Mirsartandstuff

I came across a commission post for a UCSC graduate student's project looking for a character rigger and animator.

After exchanging contact info, the project's game lead showed me the ceramic and clay figurines they made. I knew this would be a good project to work on.

Once the character's mesh was slightly adjusted, it was quickly rigged up and then came the challenging part.

The character has a very simplistic design and the character needed to convey lots of motions and expressions. Especially with the game's emphasis on social relationships and interactions. There were a few different rough drafts along the way but the animations were being steadily added to the game.

It was soon drawing towards the end of the quarter so not only were finals coming up but I was also busy moving out of my dorm.

The last of the animations were submitted and we chatted over burgers to celebrate.

When the game was finished, I finally got to play it. I knew the project was gonna be about the player's relationship with their digital pet but I didn't know the ending and almost cried.

I told some of my classmates about this game. In a strange way, it became a heartfelt farewell for many of us as we had to leave campus due to the pandemic.

Later on, the game did well enough to get featured at the Play21 Creative Gaming Festival.

I'm glad other people across the internet also had a similar apprication for the game as we did.