"Do or do not, there is no try" - Yoda from The Empire Strikes Back. This quote has grown up with me since I was a little kid. I was raised by my single mom and thus we didn't have a lot of money, however, what we could afford was going down to our local BlockBuster to get star wars movies to watch on repeat. Yoda's quote motivates me and plays a pretty big role when it comes to my game design. Whenever I am on the verge of quitting or giving up, I usually push it off to the side and forget about it. However, whenever I see this quote it reminds me that it is much better to finish something while trying your best and having it turn out bad, rather than not finish something at all.

Mental health really started to impact my life as a whole in middle school. I was often bullied a lot for being a tall, overweight kid, making it hard to find friends besides the few I grew up with. I never really knew too much about depression, anxiety, or other mental health struggles so the whole time I thought I was just in a bad mood, or sad. A little later someone new moved to my school and me and my few friends quickly became close with her and got to know her pretty well! She was the most upbeat, happy, and unproblematic person I think I had ever met at the time. A few months after being friends I was sleeping over at my friend's house who I have known since early elementary, we stayed up all night playing video games and eating junk food, and all of a sudden my phone starts to blow up with messages. I hadn't had a lot of people text me so I went to check and it was the new girl. She had been texting me, thanking me for how good of a friend I had been to her and how much I changed her life. I began to get worried as she never acted like this before and after asking what was wrong all she said was "I'm sorry Jimmy. Check the drawer on my table and it'll explain everything. Goodbye". I can still remember the text to this day and the feeling I felt dwelling inside of my gut like I was going to puke and cry at the same time. I grabbed my friend and we ran as fast as we could to her house which was luckily only a few blocks away. The whole time tears were running down my 14-year-old face, and I was about to throw up at any moment. As we got to her house I pounded on her door as hard as I could and she set down the tub of bleach, opened the door, and began to cry in my arms. This was the most eye-opening moment of my entire life as it showed me people can truly hide the biggest things just by faking a smile every once and a while. This moment helped me understand how important it is to check up on your friends not just about school, but about their home lives and social lives. It made me determined to do something with my life that could help take away the stress of life which motivated me even more for game design. Some people might say that video games are only to pass time, however that only on the surface. I want to make a video game that tells a story, a video game that isn't just shooting or swing until you win. And with VR growing that vision of mine is even more likely to come true. I hope that one day I can make a video game that won't make blockbuster sales, or skyrocket into popularity. But a game that someone can relate with, a game that can make someone that feels as if they don't fit in, feel like they do. Because in the end what all my battles with mental health as well as the experiences I have had with people around me have taught me is that it's okay to be different because no matter how low you are in life there will always be 1 person that loves you.

Growing up I had always had a really bad image of myself. I had always thought I was fat, my hair was bad, my nose was too big, and how I overall just thought I looked ugly. I would constantly feel the need to become better ever since 6th grade and when middle school started I then became aware of the gap in my two front teeth as well. I would constantly hide my smile, wear baggy jeans and oversized hoodies and I wouldn't really hang out with anyone unless it was inside of their house. Then the beginning of my freshman year I took a class called strength training where we did a lot of work in the weight room and I fell in love with the gym. I fell so in love that at the beginning of the year my max bench was 1 rep 75 pounds and then at the end of the year I was able to do a few reps of 135. This really made me happy as I noticed that if I put my mind to something and didn't give up I could achieve it. After a few years in the gym, I had gone from weighing 240 lbs all the way down to 185 lbs and I could see and feel the difference. Dropping all this excess weight both made me love myself more and also become more social. I was no longer wearing 2XL hoodies to hid my stomach and I wasn't wearing jeans that were 5 sizes up to hide my thighs, and I overall felt a lot happier. Feeling this way also helped me further pursue my future career in game design by helping me realize never to give up no matter how hard the path is and make me feel a lot more motivated! I also had begun to strengthen friendships and make a lot of new ones, and I will forever be grateful for that.

Hi, my name is James Justice and I would say my greatest achievement to date is the progress that I have made in video game design and development. My passion is video game design and development and I have been doing it since I was in the fifth grade. Video games have always been my escape in life whether I was upset, sad, happy, or having fun with friends video games would always be my go-to. While growing up I had noticed from a young age that video games must be hard to make, however, there was something so moving about how these people can take a blank, half-hearted concept they had sitting in their brain, and make that into a reality through video game development! In the fifth grade, I started off by using a program called scratch, and the way I made games where I took other peoples coding and modified it as I saw fit to make it into my own, and eventually, I got to the point where I could make my own code, art, assets, and animations and turn it into my very own game. While in elementary I managed to modify a total of 4 games and make 2 of my very own on Scratch. During middle school I taught myself HTML5 and Python however that wasn't enough for me and later after my freshman year, I chose to take a summer class for video game design where I learned the coding language C#. During my first year's game competition I was made into my team's leader (Developer) and was tasked with leading my team to make a game. This happened to me both years I attended that summer school class and the first year I placed 3rd, and the second year I placed 2nd! Looking back on these key events in my life taught me that I have a drive not to give up on what I love to do and no matter how tough the path is or whoever doubts or laughs at what I do, in the end, I pushed through to the end and never gave up. In the future, I hope to create a video game that can not only be a fun getaway like the games from my childhood but something more than that. I wish to create something that any age can pick up, and enjoy while it is fun to play, yet a beautiful piece of artwork for everyone to experience.

My biggest role model probably has to be my grandpa. My name is James Justice and ever since I moved here from Minnesota when I was 3, My grandpa had been a fatherly figure to me and my brother. He taught me how to fish, took me and my brother golfing, taught me essential rules of life and common courtesy such as chewing with my mouth closed, and so on. When we moved out here, we lived with our grandma and grandpa which is why he taught me so many things. Not only did he agree to help raise me, but he also chose to guide me down the right path. In 5th grade, I developed a love for video game creation, everything from the coding and road bumps, to the design and release. I started out using a program called Scratch, where I modded some games and then came to the point where I eventually made my own. Once going into 8th grade I taught myself HTML5 and a little bit of python which I later gave up on, however it really helped me learn about the struggles of coding and how hard it really was. My grandpa talked with me about how if I loved something I should do it, so I later decided to go to a game design class at a local school called Sno Isle Tech, and there I learned C#. I practiced whenever I could staying up until 2 am writing and typing away until we finally made it to the competition. We were split into various groups and were told to make a game together. I had known a good majority of the people in my group and made friends out of the rest very easily, and later they decided to nominate me as their team leader which is formally known as the developer. I had given out tasks to my teammates with deadlines that we should try to meet so we can finish in time, which worked but at the same time didn't. When it came to the presentation, we were happy with what we had created as we had many late nights with me personally staying up until 1-2 am working on the game for around 14 hours a day if not more including the school time we had, however when we put the game on the screen there had been a bug in the .exe file we sent in, luckily though we managed to get the Unity editor on screen and play it through there. After having a mediocre presentation with a lot of bugs, our very first game managed to place 3rd! It wasn't 1st or the runner up, but we still managed to create something all of us could be proud of. The reason I'm talking about this is that my grandpa had been in the audience that day and cheered me on the whole time, even if I messed up my speech or the whole presentation, he still told me I did amazing. If he hadn't been there for me through the tough times of my game development journey, I may not have released 1 game on itch.io, releasing another game on Steam, and above all else be attending the Academy of Interactive Entertainment. I am grateful for him and everything he has done for me, he truly is my role model and someone I aspire to be like one day.

The one thing I strive to create is a video game that will temporarily take away the stress of life. In life, there are many hardships such as working full time, car insurance, health insurance, other daily bills such as phone lines and TV, rent if you have an apartment, and your monthly payments if owning a house. Throughout these hardships, many will turn to hobbies such as painting, photography, watching videos, making videos, or one of the most common methods which are playing video games. A lot of people turn to play videos games because it is extremely in-depth and suited for anyone and everyone. There are video games such as taking care of pets, card games, virtual board games, shooters, adventure, and even virtual reality! All these various categories allow for a wide variety of not just games, but players alike. For my dream game, I wish to connect all players through an MMORPG that supports both VR gameplay, as well as a standard desktop. In this game, you will be able to use magic, swords, axes, spears, or hammers while you go adventuring defeating monsters, or going on a quest to save a villager. However, if that isn't your cup of tea, you may feel free to become a blacksmith, a tavern owner, or even log on just to play standard tabletop games with your friends. The main thing I want to express through this game is that no matter how different you may be whether physically or mentally, many people share common interests, and when brought together can make an extremely strong community where everyone can forget about the hardships of life for even just a minute, and have fun with others. Although this sounds like a massive project, it's because it is! Making a game is no joke, I know from personal experience how devoted you have to be in order to finish a game let alone publish it, it takes hours upon hours of blood sweat, and tears, as well as you, pour your heart out. Knowing that, I still want to do whatever I can to make it a reality, whether it takes me 2 years or 15 years, as long as it gets worked on piece by piece, it will come together. The reason I want the world to see this creation is so kids can see that if you pour your heart into something and don't give up you will always make it, even if you fail multiple times you will still make it.

My first go to website for shopping has to be Amazon for multiple reasons. Amazon has such a wide variety of items including parts for my car, video games, and even food! And on top of that, I feel as if I could search for something very unique and Amazon would still have some form of it! Defiantly my number 1 go to. As for my second, it would have to be Etsy. The thing I absolutely love about Etsy is how it’s buyers supporting small creators. There is such a wide variety of items, and talent that is spread across that website and I feel as if it’s a much more personalized buy when shopping. My third has to be eBay for one reason only, and that is the pure amount of inventory they have when it comes to sellers. I can search for something so specific down to the certain sticker or label and eBay would have at least 5 for sale. It is a website I use mainly for items I cannot find anywhere else.

I grew up with no father, just me my brother and my mom. We started out living in my grandmas spare shed/house and later we’re able to get an apartment a little after I started school. It was hard for me to relate to my friends when I was little because at the time I didn’t understand why I had to be the one kid who couldn’t go to dads and donuts, it didn’t make sense to me and I felt different, like I didn’t fit in. Later on I found something I loved doing, something that I could do that would make me and hopefully others smile and forget about the small things, and that was making video games. In 5th grade I found out about a program called scratch, which would give you little bars of code that you would fill in to make a video game such as movement, speed, direction, and key presses. The thing I loved most about this was that I could have an idea in my head, and make it into a video game for me to play whenever and wherever! A lot of my friends in elementary found this really cool as I was one of the only kids who fully understood what I was doing, however later when I started freshman year in high school it became apparent that hardly anyone was interested anymore. Whenever I told them I made games people would assume I would work on big AAA games such as call of duty, or smash bros. The only ones who thought it was cool were my close friends and I’m very great full for each and every one of them because if they didn’t support me when I was at my lowest, I may have had no idea what I would do with my future. The summer of my freshman year I went to a summer school for video game design and I became a team leader, also known as a developer/producer and it was the most fun I’ve had in a while. Me and my team bonded, made a friendship, and ended up placing 3rd in the competition at the end of summer. A year later I went to the same school and placed 2nd. This is when I knew I wanted to take things seriously with my game development. The summer before my senior year I decided to take place in a small game jam, where the contestants are given 2 days to complete a full game start to finish. I worked hard during this game jam and managed to place 1st in the subject that counted most. After the game jam I decided to take things a step further and I’m currently in the process of making and releasing my very first indie game on steam! After college, I plan to pour my heart and soul into each and every video game I make, to result in the maximum player experience in hopes to make them forget about all the times they’ve been hurt, all the times they’ve been bullied, and all the times they’ve been picked on so they can have that little moment of happiness. I never really knew my biological father, and in full honestly I don’t plan to meet him, however I plan to become one of the best in the field to prove to him, and everyone else in my position that a fatherly figure isn’t needed for someone to thrive in the world and make a name out of themselves.

My name is James Justice and ever since I was a kid I have had a huge imagination. In the fifth grade I started using a website called scratch to make games which is where I first found my dream. Ever since then, I have been very passionate about video game development and production. I love the sense of urgency, and at the same time the amount of time and patience you need to produce something that will make both you, the team, and consumers fall in love with.