ABOUT | Alixthegenderless Po

About:

Currently, I am studying my second year of Games Technology at Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies. Throughout my time learning to create games. I am always looking for new things to learn and different ways to improve. I am hoping to go to university next year and study Game art.

Games has always played a huge part of my life. I started to play games when I was around 4 years old, and it was Minecraft. I'll never forget that night, where I couldn't sleep so my mum brought her X-box 360 into my room, and installed Minecraft and told me not to stay up too late. When I was younger I used to play Minecraft with my Grandad, my mum, and my uncle. I learnt how to work in a team, and how to be creative using limited resources. If I was placed in a biome that I didn't like, and was limited with resources, I'd still find a way to be as creative as I can. As well as this, Minecraft has helped me to learn organisation skills, as I love to create a big organised storage room. Games has played an important role throughout my life, as they have helped to comfort me and to help me when I've been at my worst, and they have helped me to escape temporarily from the real world, and they have helped me to process things, I otherwise would struggle to process.

A few years after Minecraft, I started to play Mario kart with my mum, grandad and uncle, as well as a few cousins, and we would race each other and get competitive with each other, but not so competitive it started arguments. I love to play games with friends and family, they make me laugh and think of new perspectives and ideas to things.

After Minecraft and Mario kart I got sucked into Slime Rancher on my laptop, I would spend hours playing it and organising my time accordingly, to better prevent any possibility of Tar slimes and my slimes escaping. I loved to come home from a stressful day of school, and load up Slime Rancher to help me escape from the day, and to process the day.

Then in year 8 (just before the lockdown happened), I got a quest 2 for Christmas, that I got beat saber on. I remember playing it with my family, all of us trying to beat a specific level before everyone else could. We also did score competitions with it, seeing who could get the highest score on a specific song and level of difficulty, to make it fair. 2 years after the lockdown, I started to play beat saber with my friends from school, and I started to play VR chat with them as well.

I love to play games that tell a strong intricate story line, that can be used to teach the player a lesson; I also like to play games that allow the player to be as creative as they want, but still having limitations as it forces them to 'think outside the box'; I also like games where it uses a softer and lighter colour pallet and soothing music, as it makes the player feel relaxed and safe, which a lot of people in this world need. Why did I mention the types of games I like to play? I mention this because I want to work on these types of games, and my target audience are people apart of the LGBTQIA+ community, neurodivergent people, disabled people (colour blind, wheel chair,

My Skills:

Researching ideas and creating a narrative or proposal
Modelling based off my own references/sketches
Rigging a model and importing them into Unreal Engine
creating basic 2D pixel art including animations, props, weapons, textures and UI
Basic knowledge of animation in Maya
creating concept art of characters, props, weapons and environments
basic understanding of lighting and using texture brushes

Software's I'm Proficient In:

* Photoshop

* Maya

* Unreal Engine

* Krita

* Sketchbook Pro

crutches, etc), people with anxiety, depression and similar. I mention this as the games I like to play is similar to what my target demographic plays. I would also like to work on other types of games like: horror, fantasy, adventure, MMORPG's.

I have a lot of other hobbies I have developed and enjoyed since I was a little kid, that I still take part in today. I love to create bracelets, because I find it calming, and I love to look at the beads of the bracelets. As well as this, its a nice birthday gift I can easily acquire, and I love to see the happy look on peoples faces when they open it, it fills me with joy. I have learnt a handful of skills from making bracelets. I've learnt how to be patience as it can be repetitive (especially if your making it for a bigger hand), to put beads on it and trying to make sure all the beads complement one another. I've also gotten better with my hand eye co-ordination, as the string used is quite thin, and on the smaller beads you need to try and thread the thin piece of string, into the smaller hole in the small beads. I think this has also made me to pay more attention to detail, as I need to match the small hole to the thin piece of string to thread it through, which has made me to pay closer attention to the detail.

Since 2018 I've loved to go walking with my mum. In my free time I like to go walking, as well as this I've always loved to go to the peak district to hike and to climb the mountains there. 3 of my greatest achievements has been related to walking. I've climbed Snowdon with my mum when I was 12, and I completed the 3 Yorkshire peaks challenge when I was 13; when I was 14 I wild camped in the peak district, by Robbin Hood's cave. I love to go on walks and be one with nature. In 2022 is when I started to go to Depop climbing centre, to do bouldering with my mum. Both of these has taught me a mixture of skills: they have taught me to be determined, no matter how difficult it is, because a lot of the time I just need to think of it from a different perspective; they have taught me to be resilient; as well as this they have taught me that spending time with your family is important, and that it can be as enjoyable as spending time with your friends.

Since I was a kid, I've always loved to write and create stories, and I still love to do to that, its just hard to find time as you get older to continue some of your hobbies and passions. Writing has helped me to be creative and to spark my imagination. Whenever I create concept art or write or create a 3D model, I do research into what I'm creating, this helps me to understand how something is meant to work and function. This can also be used to effectively represent people from different groups and backgrounds. I love to experiment within my work, to show different types of people and different types of genres, like horror, fantasy, romantic, comedy, etc. As well as this I love to read, I mostly read fantasy books but I also like to read graphic novels and occasionally manga's and comics. My current favourite books and book series are: heartstopper, sad ghost club, Nimona, the dragon prince, cat + gamer, and the fazbear frights: into the pit. Reading has helped me to appreciate the art styles used, and it has helped me to develop my own art, and I sometimes try to create art based off on the style used in graphic novels, manga's, comics and book covers. Reading has also helped me to be resilient, as I have dyslexia, so I struggle to read, but I try my best. However, reading also gives me a head ace, which adds to the difficulty I have, but nonetheless I read because I enjoy it, and I try and power through even if it takes me longer than the average person to read.

I have always loved animals, and I take enjoyment in taking care of animals. When I was in year 7, my school had a school trip to Jamie's Farm, and we helped to take care of animals, like sheep, bull, horses, ponies and chickens. It gave me a few helpful skills like being more sensitive to others and about certain topics. It also taught me how to take care of many different animals, which taught me how to take care of their individual needs and requirements. It also taught me to be ok out of my comfort zone, which is a key skill to have, especially when it comes to art, as it can be difficult to go away from your usual style of art, as your not used to it. I have had a few different pets growing up, I've had hamsters, rabbits and a cat. Having these different types of pets has helped me to know their different needs and dietary requirements, like cats and hamsters eat very different things and their environment is different as well. Also, each animal has different living conditions like cats usually live and wonder around the house, they need litter boxes, cat toys and a scratching post, as well as a food and water bowl. Rabbits usually live in a rabbit hutch, they have a litter box or hay to go on, and they have a water bottle and a bowl for food. Hamsters, have a cage with sawdust, they have many places to hide and create burrows, they like to climb, they have a water bottle and a bowl for food. Taking care of animals has taught me responsibility and how to create time to make sure their well being is looked after properly.

When I play games I always look in the accessibility settings, to see if there is anything there that can help me, as I have my own disabilities like dyslexia, but no games I've played have any accessibility settings to help people with it, Minecraft Bedrock Edition is the only one I have played that has some helpful settings, like being able to change the colours on the chat, but that's it. I have the belief that everyone should be able to play video games, no matter the requirements they may need. In my opinion the accessibility settings aren't the best within most games, as it leaves out a lot of people who may need them.