{"id":2114,"date":"2026-04-06T03:02:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T03:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/?p=2114"},"modified":"2026-04-06T16:57:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T16:57:05","slug":"the-silver-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/the-silver-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"The Silver Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-container wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio uagb-block-vtch0jvd alignwide uagb-is-root-container\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-info-box uagb-block-7gzwqvxn uagb-infobox__content-wrap  uagb-infobox-icon-above-title uagb-infobox-image-valign-top\"><div class=\"uagb-ifb-content\"><div class=\"uagb-ifb-title-wrap\"><p class=\"uagb-ifb-title-prefix\">Video game<\/p><h1 class=\"uagb-ifb-title\">The Silver Moon<\/h1><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-image uagb-block-604a407f wp-block-uagb-image--layout-default wp-block-uagb-image--effect-static wp-block-uagb-image--align-none\"><figure class=\"wp-block-uagb-image__figure\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2025-12-04-103242.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"uag-image-2116\" width=\"1024\" height=\"574\" title=\"Screenshot 2025-12-04 103242\" loading=\"lazy\" role=\"img\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-container wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio uagb-block-5d14a065 alignfull uagb-is-root-container\"><div class=\"uagb-container-inner-blocks-wrap\">\n<div data-aos= \"fade-right\" data-aos-duration=\"400\" data-aos-delay=\"0\" data-aos-easing=\"ease\" data-aos-once=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-uagb-container uagb-block-4b65b89d\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-e0082cf6 wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-advanced-heading uagb-block-26e8081a\"><h2 class=\"uagb-heading-text\"><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong><strong>Yianni&nbsp;Varnavelias<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-advanced-heading uagb-block-03f5dcbb\"><h3 class=\"uagb-heading-text\">Stamford, CT<\/h3><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-advanced-heading uagb-block-8ae5a0fe\"><h3 class=\"uagb-heading-text\">Advisor: Zhenzhen Qi&nbsp;<\/h3><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-advanced-heading uagb-block-6f5037cc\"><h4 class=\"uagb-heading-text\">Artist Bio<\/h4><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0\">Yianni&nbsp;Varnavelias&nbsp;is a 2D game designer and storyteller from&nbsp;Stamford&nbsp;Connecticut. Growing up, he enjoyed his first video game, New Super Mario Bros for the DS, debuting his creative desire to become a designer for games when he came of age. In between his elementary years to high&nbsp;school&nbsp;he discovered his passion for video games and storytelling with friends and eventually landed in his major for DMD in Video Game Design in the University of Connecticut. Overtime in his college life, he learned the ins and&nbsp;outs of coding and designing correctly for projects in classes&nbsp;in order to&nbsp;prepare himself for the final project in his senior year. In his junior year, he and a couple of classmates were tasked with making a game that used an arcade machine\u2019s button mappings.&nbsp;Looking ahead into the future, Yianni hopes to find a job that best suits his creativity as a game designer in hopes of telling his own stories in his own way to a&nbsp;community, and&nbsp;also hopes he can become a successful designer in his prime.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div data-aos= \"fade-left\" data-aos-duration=\"400\" data-aos-delay=\"0\" data-aos-easing=\"ease\" data-aos-once=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-uagb-container uagb-block-787c2033\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-image uagb-block-33d869bf wp-block-uagb-image--layout-default wp-block-uagb-image--effect-static wp-block-uagb-image--align-none\"><figure class=\"wp-block-uagb-image__figure\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Yianni-Varnavelias-Headshot-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"uag-image-1597\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" title=\"Yianni Varnavelias Headshot\" loading=\"lazy\" role=\"img\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-container wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio uagb-block-f6f9c3e4 alignfull uagb-is-root-container\"><div class=\"uagb-container-inner-blocks-wrap\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-advanced-heading uagb-block-899e302d\"><h4 class=\"uagb-heading-text\">Artist Statement<\/h4><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-top:0;padding-right:0;padding-bottom:0;padding-left:0\">When I think of simple game design, I like to look up to indie game designers that&nbsp;made&nbsp;an impact&nbsp;to&nbsp;their community. In this case, Adrienne Bazir, also known as InsertDisc5 on the internet, is the creator of her game In Stars in Time, which features a boy that is constantly looping back in time to figure out why exactly they loop whether they die or get to \u201cthe end of the game\u201d or not. The game itself has a lot of twists&nbsp;and also&nbsp;moments that genuinely make my face stretch with a&nbsp;smile, or&nbsp;even furl my brows in anger or sadness.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>I would love to integrate this kind of style of storytelling into my own games, with such simple styles that you can only see through artworks like character portraits above the dialogue or even in the overworld with its many characters. Games like In Stars and Time have influenced me as a creator and&nbsp;a writer&nbsp;to be more fluent and verbal to my&nbsp;audience, and&nbsp;hopefully allow me to become more legible for people to understand and enjoy what I create.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-slider wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio uagb-block-f263f817 uagb-slider-container\"><div class=\"uagb-slides uagb-swiper\"><div class=\"swiper-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-slider-child uagb-slider-child-wrap swiper-slide uagb-block-ade93ac2\"><div class=\"swiper-content\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-container uagb-block-cdc44df8 alignfull uagb-is-root-container\"><div class=\"uagb-container-inner-blocks-wrap\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-image uagb-block-d5bb1180 wp-block-uagb-image--layout-default wp-block-uagb-image--effect-static wp-block-uagb-image--align-none\"><figure class=\"wp-block-uagb-image__figure\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2025-11-16-174718-1024x388.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"uag-image-2115\" width=\"1024\" height=\"388\" title=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" role=\"presentation\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-slider-child uagb-slider-child-wrap swiper-slide uagb-block-8355035d\"><div class=\"swiper-content\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-container uagb-block-02af7eaa alignfull uagb-is-root-container\"><div class=\"uagb-container-inner-blocks-wrap\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-image uagb-block-01ebb901 wp-block-uagb-image--layout-default wp-block-uagb-image--effect-static wp-block-uagb-image--align-none\"><figure class=\"wp-block-uagb-image__figure\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2026-02-08-125608.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"uag-image-2117\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" title=\"Screenshot 2026-02-08 125608\" loading=\"lazy\" role=\"img\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-slider-child uagb-slider-child-wrap swiper-slide uagb-block-bb90d1b8\"><div class=\"swiper-content\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-container uagb-block-91d3ad2e alignfull uagb-is-root-container\"><div class=\"uagb-container-inner-blocks-wrap\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-image uagb-block-7d3c3272 wp-block-uagb-image--layout-default wp-block-uagb-image--effect-static wp-block-uagb-image--align-none\"><figure class=\"wp-block-uagb-image__figure\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2026-03-01-183022-1024x640.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"uag-image-2118\" width=\"1024\" height=\"640\" title=\"Screenshot 2026-03-01 183022\" loading=\"lazy\" role=\"img\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><div class=\"swiper-pagination\"><\/div><div class=\"swiper-button-prev\"><\/div><div class=\"swiper-button-next\"><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yianni&nbsp;Varnavelias Stamford, CT Advisor: Zhenzhen Qi&nbsp; Artist Bio Yianni&nbsp;Varnavelias&nbsp;is a 2D game designer and storyteller from&nbsp;Stamford&nbsp;Connecticut. Growing up, he enjoyed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":2118,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,218],"tags":[74,217],"class_list":["post-2114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-design","category-yianni-varnavelias","tag-game-design","tag-yianni-varnavelias"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2026-03-01-183022-scaled.png",2560,1600,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2026-03-01-183022-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2026-03-01-183022-300x188.png",300,188,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2026-03-01-183022-768x480.png",768,480,true],"large":["https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2026-03-01-183022-1024x640.png",1024,640,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2026-03-01-183022-1536x960.png",1536,960,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2026-03-01-183022-2048x1280.png",2048,1280,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"ryc21001","author_link":"https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/author\/ryc21001\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Yianni&nbsp;Varnavelias Stamford, CT Advisor: Zhenzhen Qi&nbsp; Artist Bio Yianni&nbsp;Varnavelias&nbsp;is a 2D game designer and storyteller from&nbsp;Stamford&nbsp;Connecticut. Growing up, he enjoyed [&hellip;]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2114"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2261,"href":"https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2114\/revisions\/2261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfashow.dmd.uconn.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}