A Rosebud Success Story - Izabela’s Path to Mindful Game Creation

Izabela's dream has always been to publish a game infused with mindfulness elements and relaxing mechanisms, "so the player can use it as a form of therapy or coping mechanism to overcome stress, anxiety, disability, pain".

Despite her efforts using various tools and game engines, she found that the options for creation were very limited and the process was time-consuming for just one person to accomplish.

That was, at least, until she discovered the Rosebud Game Maker platform.

As one of our talented Beta Testers, Izabela has succeeded in creating a cozy memory match game using only prompts and her own artistic pieces as the game assets.

With Rosebud, her creative process has been incredibly simplified: "I just love that I can tell the AI 'the collision is not working, please fix it,' and then my code gets fixed like magic."

Dive into Rosebud's Discord community to transform your game ideas into reality, no matter your experience level.

Navigating Art and AI Game Dev with Rosebud

Izabela stumbled upon Rosebud while looking for a way to blend her artistry with gaming, aiming to do so without focusing on programming or dedicating most of her time to debugging.

As an artist who has experimented with various art styles, Izabela does not see development of AI art as a bad thing, unlike many of her peers: “I always use references, so I see AI art as a good source to get inspired or narrow my own ideas”.

Upon gaining access to our platform, she dived right in, actively engaging with it and providing feedback on Discord to enhance her experience and that of other creators. Her contributions quickly earned her the title of Adventurer, a distinguished role within our community.

“I found using Rosebud very easy, although it can be quirky at times, but as long as the prompt is simple all is working for me”, she shared as one of her initial reactions. A few weeks later, she remarked: “I didn’t read any article, didn’t watch any video, and managed to build a game! That is the beauty of this tool, you do not have to be a programmer”.

That game was a memory match featuring her digital flower art. Despite being an incredibly entertaining game, Izzy prefers not to share it until the option to disable the cloning of Rosebud games is available, in order to protect her art. We are currently working on implementing this feature.

As advice for new Rosebud creators, she recommends: “Just use the tool, make mistakes, get frustrated with it sometimes. You do not have to create a full-blown game at your first try”.

The Therapeutic Power of Gaming

Although Izabela's process of creating games has been swift, her creative interests span from photography and digital design to learning to play the piano, sewing, and 3D fashion design.

“My other passion is playing games to relax. I’ve always been interested in human health and psychology, and in the last decades I’ve observed the game industry going from good to harmful”, she observes.

“Hence my interest in making games, because the current game market is having a very negative impact on human minds. So gaming ethics is very close to my heart”.

In the same vein, Izabela has shared that creating games is her method of coping with pain. She suffers from an incurable neurological condition called fibromyalgia, characterised by widespread pain, chronic fatigue and cognitive issues.

“How does this relate to gaming? As we suffer with pain 24/7 we need distraction, and gaming is one of them”, she explains. “As my physical and cognitive health deteriorates, I see Rosebud as an amazing solution to do something that matters. The games I am working on are simple relaxing games that would keep the player occupied, happy and engaged”.

Building Games That Resonate with You

Izabela's story with Rosebud not only showcases her personal achievements but also reveals the vast possibilities that gaming offers for well-being and creativity.

Right now, she is developing a unique game concept centered around merging flowers, a work in progress that aligns with her love for flowers and plants.

This approach underlines a crucial perspective on success: crafting experiences that not only fulfill the player, but also bring joy to the creators themselves.

As she remarks: “Make something simple, maybe recreate a game from your childhood. Don't create games for others, create a game that you want to play. I found myself playing my own game a lot, instead of adding new levels. This should be your benchmark of success”.

No matter if you're an artist or come from any other background, Rosebud opens the door for you to tap into your creative potential, free from the traditional barriers of game development. Feel free to join our Discord, share your story like Izabela did, and begin crafting your games today.

And if you liked Izabela's work, you can check her Instagram with some of her 3D fashion designs and plants photos, and also her Shutterstock portfolio here.