Hourglass

(University Project, so as of right now no files can be shared.)

This was my team project for my Game Development 2 module, in the second year of my BA Games Design university course. My team was tasked with making a game prototype over the course of the academic year, between all of the other work we had to do. While making it we had to implement a full Scrum based development workflow, and also conduct at least one round of playtesting, where we asked fellow classmates to play the game and provide feedback via a survey written by myself.

For this project, I was one of the programmers, though I had a variety of additional roles. My jobs throughout the project were:

• Collecting and implementing sounds and music
• Programming the enemies
• Bugfixing
• Organizing the playtests and implementing feedback
• Implementing level design specified by the main designers
• Writing the intro and implementing it in code

Primarily, this project helped me understand and work in a professional workflow so that I would not have had the opportunity to do so otherwise, although the result is a prototype and not a complete game. It also helped me understand and implement design concepts regarding tutorialisation and getting players to understand what they are doing in a Zelda-like without explicitly telling them.

Martian Standoff

https://gibbonofliff.itch.io/martian-standoff

This was made for the Global Game Jam 2021, where I and a group of my fellow University classmates decided to make a game about two aliens trying to fight each other in a human shopping center. The two players have to disguise themselves as humans to be able to out maneuver each other and sneak in for the kill. Somewhat inspired by the competitive multiplayer modes found in the Assassins Creed games.

I am credited as ‘assistant programmer’, which meant that I was in charge of level design, testing and bug-fixing areas of the code created by the other programmer on the team, general implementation of the the art assets,

Choosing the right tool for the job became a major theme in the project. We ended up wasting half of the jam time by attempting to make the game in Unity, which we found out was too slow for us to create what we wanted to create at the time (it was likely that we were just too inexperienced with the software by that point, which made things worse). This ended up forcing us to remake the game in Clickteam Fusion (the engine we were taught to use for our university course), which quickly sped us back up to speed. I suppose the main thing we all learned was that ‘relearning cost’ in a production cycle is a very real thing, and gave me some perspective on why studios stick to engines or workflows that have become otherwise out of date. While, shown by my other projects, that I did eventually learn the ins-and-outs of Unity, creating this fun little competitive game gave me practical training in how to work in a small development team, and taught me how to balance adopting the newest, shiniest, technology and overcoming the challenges in doing so.

Flock Together

https://lizardelixir.itch.io/flock-together

This project was conducted by a group of 5 (including myself) for the GMTK game jam 2021. We aimed to make something fairly uplifting with the little time we had, The game is inspired by Katamari Damacy. I was one of the programmers and designers of the game. My main tasks were to create the level design out of what the 3d modeler was able to make over the weekend we had to make the game, and also to program the progression systems of the game. Where the player is able to move around, collect fellow birds to their cause, and bust down walls when the player interacts with them when they have enough bird people with them.

A Flight Over The Foxtail Islands

https://katruss.itch.io/foxtail-islands

Reach for the skies over the Foxtail Islands as you fly across a blocky archipelago in this relaxing flying experience!

This game was created for the 2021 Secret Santa Game Jam. In which I was randomly selected a client from one of the other participants in the jam, and tasked to make a game for them based on a vague description of who they were and what they were interested in. My client asked for a game relating to the skies, and after multiple failed prototypes, a calming flying experience was the idea I committed to the end of the jam.

I worked entirely alone for this project, using only unity store assets (skybox and scenery on the islands) that I had already owned and open source code for the flying mechanics that was not made by myself. Everything else (the islands, the info orbs, the soundtrack, and overall getting everything working together) was done by myself throughout the jam period, during university work and preparing for Christmas.

The main things I had to learn the hard way for this project were time management, scope control, and committing to a single idea and seeing it to the end. As mentioned before, this was the third concept experimented with for this jam. The previous concepts did not work out as they did not feel good enough for me to give to a client comfortably; they had to be scrapped entirely, wasting the already limited time. I have now learned to dedicate more time to properly scoping and planning a project before actual development even begins, as to be able to understand its feasibility and develop the idea into something worth committing to.  Additionally, in regards to scope control, I had to learn how to cut back on all of the features that I was excited to implement but recognized I would not be able to get them ready in time while delivering a good product.

With that said, I am incredibly proud of the final result! Even if it only lasts for a few moments, I think it creates a very relaxing atmosphere.

ChangingDay – VR Games Researcher (Sept-Nov 2021)

https://www.changingday.com/

This paid internship tasked me to research how VR games could be made more accessible for Autistic people, as is the main mission for the company. This involved parsing through and summarizing academic studies on the nature of comorbidity rates of other disorders and how they have been remedied in web design. This information was then made into recommendations into how VR could be made accessible for those co-morbid disorders.

This opportunity allowed me to have an understanding and participation in the business culture of a small start up tech company, though entirely in a remote setting, which helped me grow my skills and confidence in being able to communicate with the team in a professional manner in order to get the tasks assigned to be completed.

The more technical skills gained include having researched and experience with the creation of VR games. Largely from a design perspective, as this was needed to be able to provide accessibility recommendations.