BDP student Janelle Mendoza developed Click Wizard, a short visual novel, about a wizard that lives in a computer, for her Digital Arts & Media Creative Project.
"This foray into game design has given me tools to be able to discuss the topic with my future students. I now teach middle school art, and being able to instruct kids in digital media and share game dev experiences has been super helpful to getting them engaged in art making!”
How would you describe this creative project and how did you come up with the idea?
Click Wizard is a short visual novel, coded in the RenPy engine, about a little wizard that lives in a computer and makes it work. I originally came up with the character design of Click Wizard for a design assignment and formed the plot around him having cute adventures. I’ve always wanted to make a Visual Novel as it’s the most art-focused genre of game, so it seemed like a perfect fit!
What was the most rewarding aspect of your Connecting Experience?
For me, it was finally booting the game and getting to enjoy all my hard work, especially as it was an experience I could share with my friends. I’ve played plenty of visual novels and it was really rewarding to see that I could make one too, even if it was a fairly simple one.
In what ways has this Connecting Experience shaped your plans for the future?
This foray into game design has given me tools to be able to discuss the topic with my future students. I now teach middle school art, and being able to instruct kids in digital media and share game dev experiences has been super helpful to getting them engaged in art making!
Please discuss the relationship that you had with your faculty mentor(s), and how they helped you during this Connecting Experience.
My faculty mentor was Dr. Casey Boyle. Our meetings were super informative for me to ensure the story of my game was focused, and to help me stay on track with progress. Goal setting can feel a little abstract for me sometimes, so having an experienced mentor who could help me set realistic goals was incredibly helpful as I worked on my first solo game.