My name is Jonathan Shiery and I’m a freshman working towards a major in Interactive Media and Game Development. I have lived in California for most of my life.
Throughout my whole life, I have played video games and have wanted to become a game designer for the longest time. The way that games have influenced me and the way that I see games influencing others has inspired me to go on this path to become a game designer. I love to dissect games to see the design choices made when the game was in development. I have even began to create video games of my own in my spare time. Video games create a certain feeling for me that no other form of media can replicate, which is why I want to pursue down this path to create games of my own.
I’m not an amazing artist by any stretch of the imagination, however I do like to experiment with it every once in a while. I like to gravitate towards pixel art when creating a piece of artwork, since it is simpler and honestly more fun to create than other forms of artwork.
I made this image as my final project for AR 1100. My thought process was to try and make a peaceful scene. This was also when I started experimenting with different features in the program Gimp 2. I used it to keep the pixelated look of the birds, while also trying to make them feel dynamic.
In a discord server, the admins were holding a contest to create a Mario-themed Halloween icon for the server. The contest allowed the use of any official Mario artwork, so I ended up using some for my submission.
I based my low-res icon on my love for studying the ideas of game design whenever I can. To me, these subtle design decisions are important to realize so that I can apply them myself when I become the game designer.