MADE IN FELIXSTOWE
Neyyah - A New Online Game Felixstowe game developer, Aaron Gwynaire, tells us about his latest brainchild I’m currently developing a first person point-n-click adventure puzzle game called Neyyah. It is very much influenced by the original Myst and Riven games, and has been in development for just over two years. I design everything in the game, from concept and story through to all the graphics, sound and music elements too. Neyyah began its life while I was living in Western Australia, and continues to grow and develop nicely, right here in Trimley St. Mary, with at least another two years in development. I started getting into game design when I was about fourteen, and continued learning a lot about 3D modelling throughout high school and college. Starting with a basic 3D modelling program called Anim8or, I already had a background in working with clay and so I was able to get to grips with modelling in virtual space very quickly. I found 3D modelling to be such a fantastic way of 10
The Felixstowe Magazine - 2021
expressing creativity, but mainly with the focus of creating realistic looking fantasy worlds. I developed various game ideas throughout high school, then in 2011 I developed a concept called Portals: Journey to the Pearl Islands, which gave birth to the story of Neyyah. 2012 came along, and I moved to Australia, where I pursued more of a music career. But in 2018, I wanted to return to my game development roots. I took the concept of Portals and evolved it, and at first came up with a game idea called Beyond. I was going to develop Beyond using the tools I had been used to back when I started game development (Anim8or, Adventure Maker) but soon became very aware of the potential Blender 3D modelling software had to offer. It changed everything at that point. The rendering looked so realistic, and I felt like I could create something that really met the visual bar of my biggest influence, Riven (Cyan 1997).
