Becoming a Game Dev – University Projects
- Feb 24
- 2 min read
During my university years, I created drawings and projects that, to this day, I’m still proud of and think hold up quite well.
I studied Game Design and Production, so we had all kinds of subjects. They were divided into four areas: art, design, programming, and business. In this post, I’ll focus mainly on art and a bit on game design.
One of the first classes we had was Drawing. From that course came three perspective drawings that I still really like.
The next project is called Island Assault, the video game we had to create as our final project in the third year. It was a group project where I mainly handled the programming, but I also worked on parts of the art (such as item icons, ability icons, the logo, menu design, and the main screen).
It was a roguelike where you spawned on different islands and had to collect items and defeat enemies before time ran out. The items allowed you to upgrade abilities, and the game gradually became more difficult.
The truth is that the concept and gameplay were fun, but some aspects (especially the 3D modeling) left a lot to be desired.
As for game design, we had several subjects where we had to create prototypes. For example, a 2D platformer. I’ve always liked sketching ideas by hand first to visualize them more clearly.
We also designed a card game. I honestly don’t remember exactly how it worked, but I created the art and it turned into a solid project.
My favorite subject was Graphic Design, and it was one of the few honors grades I received during the entire degree.
One of the first assignments was to imagine a mobile game and design its logo. To this day, I’m still very proud of the result.
Another invented video game required us to design its cover art. If it looks familiar, it’s because I used Zelda: Breath of the Wild as a base reference.
I also created a few simple logos to present additional game proposals.
Here’s another project: a futuristic space racing game. We had to provide gameplay screenshots, but I’ve lost them. The only things I still have are the logo and the fictional car brand icons I designed.
Other Graphic Design assignments included creating a potato omelette recipe without written instructions, and designing a magical potion.
Finally, we also worked with 3D… not my strongest skill. These two designs are the ones that turned out best. I still remember an exam where we had to model Midna’s helmet from Zelda… war memories.
