Hi, I’m Zip. 🦖

I'm a game designer and programmer from the UK, with an interest in pretty much everything that goes into making games.

I work with Unity, Blender, web technologies and a lot of different tools depending on what I'm trying to make. I'm interested in both the creative and technical sides of game development, from designing how something should play to actually getting the code and assets working.

I like making things where I can actually experiment and see an idea turn into something real. That can mean working on a game, writing code, making 3D assets, building a website, working with VR, or just trying to figure out how something works.

This website is where I keep my work, ideas, experiments and some of the things I get up to outside of development. You can find my finished and ongoing work in Projects.

Aphantasia

One of the things that has had a major effect on the way I approach creative work is something called aphantasia.

I don't have a visual image in my mind. If I close my eyes and try to picture something, there isn't a picture there. I can think about what something looks like and I can describe it, understand it and work with the idea of it, but I don't actually see it inside my head.

My thoughts are primarily internal speech rather than an internal visual world.

This has sometimes made creative work difficult to explain to other people. I've had people question why I'm pursuing a creative course when I don't have the ability to visualise things in my head.

The assumption behind those questions is understandable: if you can't picture something, how can you create it?

For me, the answer is simple. I don't need to see something in my head to build it.

I can work things out through references, sketches, diagrams, prototypes, 3D software, game engines and experimentation. Instead of seeing the finished result in my head first, I can build towards it and figure things out as I go.

I don't have a finished game sitting in my head waiting to be transferred into a computer. I start with an idea and work out what that idea actually becomes through the process of making it.

Aphantasia

Aphantasia is also the name I'm working towards using for my own game studio.

It isn't officially established as a studio just yet, but the idea behind it is already important to me.

I've had people tell me, directly or indirectly, that aphantasia should make creative work harder for me. They're right about one thing: it changes how I work.

But it doesn't stop me from creating. If anything, it has made me more interested in finding different ways to turn an idea into something real.

I want Aphantasia to be a way of showing what I'm capable of, regardless of the assumptions people might make about aphantasia and creativity.

The goal isn't to make games simply because they might make money. I want to make games that are actually worth playing; games with ideas, personality and something that makes people want to spend their time with them.

If a game succeeds commercially, that's great. But I don't want the quickest possible way to make money to be the thing that decides what gets made.

I want to make things that people genuinely enjoy.

Aphantasia is still an idea in progress, but I want it to become something real. Not because I need to prove that I can imagine things differently, but because I want the games to speak for themselves.

Where I'm Heading

I'm working towards a career in the games industry while continuing to develop my own skills and projects.

I want to become someone who can contribute across different parts of development rather than being limited to one area. Game design and programming are the main focus, but I'm also interested in 3D, web development, VR and the technical side of development.

Long term, I'd like to turn the experience I gain from studying, working and making my own games into something that can support Aphantasia as a proper studio.

There's still a lot I need to learn before getting there, but that's part of what makes it interesting.

How I Work

I work things out as I go.

I'll use references, notes, sketches, diagrams, prototypes, Blender, Unity or whatever else helps me turn an idea into something tangible.

Because I don't have a visual image in my head, references and actually building things are particularly useful to me. They give me something concrete to work from instead of relying on something I can't see internally.

That can mean changing an idea several times before it works. Sometimes a prototype gets thrown away, sometimes it becomes something much better than what I originally had in mind.

Either way, I'd rather experiment and find out than spend ages trying to make something perfect before I've even built it.

Outside of Game Development

Games aren't the only thing I spend my time on.

I'm into cars, music, DJing, VR and anime. Cars have been a long-running interest of mine, while music and DJing give me something completely different to work on.

If you want to see what I'm doing with music, there's a DJ Zone on the site.

VR is probably the closest these interests get back to development. There's something particularly interesting about being able to actually step inside an experience rather than just looking at it on a screen.

I also watch a lot of anime, which is why there's a Watchlist here as well.

Things I'm Interested In

Why I Make Things

At the end of the day, I like making things because I want to see what I can turn an idea into.

I don't think having aphantasia should decide whether I'm capable of working creatively. It changes how I work, but it doesn't decide what I'm capable of making.

I have ideas, I have things I want to build, and I have a lot left to learn. The important part is actually doing it.

That's what I'm trying to do with everything I make: take an idea, work it out, build it, and see where it goes.