My name is Jeffery Dai, but most people simply refer to me as Jeff. I am generally not a very socially active person but capable of long discussions (or rambles) if the topic is interesting. I enjoy making digital drawings (via ibisPaint X), listening to music, watching YouTube videos, and of course, playing video games. I hold a number of interests, such as astronomy, rocket science, aviation, cars, mechanical engineering, and others. I am an American-born Chinese person but due in part to my difficulties with socializing (and arrogant refusal to pay attention in Chinese language tutoring), I do not know much Chinese. I can understand and speak a little Mandarin, and understand some Wenzhounese and Cantonese, but unable to read or write Chinese. My aunt suggested Jeffrey as my name after I was born, but due to my mother’s lack of proficiency in English, misspelled my name as “Jeffery” (the correct spelling is Jeffrey) on my birth certificate.
A few months after I was born, my parents sent me to China for a few months to be raised by my grandparents. The only other time I visited China was in the summer of 2017. The only other international trip I’ve been on began on February 18, 2023, when my family and I embarked on an 8-day cruise, with itineraries in Cape Canaveral in Florida, Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas, and originally, Bermuda. The Bermuda stop was canceled due to bad weather and the ship got rerouted to Miami. During my stay at Cape Canaveral, I was able to snap a picture of a recently used Falcon 9 first stage on top of a droneship while SpaceX teams worked to bring it on shore. I also took a surfing lesson in Cape Canaveral, where I encountered a shark approximately 20 feet in front of me in the water. Traveling is memorable, but I tend to get homesick.
I am a volunteer asset contributor and game tester for three indie games on Roblox, those being Starscape, Astra Invictus, and Farsector. The 3D models I create are done via a combination of Roblox Studio and Blender. I initially made models for Starscape as a fan and not as a developer, although my career nearly died in its infancy when I posted a build so horrible one user commented “Dandy is gonna have a fucking stroke when he comes back” and made me question the effort. The only time I made money from my contributions was a Patreon payout of $100.00.
Dorado by Jeffery Dai (me), circa July 2022. Depicts an unused Starscape asset by the same name, also made by me.
Official Farsector asset: Night Unending-class frigate
I took the Automotive Service and Repair program at Thomas A. Edison CTE High School in Jamaica, New York, got an ASE Beginner Certification for Automotive Repair, and a Society of Automotive Engineers endorsement on my diploma. My experience with computer programs and automotive repair led me to major in Industrial Design. I am not completely sure what career I may pursue in the future, though I am considering finishing my degree and pursuing transportation design.
I feel like I could relate to you so much on not being a very socially active person but talking a bunch when an interesting topic comes up. I don’t know what it is but I can’t really socialize it becomes awkward for me especially if we’re meeting for the first time. Another thing I can relate to is the fact that I can’t really speak my second language or write in it. I can understand it really well but when it comes to speaking or typing in it or even translating I tend to have trouble in doing so. There are times where I can speak it very well and there are times where I just struggle to even get a word out. I find it really interesting that you’re a game tester and a volunteer asset contributor for Roblox games because i like Roblox from time to time can’t lie to you I will have to check those games out and see what’s up.
The only one of those three in-dev games that have an active player base is Starscape. Astra Invictus and Farsector are very incomplete and often have zero concurrent players, whereas Starscape usually sits roughly between 100-350 concurrent players.
I really relate to what you said about not being social especially new environments. Also it is funny and wholesome on how your name was spelled the way it was on your certificate and a really cool fact. One question that I do have is how did you first get into making those models and how did you first learn? Was it always something you wanted to do?
Roblox automatically comes with Roblox Studio when downloaded and I did occasionally play around with the program in the years before I made assets for Starscape, but nothing I did was substantial until then. The way I got into actually making models began after I played the game for the first time and joined its Discord chatroom, where I noticed some of its channels were dedicated to fanmade creations such as Studio models and artwork. I guess I felt inspired to try something new and booted up Studio.
It was November 11, 2020, and the first thing I made was a pretty lame and generic ship build based on some of the in-game models, as per recommendations by other users. My very second build, made later that same day, led to the disaster I referenced in the main post. It was dubbed “The Strokeinator” and I quit for the week after that. Although I returned to building, the next time I would publicly upload a model was two months later on January 8, 2021, and was more well-received. Over the course of the next year, I would make and upload over a dozen different builds and honed and refined my skills. After the announcement of a build style overhaul, the quality of my creations improved, and the next half dozen builds put me on candidacy for becoming an asset contributor to the game. After a non-disclosure agreement and considerations from the existing dev team, I was eventually accepted on September 17, 2021.
You told us a lot of interesting things about yourself — Good Intro!
Nice pictures of your game design drawings.
What is an asset contributor? And do you get paid for this type of work.
I am curious to know if your parents had wanted to leave you in China with your grandparents for longer. I have heard of this type of arrangement being common in Chinese families when the parents work somewhere else. How did your parents decide to bring you back to live with them?