<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. How long have you been developing games?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Probably 3-4 years now? I was working in Unity and learning to code for a couple of years before then, but wasn’t making traditional games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. What made you want to get into game dev? Is there a particular game that inspires you as a developer?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The love for games has always been there. I’ve played video games pretty much my entire life. I have always loved the amazing, fantastical worlds that games allow you to get swept into, and the way they make you strive to get really good at something – even if it’s something really dumb..!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I didn’t necessarily consider game development as a valid career option for myself though until much more recently. I had a project (unrelated to game dev) that required me to learn Unity and C#. So after that, I thought, “Well, why don’t I try actually making video games?” I was already experienced in 2D digital art so knew I could create something with my distinct style. I had to teach myself coding via online tutorials – and still don’t do it very well, but it gets the job done!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’m really inspired by 90s and early 00s point-and-click style games. I like how they’re simple and charming, yet often have pretty abstract puzzles that get you to think outside the box. I’m also inspired by the original ‘Spyro, Year of the Dragon<\/em>‘. My games are nothing like it, but it’s one of my absolute favourites and I think it just has a really unique charm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then there are games that inspire me because of the mood or atmosphere, because that’s something I really try to bring out in my own work. Games like Oxenfree <\/em>and Neversong <\/em>have such a rich atmosphere and unique styles. I watched a lot of Thomas Brush tutorials when I first started making my own games, and I think that had a big influence on my desire to create a distinct atmosphere in my own games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, I’m pretty sure Hollow Knight<\/em> inspired me even before I played the game. I didn’t actually play it until quite recently, but I’d seen screenshots and thought the art style was so pretty. As a hand-drawn 2D artist myself, the style definitely resonates! I love that you’re seeing more and more of that style in games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Did you learn\/realize something while participating in this game jam? If so, what was it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve entered several game jams before, but this one was particularly interesting to me because my favourite part had nothing to do with the actual game development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The game I made was about cleaning the ocean, and I had this idea that you could occasionally reel in bottles that contained wholesome or thoughtful messages. I was originally going to write all the messages myself, but decided to lean into the “Uplifting” part of the jam by getting members of several online communities to volunteer some of their own messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was kind of scary reaching out like that, but I absolutely loved the response I got from people willing to spend a little time writing something thoughtful to a stranger. It made me realise the importance of community engagement in my projects – something I often don’t seek out much, being a solo developer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. When creating games, what comes first for you: the coding, artwork, writing, or something else?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Honestly, I usually end up stuck in the idea phase for ages! I’m notoriously bad at starting a game jam entry when the jam actually starts. I usually spend the first week of a two-week jam just figuring out what sort of game I want to make!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’m primarily atmosphere driven, which means I often have at least some idea of the art or story to begin with, and then I try to fit a game mechanic around that. I know it’s probably not the best way to do it and it goes against most game dev advice, but I find it easier to get invested if I know the game will have some kind of story or feeling behind it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I usually end up doing the code and art in tandem with each other, because I personally find that they both need to inform one another. For example, I might need to have an idea of how large I want my world to be before I commit to drawing the game art, but then the way the game starts to look may influence the direction I decide to take the rest of the design. So it’s kind of a fluid process. Perhaps not the most structured way to work, but never mind!<\/p>\n\n\n\n For this jam in particular, though, I did code the mechanics first, since I had more of a solid idea than usual about what I wanted the gameplay to be. But even so, I had an idea in my head of roughly what I wanted it to look like. I needed to make sure the main gameplay was in place first because I knew I’d be hand-drawing quite a lot of things and animating them frame-by-frame. I didn’t want to get stuck in that loop for a long time, then get almost to the end of the jam and realise I forgot to actually code the game mechanics (…which definitely hasn’t happened to me before!!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. How did you get the idea for your game? Was there anything that inspired your idea?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n My game was inspired by the game ‘Raft<\/em>‘.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Usually, I just invent the gameplay myself without necessarily using another game as a foundation, but because the theme of the jam was “ocean” and I’d recently been watching gameplay footage of ‘Raft<\/em>‘, I thought it’d be cool to make a simplified, 2D version of that game. So I used the core mechanic, which is basically riding a raft on the ocean and throwing a hook out to get resources, and I created my own version of it. So in my game, “Adrift”, you throw out a hook to gather up trash that’s floating around in the water, and you watch the ecosystem steadily come back to life as you reach certain milestones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, the theme was also inspired by the game jam itself. Combining ‘uplifting’ and ‘ocean’ instantly gave me the idea of cleaning up pollution. I instantly envisioned it being top-down isometric so it was looking down into the ocean. I’m not sure where that idea came from, it’s just how I saw it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n 6. A silly question, just for funsies: If you could live inside the world of any video game, what would it be and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s a tough one! Maybe Pok\u00e9mon<\/em>. The idea of befriending and training a bunch of elemental creatures in real life would be really cool. Or Spyro <\/em>– but only if I actually get to be a dragon! : )<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you to Ceprotypes for taking the time to answer our questions, and for submitting Adrift<\/em> (as well as the many other lovely games you’ve submitted to our game jams in the past). Your games always capture that warm, uplifting quality we love with the coziest art to accompany it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re looking for a relaxing game where you can take it slow and enjoy the soothing sounds of the ocean, we highly recommend you play Adrift<\/em>. In Adrift<\/em>, you play as a mouse adrift<\/em> in the ocean on a little leaf raft. Keep the ocean clean by collecting the cans and glass bottles that float on by. Some bottles might even have sweet, uplifting messages in them! See which ones you get and share your favorites with us in the comments!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you again to everyone who was gracious enough to let us pick their brain, and for those of you that submitted to our game jam. It was so much fun playing your games. You should all be very proud of yourselves. We are so excited to see what the next game jam brings!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also, thank YOU for reading! Whether you read every interview or only one, we appreciate each and every one of our readers. Although this is the end of the interview series, this is NOT the end of the blogs! We have much more content to bring you, so stay tuned for our next blog post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Have a lovely rest of your week. Til next time. Ta ta for now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well\u2026the time has finally come. Just as all good things do, we have arrived at the end of our September Game Jam Interview Series. And what better way to close it out than with another dear member of our community who has submitted multiple lovely games to our game jams? For our last interview, we … Read moreSept Game Jam Interview Series: A Creatively Cozy Conversation with Ceprotypes<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,22,19,23],"class_list":["post-739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-gamedev","tag-gamejam","tag-games","tag-interview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearsoftware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearsoftware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearsoftware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearsoftware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearsoftware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearsoftware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":745,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearsoftware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739\/revisions\/745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lightbearsoftware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearsoftware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lightbearsoftware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/lightbearsoftware.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/adriftSS2-1024x576.png\")
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