Giovanni Torres - Game Artist

As a project in GDD 110, we were tasked to create a basic level incorperating what we've learned throughtout the course. Aspects like environment building and visual design for video games. This project also incorperates two character models that I had created during the class using MagicaVoxel.

As a final project for GDD 200, we were tasked to create a more advanced vertical slice of a 3D platformer. This project included a main level, a boss level, a functional save/load function, as well as a unique and new mechanic. The mechanic being a platform building tool, useful to reach high places and bridging gaps.

As a final project for GDD 101, one of the options was to create an expansion pack for Magic the Gathering card game. With this prompt, I decided to create an icon pack basing the cards off of the anime JoJo's Bizarre Adventures. I also created a special mechanic of targeting cards, which negate the opponent's ability to selected their desired defending cards.

As the main project for GDD 210, our small class worked together on this game, dividing the classmates into their desired concentration. In need of a Game Art Lead, I decided to volunteer meaning I was in control of anything and everything that related to the art field of our game. This instance was the first time, outside of solo projects for other classes, I worked in a team let alone take on a role of importance but it was great a experience.

My first 3D art class was taken in senior year of high school, where we only worked with "holdable" pieces and mediums of art. This nest created in partnership with a friend of mine in the class, and I still wonder if it's stuck in the tree at my high school's quad. Going into to design process of the nest, we couldn't clearly visualize the finished product until we actually started creating it. One stick after another, it started to take form into a piece that we proudly told our friends about a nest being the home to a couple cardinals.

This piece was created after the landscape painting shown below in an advanced 2D art class I took serior year of high school. Having more confidence than before, approaching another larger canvas with acrylic paint wasn't as much of a daunting class as the past. Though pressing the brush on the canvas will always be scary for me because I feel like I have so much less control compared to the static lead of a pencil, I learned to let loose and just paint.

When Covid-19 hit, I was in high school taking a 2D art class. Painting isn't one of my preferred ways to create an artist expression, but this painting stands out to me because it ultimatly made me more confident in my skills as an artist. Though it may be difficult to understand the landscape, after completing this piece I was more open to trying the media of paint on canvas.

Created in GDD 110 as a smalled assignment of the course, we were introduced to character design through multiple softwares like MagicaVoxel and ZBrush. Excelling in the 3D design of MagicaVoxel, I decided to create two character to which I would then use in the final project of the class. After creating our model, we used Mixamo to rig animations on the character model.

Created for the group project in GDD 210, as Game Art Lead, I was responsible for creating the overall mood and art direction of the game. I used this Miro board to organize the brainstorm the art style, setting, and characters that were to be implemented into the project.

Written in FYS101-Multimedia Storytelling, this creative essay tasks us to freely write about a story we had read in class. While having creative freedom in the direction we wrote the paper, we had to look at the prompt we chose through multiple lenses for research. In this paper, I write about the identity of one's soul, touching on points like Dissociative Identity Disorder, how the movie/tv media portrays the disorder, brain transfers, and the head transplant of Wolfenstein II.

Written in GDD 101, this narrative isn't just another formal piece of writing. This assignment made us create a narrative that will then be played out in a form similiar to Dungeons of Dragons. This documents goes through the whole game design process starting with brainstorming, to character and story creation, narrative, then playtesting, and ending with the scenario and puzzle analysis of the game session.

Written in GDD 201, this game analysis was strictly a critique about one of a game's main or sub mechanics. In this paper, my choice of game was Minecraft, specifically the game's hardcorde mechanic and how it limits the player's choices while forcing many of the other mechanics that are otherwise overlooked in the other modes of play.

Written in GDD 101, this game analysis was made to critique and review a game of our choice. My choice of game was the dice game adaptation of the popular board game Catan. In the analysis, I go over the overall concept, audience, experience, gameplay, story, and art of the game.