My name is Connor McGinty. I grew up in Kailua on the island of Oahu. From there I attended all the local schools (Kailua Elementary, Intermediate) and then went to Kalaheo High School. After Kalaheo I went to Windward Community College to get my associates and then come to UH West. I mention this journey because it has great value to me as I have not only grown and seen the type of person I want to be, but I have met my lifetime second family out of these places, and they taught me to be who I want to be. I would like to consider myself as an artist's palette board. Not the canvas, not the brush, but the person that takes what they put down and choose how to make it into something new.
For this project I decided to work on my very own video game in the Unity Engine. This was also accompanied with a game design document that accompanies many of the skills I learned that I found useful.
The concept of creativity has come a long way. The Old Greeks would call those creative forces muses, other religions referred to them as God. Today people still mostly treat creativity as an aha moment outside the area of influence. However, just by looking at the creative process one can tell, that creativity and creative work is more than just that one "Aha-Moment" (insight). It is clear that generating ideas demands planning and preparation, identifying something of interest like a problem, an opportunity or a challenge, doing research. This then leads to thinking of a solution, allowing time to incubate and iterations before arriving at something “complete.” Students learn that hard work is what makes their ideas come to life and sticktuiveness is what helps them get better.
Connor brought mystery to motion with his original 2.5D platformer game, developed alongside in-depth research on indie game design. His capstone breaks down the entire process—from crafting a compelling narrative to designing player perspective, puzzles, and immersive environments. Drawing from industry examples and hands-on testing, Connor explored how to balance challenge, exploration, and story in a genre that thrives on suspense and surprise. His final game is more than just a project—it’s a playable blueprint of indie mystery game development. Go and check it out!