Yasmany Roman of Flowery Branch created a game demo that has been selected as a finalist in the “GAME ON” competition at the MIA Animation Conference and Festival in Miami.
Roman’s demo is called the “Bear Journey”. The GAME ON competition was created to encourage independent game development and fresh voices in the video game industry. If Roman’s takes home the top prize, he will win a $1,000 cash award and a consulting meeting with an experienced incubator program.
"I’m an artist, I’m just starting to learn code now, and how it works,” said Roman. “It’s an amazing thing though that without any prior experience I was able to solve a lot of the technical problems I had by just watching YouTube videos and learning as much as I could by myself. 'Bear Journey' is entirely hand drawn by me, everything from the characters in the game to the environments, to the smallest little details."
Roman is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Game Art & Design at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He is also a member of The Art Institute of Pittsburgh – Online Division’s International Game Developers Association Student Chapter (IGDA). He, along with six other students also created the game, LiBot, for the GAME On competition, which has also been selected as a finalist. LiBot is a semi-stylized, steampunk, 3D shooter game featuring LiBot, a small robot who is searching for his maker in order to exact revenge after being discarded for not being perfect.
