A Fond Farewell to Home
Intro
Home for me was the same building for the first 18 years of my life. When I moved to the University of Michigan for college I had to leave that home, and I was forced to discover that home is more than just a building. I was extremely lucky to find a new home in the community of Shift, and in the Shift House. I spent a lot of my last year as a student reflecting on how much I was grateful for my life there, and how much I would miss it. The house that had changed me, the Shift House, is to be torn down this summer. I, along with my roommates, would be the last to live in it. As such, a lot of my creation this year revolved around the house. A house simulator, a shadowbox, and a really poorly written ballad all kind of go to show that I was really trying to come to terms with saying goodbye.
Shift House Game Boy Advance Simulator
I remember my very first time having a game of my own. It was Pokemon: Fire Red for the Game Boy Advance (GBA) System. I’ve had a soft spot for it, and the console it lives on, ever since. I was inspired this year to create my own GBA game — and not just the game ROM, but have it working on an actual GBA system. As it turns out, this isn’t too hard if you’ve got the right tools. Using the Butano Engine, a host of C++ skills and game engine concepts that I would not have if not for the Game Engine Architecture course I took, and a Joey Jr, I was able to create a version of the Shift House that will not be torn down this summer. It can live forever on - in a game cart.
Leaving can be hard, but it feels better when you can take what you’re leaving with you in your pocket. This project was so much fun and really rewarding. Learning to design a game for old architecture (with all the pains that comes with) and learning to make and design sprites was such a joy. I made all the sprites here save for the player character, which I stole and reskinned from Fire Red ;) If you want to play it, the ROM is available here on my itch page! Itch Link
Shift House Shadow Box
You ever really want to make something, and can imagine it perfectly in your head, but you just don’t have the skill to do it all? Yeah that was me with this project. Fortunately for me, I partnered with Lydia for this project (and some others I’ll mention later), and together we were able to create something that feels very special to me. After many hours of planning, sketching, cutting, assembling, and reassembling because we broke it, we had a shadowbox of the Shift House, Hei-Hei and all.
Song A Day Challenge
Despite my other two house focused creations, theres one more to come. This year, Leon and I wanted to challenge each other to start writing songs. I’d always been too embarrassed to try, but Shift gave me the space to feel comfortable in trying. I ended up following through with it and made 7 songs that range from embarrassingly terrible, to actually not that bad. The ones marked with a star are my favorites, and day 7 is of course a ballad about the Shift House. You can check out all of them at this link: 7 Songs
Sidekick Game
It’s time to move on from all the sappy house creations. This game, Sidekick, was made by myself, Zachary Mathews, Aaron Waller, Jeremy Margolin, and Ben Golden. We worked on it as part of a Capstone class, but I’m sharing it here because a huge amount of extra effort + creativity went into making it something I’m quite proud of. There’s a walkthrough of the last few levels below, and if you feel like playing it — you can download it here! Sidekick Game
Custom Game Engine and Game Jam
Another class I took this year was the aforementioned Game Engine Architechture class. In this class we built a multiplatform Game Engine in C++ from the ground up — and man was it a massive pain. But now I have a game engine I can make games in! So Cool! I also added an AI feature that allows for automatic subtitles. Anyway, at the end of the year there was an optional Game Jam where student’s spent a weekend building a game in their engines. Lydia and I didn’t play entirely by the rules, instead opting to build our silly little game titled Cat-Fishing in one night, completely robbing us of any sleep. It’s very simple — but It’s funny and it’s got cute animal drawings so really what else could you ask for. Try it out here! Cat-Fishing Link
Extras w/ friends ❤
Some of my favorite things I made this year were with heavy guidance from others. Lydia walked me through every step of the process of making a custom ring! It’s so cool and I’m super grateful for getting the opportunity to learn something I would’ve never thought possible to do from her.
I also followed Isaac’s guidance in the CAD workshop he put on to create and 3D print a little succulent planter! This was so much fun, and although I haven’t planted anything in it yet, it will be the first thing I do when I move in to my next home.
Goodbye
Well, it’s been real. It’s been a good deal over 4 years since I first learned about Shift, and I’ve had a life-defining time creating things with everyone in this organization. As always, if you read all the way to the end, I love you ❤ thanks for reading, and thanks for your support. Adios.
