Jesse Watson
Game Dev/Programmer/Illustrator
Jesse Watson is an artist and game developer from Masterton, New Zealand. Jesse moved to Wellington to attend Massey University to pursue a degree in Creative Media Production, of which he will graduate at the end of 2024, and intends to pursue fourth year honors to extend his time of study into 2025. ‘Gooseberries’ is Jesse’s first time playing a major role in a game production, as well as working in a large team, and he operates as the project's lead programmer. Jesse has contributed minor art assets to ‘Vine Worlds’ by VarietyIsHOPE for their now discontinued annual charity event and was the lead artist and animator for ‘Omnomaly’.
It was Jesse’s childhood battle with Perthes disease that spurred on his love of video games, and inspired him to create things for kids who can’t play in the same way their peers can. His dream is to be able to tell the stories he needed to hear when he was young, and hopefully spur on the next generation into delving into the world of game development too.
Games
From projects I've been a major contributor in to projects I've done minor submissions for, all the games I've worked on can be found here!Click the images to visit their itch.io pages/websites!
Gooseberries (2024)
Lead programmer, enemy AI developer, level designer, technical artist
Omnomaly (2023)
Pixel artist and animator, logo designer, minor programming assistance
Vine Worlds (2021)
Community submission credits (under the pseudonym 'Punksnarl')
Art
Character Design
Below is the design process of several characters I've developed during my time at Massey University and earlier - as well as who they are, and for what purpose they were made for.
Atom
Designed for 222.232 Illustrated Characters, Atom is my take on an educational mascot for Rocket Lab. Her colour scheme comes from the Rocket Lab branding itself, and she is inspired by Laika; the first dog sent to space.
Back To Ghoul
I was tasked with coming up with several ideas for the enemy designs for the 'Back To Ghoul' game developed as part of the Game Jam Intensive.
Infernal Springs
'Infernal Springs' is the name of the game developed for my Year 13 art board. It features four main characters - all of which I wanted to be visually distinct yet similar in proportion. This work is 3 years old now, but it is also one of my very first experiences with the character design process.
Illustrations
A collection of some of my favourite illustrative pieces, both for class and personal. I take great pride in my use of colour and put great effort into making each piece vibrant in it's own way.
Comics
My first ever completed comic - a 12 page adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Colour Out Of Space". A single physical version of this comic exists, and currently remains in the possession of my mum.
A list of the lovely talented people I've bad the pleasure of working with, or of whom I admire their work!
Name
Artist/Musician/Director/Etc
Name
Artist/Musician/Director/Etc
027 352 6499
[email protected]
[email protected]