles of the artist and writer to better understand the roles I wanted to support as a programmer. I worked with 2D pixel art assets and animations, and tried to think about what an artist would be concerned with - do the colors help guide the user, is the main character visible against all backgrounds, are the assets sizes small enough, do the asset import properly into the game, and so on.
I really value this experience, as I gained a lot of insight into artists’ needs in their work and would definitely be able to better support them as a programmer or tech artist in the future.
What I did
- Created all pixel art sprite sheets and animations based on designer specifications
- Iterated on artwork based on client feedback
- Collaborated with two other programmers as needed and during crunch time, coding game functionality like hidden objects and end credits
- Wrote game story script
- Wrote Python scripts to streamline the process of updating dialogue in the game with each draft of the story
Particularly proud of
- Creating a functional and efficient workflow for making pixel art
- Using Photoshop features to preview animation and pixel art tiling
- Reiterating based on feedback for pixel art UI icons
My collaborators, all brilliant:
Students:
Mong-Yah (Max) Hsieh
Yunhao (Magian) Li
Yang-Che (Brian) Teng
Instructors:
Ruth Comley
Client:
CyLabs