This is a quote from 12:00AM, by ApricotBuncakes, originally posted on Archive of Our Own.
Howdy! My name is Aaryn Bonyak (He/Him) and I am a second year game design major at Mountwest Community and Technical College. My goal is to graduate and work for Steel Wool, a game company known well for their Virtual Reality (VR) games, and specifically their installments in the Five Nights at Freddy's (FNAF) game series.
I'm passionate about game making, web designing, music, writing, and digital/sketch art. I've been an artist since I was a young child, trying new styles, testing new ideas, and breaking in my passion for character design and story making. Having written well over 40 fanfiction since middle school (some tragically lost to time) I've been working my way up to- Well, I'll tell you about that later.
I'm a huge fan of psychological horror, thrillers, and anything that explores taboo topics and subjects in a new, creative way. All art has merit in my eyes, even (especially) the ones that make people uncomfortable. Breaking out of what is "acceptable" to talk about, makes way for important topics to be discussed on a broader scale, and allows more subjects for creativity to bloom.
Some of my favorite videogames include (2006) Scratches, Five Nights at Freddy's (yes, all of them), Undertale, Deltarune, Legend's of Zelda (Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom specifically), The Joy of Creation (FNAF fan game), Beat Saber, and many others! There's way too many to list here unfortunatly.
My main project currently is my dating sim "Blorbo From My Dating Sim", named after the popular Blorbo tumblr meme. These are the two base reference images I made for the Sun and Moon sprites. Although based on the Sun and Moon models from FNAF Security Breach and Help Wanted 2 VR, I took some creative liberties, including simplifying and cartoon-ifying their designs. In game, Sun and Moon's faceplate is static and does not change to emote, much like a mask. But in order to capture emotional expressions (emotes), I decided to give them a more cartoonish expression logic to make a more clear emotional response to the player.
These are the versions of Sun and Moon I used as a reference for designing my version of them. Moon's model is from an early version of Security Breach, before the illumination of his pants' stars was removed. The Sun game model is from Help Wanted 2 VR where he appears in the Arts and Crafts minigame(s). Further in development, I plan on designing a handful of different outfits for them to wear to add visual variety during the different dates. For Sun, I'd like pastel and kidcore aesthetics to shine through his clothing choices. For dates with Moon, I think a darker, soft goth or emo aesthetic would work nicely.
Occassionally, I make my own music. I love writing songs that tell a story, even if the story isn't my own.
Making characters is fun for me, and a great way for me to "learn about" or figure out their
personalities than music featuring their story.
MSL follows the emotions and dedication an apprentice of a mad scientist developes for his superior,
expressing how insanely devoted he is to them.
The Apprentice's Fall
TAF is the aftermath of the Mad Scientist and their Apprentice's relationship.
The two voices in this song are actually both me! I initially sang the
song in highschool before I had started testosterone. Then after starting T, I decided to turn the song into
a duet with my younger self, playing both sides of the conversation.
After completing my dating sim, I'd like to keep working on making games, ones that aren't fangames for FNAF. I have one game in the design and planning stage that I'm working on with a handful of people. Inspired by the Malevolent Podcast (season 3, episodes 22-28), and the 2006 game Scratches, we plan to make a point-and-click adventure game that follows the story of a detective, Levy, and the fraction of a god in his head, Ryan. We're aiming for a thriller/psychological horror-puzzle-mystery feel, something to build suspense, force the player's detective skills into action, and keep everyone on their toes.
I'm also drafting up a novel (told you I'd tell you about it later)! It centers around a young trans boy who's searching for community. He makes friends with a queer mad scientist (where have we heard about that before...) and a trans girl from school. Oh yeah, and there's sci-fy schenanigans happening too, courtisy of the aforemeantioned mad scientist.