Let's Go!
To play for yourself, join us at the UC San Diego Senior ICAM Exhibition on June 11th, 2024!
Plans to launch the game for personal play may return in the future.
About the Game
01
The Goal
Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts is a rigorous visual arts major at UC San Diego which provides students with a vast array of technological mediums to explore and experiment within the artmaking sphere. The senior sequence is a student-led final capstone project required for graduation, spanning two quarters/six months. Independently developing the game Growing Pains is the project I chose to pursue, combining my love of digital art with my curiosity for video game development and design to tell a personal and heartwarming story. Doing so required not only six months worth of work, but an unending eagerness to learn new things and the patience necessary for constant trial and error as I explored all of the possibilities for what Growing Pains could be, in order to shape it into the best version of itself.
02
The Process
Growing Pains is by far the most involved art project I've ever worked on. All assets were created by me and imported to Godot for level construction, from sprites and animations to tiles and backgrounds. Using EarSketch, I was able to create multiple soundtracks, which involved the careful curation of sample instruments to create a unique audio personality for each level. The greatest challenge by far was getting all the moving parts of the game to fit seamlessly together, especially when doing so was an involved, code-centric process. However, this has also made this project one of my greatest achievements, and I'm delighted to have been able to overcome all of the difficulties I faced to make something I can be truly proud of.
03
The Outcome
Having a finished, playable, homemade video game is like a dream come true. In its entirety, Growing Pains is a multi-level 2D platformer featuring my original art and animations. Each level has its own soundtrack and interactable items, and the final cutscene pulls it all together in a touching grand finale moment. I am exceptionally proud of my work on Growing Pains, extraordinarily grateful to have been given the creative freedom to tell this story on my own terms, and pleased to be able to share this labor of love with you!
04
The Acknowledgements
I'm deeply grateful for all the support I've received over the six months I've spent working on this project. I'd sincerely like to thank Professor Patricia Stone for her guidance, as this game would not exist without her encouragement and understanding. Another massive shoutout to the Godot tutorials community on YouTube (you can find the videos I used here), especially ChrisTutorialsYT, who made my first experience with Godot significantly less stressful. Again, thank you to my family and friends for your support these last few months, I'm blessed to be surrounded by people who believe in me and my goals.
Like what you see?
Let's keep in touch! Reach out to me at mnshepardbusiness@gmail.com for more information about me, my freelance availability, or Growing Pains.