Hey, I'm Mariam.
I think a lot. And somewhere along the way I realized, making games is the only thing that lets me share exactly what's going on in my head.
So here we are.
I used to wonder what it would feel like if someone else could just step inside a feeling I was having for a minute. Not understand it actually feel it. Games are the closest answer I've found. I'm not here to make things that run. I'm here to make things that land.
Expanding the Map
The club was supposed to be extracurricular. Then I became PR Head and suddenly I was talking to industry people I'd been following online, organizing events, learning how to hold a room. My code didn't change, but I stopped finally stopped treating it like a secret.
I had a whole plan for this section but then —
NOTICED
3rd Place! My solo survival experiment. A journey into the seen and unseen.
hover to read →I almost didn't submit. Two days of just sitting there, frozen. Then I decided to treat it like a question: can I actually do this alone? Turns out, yes. That surprised me more than the scary exciting part of being solo did.
Stable Build 02
48 hours of chaos. 1st Place Most Liked by the community!
hover to read →First time on a real team, 48 hours, everyone knowing what they're doing, except I wasn't sure I did. Then UML diagrams clicked, Scriptable Objects clicked, and I ended up doing the voice-over too because why not. Somehow it became the most liked game. I still think about that.
Kitchen Chaos
From "just working" to "working professionally." The architectural leap.
hover to read →At some point I stopped caring if the game worked and started caring about how it worked. State machines for burning food logic sounds ridiculous until it's elegant. That's when I got a little obsessed with structure. Still am.
Oneiros
My very first game! Born from sleepless nights and curious dreams.
hover to read →My first game. I made it about dreams because I didn't know what else to make it about, and it turns out that was the right call. My peers ranked it 2nd. I didn't expect that. I think that's what made me realize, oh, this can actually reach people.
Multiplayer XO
Connecting worlds. Making screens talk to each other in real-time.
hover to read →I just wanted to see an X appear on two screens at the same time. When it finally did I sat there for a second like, oh that's how the internet works. One of those small moments that quietly changes how you think.
ERAshift
A collaborative jam game with smooth flow and UI systems.
hover to read →Worked in a team to build a jam game; built the in-game store from scratch, designed the main menu, and handled how the game moves between scenes to keep everything feeling smooth and connected.
- - look into ECS
- - ask someone about shaders
- - finish this later??
- - [ ]
The Blueprint (C# & Unity)
I got obsessed with how things were built, not just that they worked. Messy code that runs is still messy code.
The Vision (Game Design)
CalArts taught me that 'fun' is not a feeling, it's a decision you make about 30 small things. I'm learning to make those decisions on purpose.
The Empathy (Product Design)
I've seen good games lose people in the first two minutes. I don't want to make things that need explaining. egFWD helped me think about the person holding the controller.
The Universal Key (English Fluency)
Teaching English at CAC was the thing that made me actually think about how I communicate, not just whether I can. That's a different skill. C1, but more importantly, I know when to shut up and listen.
[ Shader Graph? ]
(need to learn how to make water look right...)
If you have the wisdom, I have the hunger.
There are things you can only learn from someone who's already been there. I'm at the part of the journey where I know enough to know what I'm missing, and I'd rather ask than pretend. A short conversation, an honest critique, a book you keep recommending to people, any of it. Genuinely.
If something here clicked with you, I'd love to hear why.