Portfolio Reflection Project

My name is Luis Gerardo Huiza; I am a student that comes from Caracas, Venezuela. I am part of Parsons The New School’s Design and Technology course as an undergraduate. My main focus in regards to what I want to do is game development, with a focus on game design.

When it comes to my work, the main focus of it is all about videogames. That is because I find their defining feature amazing; they are an interactive medium. My games mainly focus on gameplay-focused experiences that challenge the player’s skill in multiple ways. While I have high goals for what I want to accomplish with the medium, I have focused on smaller, simpler experiences that can be approached by anyone. I also have made small projects around ideas such as energy conservation, or a twitter account that posts puns. My projects like to focus on bringing joy to people.

When it comes to visual aesthetics, I normally go for simplistic imagery that is appealing to the eye. I also like to play with pixel art from time to time, as time consuming as it can be. My visuals normally come from a fondness I have for old school pixel art, as well as the necessity to make art that is time efficient for my projects. One of my proudest examples, FireWall, the player character’s sprites took a weekend to make. There are many inspirations from old school NES games in its animation.

When it comes to my work, I start by trying to think of a concept to wrap my head around. Normally I like having some paper on hand to sketch out my ideas. From that, I get a general idea of what can be done with it, and assess if it fits with what I’m looking for. After that, comes some testing to check how things pan out. I like to use Unity3D for most of my projects, although they sometimes are done in Javascript, in which case I like using Sublime Text. Finally, my trinity is completed with the good old Photoshop, for my visuals. That isn’t all of what I use, but they consistently show up in my projects.

Well, when it comes to why I make games, its because I really enjoy the work that goes into the craft. Through my life, gaming has been a hobby that always helps me with the struggle one faces in his life. Games helped me with my self esteem issues, and they also served as a tool to help me learn English. I want to make games because I know what they can do for people, and my dream is to make games that make people as happy as the ones I grew up with made me happy.

When it comes to my interests, they seem to overlap into one constant theme, creation. I’m the type of person that enjoys creating things of my own more than I do just getting them. Making something on my own has always been a very cathartic thing for me since I was a kid. It’s also one of the reasons that I wanted to study what I do. Another big point of my interests is that of

For the moment, I need to hone my craft; and for that I need industry experience. From there, I have multiple goals in mind; but the main one I would like to work on is education. I want to see if I could use game theory in order to help improve education in my country. People are more receptive of messages that give them a sense of agency, and gamification could provide that to students. As someone that didn’t excel in my studies, I want to use my skills to assist future students to improve their academic skills.