I was afraid of committing to certain things and shut down opportunities because I wasn't "ready" (able to do it like an pro). That said I was doing some things right too, I am always trying to make things better and improve both professionally and personally. That'll open doors someday.

It can be really isolating. And sometimes if you aren't the only black one, people see you as competition and not as an ally. More than that though it made me realize that I was holding myself back in a lot of ways. I talked down to/about myself (and still do to some degree)

It cannot put into words how important it was for me to see a room full of black people killing AND loving to see and actively try to put others in a position to kill it. I've always been the only black kid in classes and if I wasn't I was the only black girl more often than not.

Hey there! I actually don't have any games on steam yet. All my stuff is on theartofgaming.itch.io!

I love her expression! If this is rushed I can't wait to see what you do with enough time!

This looks really cool so far!

Character Design Quarterly is a great resource not only for character designers but designers of all kinds. The different methods for things like research and composition consideration detailed in it are super enlightening! I always have some new techniques I want to try out after reading!

Process of Elimination and Master Detective Archives: Both are newbie works with superpowered master detectives to hunt a serial killer. PoE is crazy because it incorporates strategy gameplay outside of a fighting context. MDA was more of what I want from a kodaka game and the dungeons are great.

Trolls 3 was unexpected: I watched it on a whim after liking a Mount Rageous cover. I watched for the villains (their designs and movement are cool) and got good writing, an imaginative world, and impressive animation. (Making characters with big hair seems fun until you mess with hair physics)

A book that inspired me was Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. This book uses facts that often bring dread such as that you can't do everything to actually motivate you. It tells you how those facts can make life amazing and bring meaning. This helped me recontextualize time limits.

A song that inspired me was Otomodachi by Phantom Siita. By the end of the first day I'd found this song, I had played it ~25 times with at 15 of those being in a row. The song is about 5 friends, or so they think. Secretly one of them is a traitor. Plus the group has yet to release a bad song!

My general art inspiration has been GinjaNinjaOwO. Seeing the Apollo arc plus the PRISM overhaul really helped me feel less stuck. I had gotten really in my head about what I was (and wasn't) creating. Such an honest look into what brought them joy and their commitment to that, helped me a lot.