Jordan Pierson loves video games and started creating them himself. He’s with JEP games.com and I met him at Magfest 2018. He told me about their newest game Akari

1:22 – Jordan tells me about the game Akari. It’s a 3D anime inspired world. It’s his second game. He says a game delayed is better than a game rushed since there are often bugs and other problems. He wants a game to be polished and tight before releasing it.

3:09 – He’s inspired by video games since he loves them. He’s a Game Cube kid. One of his friends told him he should makes and his brother even tried. He loves making games.

4:03 – He loves listening to music when working. He loves anime music, maybe Final Fantasy music. He takes tons of notes that are all over the place.

5:24 – He loves working on the art style and the environment. He wants the player immersed in the world. His cousin helped on the sprites for the game. He wanted the world to be tight. It has a feel of ancient feudal Japan, India, China and Siamese culture. Jordan’s been into these cultures and it’s not just for the game.

7:34 – His brother made a PC video game based on Leroy Jenkins. This inspired Jordan. He kept trying different game engines. He loves fixing bugs and making basic things happen. Testing is big thing to get Akari completed.

10:08 – His first game was tested at Skills USA in Louisville, Kentucky. It won gold at states and he was blown away. It changed his thinking and convinced him he could create a game people like. He then won third at nationals. He loves how many disciplines come together in game development.

12:05 – Game designers are mad artists. They are awesome entrepreneurs trying to give to others. They can change the world with new designs and new stories.

12:14 – One of his favorite games when he was young was Star Fox Assault. Each character has its own importance. They feel like family. Fire Emblem was another great one. He’s a big Marvel fan and loves video editing. But games are immersive and movies don’t have that experience. Some people think things games are for kids. But games make as much money as music and movies.

16:05 – The game industry has something special and keeps getting bigger. It’ll take over industries. Game movies are pretty awful right now. It’s hard to integrate a game into a movie. The immersive experience is taken out.

18:22 – He has a big game in mind that’s too large scale right now. It’s an anime action-slash theme game. He wants game story lines to keep impacting each other in the game.

19:44 – He’s had a real blast being at Magfest talking to players and game designers. The blind game fans have really inspired him. Akari is at Jepgames.com. They’re also on facebook, twitter and instagram.

Links

https://www.skillsusa.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Fox:_Assault

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Emblem

https://www.jepgames.com/

For more “Creating Sci-Fi and Fantasy – An Inside Look” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guests: Jordan Pierson

Host: Cris Alvarez