Believing is Seeing: The Creations of Shelly Warmuth

Who?

Hi, I'm Shelly. I reside in Green Bay, WI.  Like the banner says, I believe that "Believing is Seeing".  "You're walking down a blacktop road.  The street is barely wide enough for 2 cars to pass each other and there are no stripes on the road.  Gold, red and orange leaves cover the road and the grass and, as you walk, you hear the sounds of children playing, jumping in leaf piles.  The sun is shining, it's not a bad day.  The smell of burning twigs and leaves hang in the air.  A cool breeze blows and the leaves drift up around you as you walk.  The houses all look so similar...white house, gray stairs, big porches.  The only thing different are the decorations.  This house has a carved pumpkin, the next has three.  The house next to that is a graveyard with cobwebs and lights.  That's where you're headed.  You're almost there."  But, you're already there.  You were picturing it.  You can't help it.  That's the way the mind works.  I live in that kind of world of illusion and imagination all the time.  Games are a little different.  I can't create the smell of burning leaves or the taste of pumpkin pie.  It's not something I can put in writing.  But, I can write a game so immersive that your senses are engaged and that's the point, isn't it?

I chose game writing and design because it touches every aspect of me.

I have been writing since I was a kid.  Notebooks, journals, fantasies, poetry, whatever the genre, it seems I just can't stop putting pen to paper.  It's therapeutic.  It's creative.  It's me. 

I played Dungeons and Dragons in H.S. and college.  D&D is a game played totally in the imagination...at least it was back then.  I played when it was scandalous!  I didn't really touch a video game, except for arcade games, until MYST.  What a great game!  I bought a computer just so I could play it and I was hooked!  Now, I'm primarily a console gamer, although I'm currently playing Fallout 3 on the PC.  So, that's the gamer aspect of me.

I'm creative.  In addition to writing, I paint, cross-stitch, quilt, embroider, do needlepoint, sew, macrame and whatever other trendy new craft is out there, I've usually at least tried it! :)  I love movies, so, for me, gaming started out being like interactive movies.  I've never played a game based on a movie.  That's not what I'm talking about.  For me, gaming is better than reading or movies because you're totally immersed in the story.  You're an active part of it.  You might even have some control of it's outcome.  It engages your senses.  It engages your mind.  Try to play a game without an inner dialogue.  You can't do it.  

It's a team effort.  No great game comes from the mind of one person.  You have to be part of the team. You have to be willing to "kill your baby", to change the story, mold it, and add to it until it transforms into something so great and so beyond you.  That's what it means to be part of a team. That's what makes game design so great.  And, have you met game developers?  They're the kind of people I love to hang out with.  So, you go to work, and your work is play, which is good, because you're working some long, hard, and sometimes very stressful hours!

It takes research.  I used to live in the library.  Looking for one subject leads you on a hunt for another, which takes you off in a different direction and ....before you know it, hours are gone and you have 26 books to take out of the library.  Thank god for the internet!  I have the world at my fingertips.  Want to know everything there is to know about an M1 tank?  I'll find out.  It's not what you know, it's that you know where to find it.