Indigo’s Dreams

Indigo’s Dreams is a 2D platformer-adventure video game I’ve been working on since January of 2022. I wear a lot of hats on this project. I’m the creative director, visual artist, sound designer, and so much more.

To make Indigo’s Dreams as fun and successful as it can be I don’t work alone. I coordinate with other programmers and artists to ensure the game meets project goals like performance, player-facing issues, “game feel”, and more.

Programming

Lead programmer designing a custom physics engine from the ground up, scripting boss battles, QA testing game as code is updated to find and fix bugs, and more.

Started making game with Physics Engine

Next, wall climbing, dashing, and enemy functionality

Dynamic Camera System

I designed a camera system that can zoom in and out depending on where the player is located, snap to walls, and moves between the player and boss during boss battles.

Camera Zooming & Snapping

Boss Battle Camera

Dialogue Boxes

There are two types of dialogue boxes in Indigo’s Dreams. The kind that appears in gameplay, and can’t be skipped, and the kind that appear in cutscenes and can be skipped.

Dialogue Box in Gameplay

Dialogue Box in Cutscene

Marketing

To market Indigo’s Dreams I post regularly on Tiktok and Instagram, posting not video game footage, fan-made pixel art, and animations.

My fan pixel art is very popular having garnered over 5 million views!

I also have a Patreon for people who want new builds on the game.

Pixel Art with over 2 million views

Patreon Homepage

Video Editing

I have a background video editing with the company Heliorana Film.

Using techniques I learned alongside them like jump-cuts, fades and green screen I keep my content engaging for the people subscribed to my accounts.

Gameplay Song Edit

Pixel Art Creation Process

PIG SQUAD

Creating games with Portland Indie Game Squad (PIGsquad) since 2022, I’ve participated in screenings, Game Jams, and I’ve showcased at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo (PRGE) with PIGsquad.
Alongside them I have learned to program using Gamemaker Language, and Godot Engine, creating my own physics engines, scripted cutscenes, boss battles, and more.

PRGE Showcase

My game Indigo’s Dreams was of few chosen to exhibit at PRGE alongside PIGsqaud. I set-up my booth, assisted play testers, handled any technical difficulties that arose and more. This was exciting and proved to be a valuable learning experience.

Throughout the event I notated player feedback as well as gameplay patterns. Here’s what I found.

  • Areas where players wanted to find more collectibles

  • New moves could be implemented to make Indigo more exciting to control

  • Humor is desired as a reward for NPC interactions

I made changes to the game afterwards some of which are shown below!

Indigo can now long jump off walls to cross greater distances

More coins have been sprinkled throughout the game to reward creativity

When not starting the surfing mission, NPC becomes frustrated

Game Jams

Strawberry Platformer

For this Strawberry Platformer made during PIGsqaud’s 2023 Year-End Game Jam, I organized a team with a musician, programmer, and me!

My contributions were

  • Creating all assets used

  • Team coordination

  • Programming physics on Godot

2D Art Assets

Gameplay Footage

Untitled RPG

For a 2022 Game-Jam with PIGsqaud I worked with another programmer, creating tilesets and character animations.

Tilesets

Character Art

SCRATCH

Scratch is a program created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It’s designed to help teach children to program. I found it at the young age 7 while trying to learn how to make my own games, and it became a daily habit for me to code whenever I got home from school.

Smash Kombat

in 2015 I made a 2-player fighting game combining ideas from Mortal Kombat and Super Smash Brothers that garnered over 200,000 players.

The positive reception from this cemented my path towards the gaming industry.

Gameplay

I programmed Smash Kombat to have boss battles, 2-player gameplay and other modes. Here is some gameplay footage

This game is a free fan-game. I don’t claim to own the rights to the characters, music, or game mechanics

Scratch Tutoring

Since 2023 I’ve been designing and teaching Scratch Lessons for children from ages 6-14.

These cover a wide range of programming basics including variable usage, object sensing, and key presses, all the way to more advanced things like enemy functionality, animation, and level-design.

Screenshot from Lesson 1 - Collision & Gravity

Screenshot from Lesson 6 - Events & Obj Interaction