About Me!
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| I am a 22 year old non-binary artist/illustrator with a BFA in Game Art and Design! I just recently graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design, actually! A lot of my work on this website focuses on my art, character concepts, designs, and animations. And while I still draw pretty often, my focus is mainly as a programmer in C#, C++, and HTML/JS. |
| I realized a few years ago that the best way for me to merge and combine these two passions into the best of each would be to make my own website! So I went the extra mile and made this entire thing from scratch, and I host it through Netlify and Github. |
| I've been drawing basically my entire life, but only really started to make it into something I do seriously in middle school (read 2014). I started this website around 2018, though mostly for hosting small games I made so I could play them in class without getting blocked. After learning that artists should have a portfolio website, I basically just morphed it into that and have been slowly building upon it ever since! Though I haven't gotten to make a lot of illustrations recently since I've been so absorbed into game development, it really is something I enjoy very much. As something very creatively driven, it's a very nice deviation from programming (which is almost like solving a cool puzzle box, instead of making the box itself). Programming and game design was never actually something I even thought about getting into at all growing up! Even though I didn't really "start" learning art until later on, it was always my end goal in life from the very beginning. |
| When The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess came out and I played it for the first time, staring at my TV and shaking my Wiimote, it hit me for the first time that video games are something that people actually have to sit down and choose to make. The idea that games were built by people on purpose to explore ideas or talk about things important to them blew my tiny little mind. This mostly served to bolster my passion for video games at the time, but I think is the main tipping point that changed them mentally from entertainment to art. And once I learned that "I" could make them, I was sold. Around freshman year of high school (read 2017) I took a coding class for funsies and I realized that programming was hard, but insanely fun at the same time. It stayed mostly a hobby, making Scratch and Gamemaker 1 games in my free time, following digital art as my future. When it came time to enroll in college college, I saw that CCAD had a "Game Art and Design" major. That instantly became the only option for me. Merging two things I love so dearly was a wonderful option and I was totally right. After putting out a good handful of games (some of which even made me money!), I really can't imagine something else as perfect for me. Like this profession was hand-crafted to be exactly what I wanted in life. |
| I am really fond of the work I am able to make, and the fact that I was able to turn that into a degree is something I am astronomically happy about. The love and excitement I feel towards games is something that I want to share with other people for them to enjoy. To inspire them the way that others have inspired me. |
| My current development focus is in continuing to develop and expand on my CCAD Capstone game, Ayla's Repair Shop! |
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If you need to get in contact with me, you can email me at: carriganreilly@gmail.com! |