My Portfolio

VR Carnival Minigames

A collection of carnival games recreated in Virtual Reality and placed into a realistic carnival environment.

• Size of Team: 1 – Me
• Role – Programmer, Designer
• Engine / Technologies used: Unity Engine and XR Interaction Toolkit
• Development Time: 1 Week
• Platform: Oculus Quest 2

Key Accomplishments and Tasks:

• Utilized the XR Interaction Toolkit to handle controller input, object grabbing, haptic and visual feedback, UI interaction in Virtual Reality.
• Made a realistic carnival environment using Unity’s terrain system and Carnival Assets.
• Programmed two different kinds of VR Locomotion, Teleportation and Trackpad.
• Added realistic ambient sounds, improving the immersiveness of the experience
• Implemented a two-handed weapon, the bow and arrow.
• Utilized LOD to reduce the number of GPU operations, improving performance.
• Designed and developed multiple carnival minigames.

I was always interested in VR games. They can immerse you into the experience more than any other type of game. After writing my professional article on the theme: “The History of Virtual Reality – How the technology has progressed” I took an even greater interest in the VR medium. This happened during the initial COVID-19 lockdowns and at the time there were no carnivals to visit, so I decided to make my own carnival. One that could be visited from the comfort of my own room.

The games that I chose for this VR carnival scene were some of the most popular and well-known of this type. They were quite simple games in real life, but they were quite hard to implement in virtual reality.

The game that was hardest to implement was the bow and arrow minigame. Handling stuff with two hands in virtual reality is not the easiest task but I made it work.

Follow The Light

Follow the Light is a 2D puzzle platformer in which you take control of a lost boy with an uncommon companion. The player must guide the boy through obstacles until the end level is reached. This neo-noir world has many kinds of challenges for the player to overcome. This game was published on Newgrounds and Itch.

• Size of Team: 2 – Me, Artist
• Role – Programmer, Designer
• Engine used: Unity Engine
• Development Time: 3 Months
• Platform: WebGL and PC

Key Accomplishments and Tasks:

• Programmed the moth movement from lamp to lamp by using the A* pathfinding algorithm.
• Rapidly created, iterated and tested the level design by using Unity’s Tilemap system.
• Improved the feel of the game using game design practices like coyote time, jump buffer and hang time.
• Created 2D cutscenes by utilizing Unity’s Timeline system.
• Improved the look of the game by implementing Unity’s experimental 2D lighting in the Universal Render Pipeline. Also added post-processing effects to accomplish a more aesthetic look.
• Stored data of level completion and moth deaths persistently with the use of Unity’s Playerprefs.

This was the capstone project of my Games Programming Diploma, in which our professor took the role of a publisher. During the development, we would have mock-up meetings for every stage of production with our publisher where we had to present and report the progress of the game. This experience helped me understand how to work with publishers and understand the game development process on a more professional level.

During the planning stages for the project, I knew that I would be the sole programmer. That is why the game is small in scope. It is a short but polished experience.

I wanted the game to be about a lost boy and a lost moth. Even though he is lost himself, the boy decided to help the moth find his way home. During the development, I decided to also add an obstacle that could kill the moth as well. That is why the game has two different endings, based on how many times the moth died. If the moth dies a lot, you get the “bad” ending in which the moth gets stuck in an endless loop between the lamps. It signifies how some people cannot be helped no matter how hard you try. If the moth doesn’t die a lot, you get the “good” ending in which both the boy and the moth get home safe. In the end, the game is about two companions trying to find their way in the world.

I decided to make hazards for both the moth and the player, bringing a bit of spice into the game. For the player, the obstacles are spikes, icy blocks, and in some situations the jump pads. The moth dies when he touches red light. The player must navigate around the spikes, and he has to guide the moth around or when the insect-killing light is off. As obstacles go, these are simple. But combining them together with other game mechanics can bring a lot of complexity to the level design. E.g., Combining icy blocks and spikes would make it harder for the player to time his jump properly.

Before the tutorial levels, a cutscene would play explaining the player's situation. In the tutorial levels, I decided to put neon signs that the player could read that would explain the mechanics. The neon signs fit the aesthetic of the game quite nicely.

The difficulty of the levels was quite hard to balance. After a lot of iterating and playtesting the game was a bit unbalanced in the end. Experienced platformers found the game difficult, and inexperienced players struggled with some levels a lot.

Don't Stop Me Now

Don't Stop Me Now
Don’t Stop Me Now is a single-player 2D fast-paced arcade arena fighter. The main mechanic centres around the character moving where his weapon is pointing. It was inspired by a Game Jam Theme: Can’t Stop Moving and the game was released on Newgrounds and Itch.

• Size of Team: 1 – Me
• Role – Programmer, Designer
• Engine / Technologies used: Unity Engine
• Development Time: 1 Week
• Platform: WebGL and PC

Key Accomplishments and Tasks:

• Designed 7 different enemies and programmed their AI behaviour.
• Programmed and designed 2 different weapons.
• Created 2 different arenas
• Successfully balanced the weapons, enemies, spawning logic and the level design for a challenging but fun experience.
• Built an expandable level and a weapon select system.
• Made a fun and interesting spawn system

I wanted to participate in the Mini Jam Game Jam with the limitation Can’t Stop Moving. However, as I had only one day, I decided to make a game in a week, but that was still based on the limitation. That's how I decided to constantly make the player in motion.

Holographic Map

In this project, I created a real-time holographic map that would accurately represent the surroundings

• Size of Team: 1 – Me
• Role – Graphics Programmer
• Engine / Technologies used: Unity Engine, VFX Graph
• Development Time: 1 Day

Key Accomplishments and Tasks:

• Created a Holographic Map using Unity's VFX Graph
• The map uses a camera that outputs to a render texture, so the map updates real-time to changes in the environment
• Added Projector and Scanning Lines to juice up the effect

Camo Chameleon - Edurino

• Created main gameplay loop where the chameleon will choose a random hiding spot and move to it
• Created chameleon movement logic
• Created a component that checks how much of the texture has been painted with the correct colors. There can be multiple number of colours that the texture needs to be painted with.

Note:
I did not create the painting mechanic itself, I only expanded upon it to be able to calculate how much of the texture has been painted with a specific color.

Beauty Break - Edurino

• Created main gameplay loop where players have to brush the teeth of a lion and then clean him
• Created interesting mechanics using Particle Systems where soap particles would stick to the lion and could be washed/hair dried off

Golden Ray

Golden Ray is a two-player multiplayer co-op game where two players must slay monsters by using the ray that is cast between them. The game was released on Newgrounds and Itch.

• Size of Team: 1 – Me
• Role – Programmer, Designer
• Engine / Technologies used: Unity Engine, Photon PUN 2
• Development Time: 1 Week
• Platform: WebGL and PC

Key Accomplishments and Tasks:

• Used Photon Pun 2 to program the game’s networking, creating, and joining rooms, instantiating, destroying, and synchronizing game objects, particles, and UI elements.
• Made use of Unity’s Line Renderer to make a dynamic sun ray used to destroy enemies.
• Designed and programmed multiple enemy types and power-ups for the player.

I had to develop an online multiplayer game during my studies at the SAE and I was quite unhappy with the result. After the course finished, I decided to create a new online multiplayer game to get more familiar with network programming.

I decided to keep it simple. I wanted for the players to must have to cooperate, otherwise, they would lose. I decided to make the players “bound” by a golden ray that would kill the enemy monsters, that way the one could not survive without the other. Also, it introduces a chance for one of the players to troll the other.

2 kinds of powerups can be dropped randomly by the opponents: speed powerup and health powerup.

The speed powerup would give the player the ability to move faster for a limited amount of time. This powerup is a double-edged sword as it would also be harder for the other player to keep up.

The health powerup would give the players health, which was also shared between the two.

There are 2 enemy types, the charger and the “digglet”. The charger would rush the player’s position and the “digglet” would spawn randomly on the playing field, acting as a trap for the players to walk into.

As time progresses more enemies spawn making it harder for the players to kill them all.

Interior Mapping and Liquid Shader

In this scene, I created a performance saving shader that is commonly used in big open-world games like Marvel’s Spider-Man for the PlayStation 4. I also created a liquid shader with a wobbling effect when moved.

• Size of Team: 1 – Me
• Role – Graphics Programmer
• Engine / Technologies used: Unity Engine, Shader Graph
• Development Time: 1 Day

Key Accomplishments and Tasks:

• Implemented a shader technique called Interior Mapping to simulate buildings; this technique uses planes to simulate walls and does not add any additional polygons, meaning it is performance cheap while looking realistic.
• Programmed a realistic liquid shader with a wobble effect.

Samurai Temple

This is a small scene containing an animated samurai character and a small set that was rendered in three different art styles.

• Size of Team: 1 – Me
• Role – Programmer, Modeller, Rigger, Animator
• Engine / Technologies used: Unity Engine, Blender
• Development Time: 2 Days

Key Accomplishments and Tasks:

• Modelled an austere environment consisting of a temple, trees, rocks, and grass.
• Modelled, rigged, and animated the main samurai character. The character has an idle and running animation.
• Imported the assets from Blender into Unity and created a scene.
• Made camera movement using Cinemachine
• Animated the character inside Unity using a Character Controller with custom gravity.
• Made three different art-style variations of the scene; a flat shaded, cell-shaded, and a retro pixel version.

In the process of getting the hang of Blender, I wanted to create a character with an idle and a running animation in 3D. I also wanted to model a simple environment that would fit the theme.

After doing the modelling, I rigged and animated the character I imported everything into Unity and set up the animation and character controller. Firstly, the scene was only rendered in a flat-shaded style. Secondly, I changed the art style to cell-shaded and then I did a retro pixelated look. I wanted to compare the three art styles. I picked the one that works best with the model and the environment

DirectX11 Cube Rendering

During the Graphics Programming part of my course at the SAE Institute, I created this rendering of four cubes using DirectX11.

• Size of Team: 1 – Me
• Role – Graphics Programmer
• Engine / Technologies used: DirectX11
• Development Time: 3 Months

Key Accomplishments and Tasks:

• Created and displayed four cube meshes in DirectX11.
• Applied four different textures to the cube meshes.
• Added a spotlight above the cubes that can be turned on and off.
• Implemented a switch that makes the cubes rotate.
• Programmed movement for the camera.
• Using the arrow keys, the user can change the transparency of one of the cubes.

Build A Cairn - Edurino

• Created main gameplay loop where rocks spawn randomly at the end of the rope that need to be stacked on top of each other.
• Created rope behaviour
• Created rock spawning mechanic where rocks can spawn with random faces and shapes
• Created behaviour that stops the player from blocking the top stone by doing incorrect moves
• Insured that the game can be ended by cheating the physics if too much time has passed and the player made too many mistakes

Joyride Words - Edurino

• Created a system that will take the letter that the game is focusing on and display it at the start of every game explaining to the user what letter it is, how it is pronounced and highlighting the letter in an example word
• Created main gameplay loop where the player has to identify words that start or contain a specific letter. After the player identifies the letter a driving section happens
• Created infinite scrolling background system that was robust and reusable for future minigames

Paw Prints - Edurino

• Created main gameplay loop where players have to draw on a spline in order to uncover paw prints of a specific animal. Afterwards the player has to identify to which animal the paw prints belong to
• Created paw prints spawning mechanic that follow the spline
Note:
I did not create the spline drawing mechanic

GOAP Village

In this randomly generated village scene, there are 2 NPC’s that are doing their job, the farmer, and the baker. The NPCs are Navmesh Agents and GOAP controls the AI of the villagers.

• Size of Team: 1 – Me
• Role – AI Programmer, Programmer
• Engine / Technologies used: Unity Engine, GOAP
• Development Time: 3 Weeks

Key Accomplishments and Tasks:

• Made a randomly generated scene that consists of different buildings and a farm.
• Implemented a day/night cycle that affects the behaviour of the NPCs.
• Used Unity’s NavMesh system to handle pathfinding for the NPCs.
• Utilized the GOAP AI system to handle the AI agent’s decision-making smartly.
• Programmed an inventory system for the Baker Agent and the Windmill.

Split Screen Drifting

Split Screen Drifting is a two-player local co-op arcade drifting game. Select your car and drift around the track to bump up that score.

• Size of Team: 1 – Me
• Role – Programmer, Designer, Modeller
• Engine / Technologies used: Unity Engine, Blender
• Development Time: 3 Weeks
• Platform: PC

Key Accomplishments and Tasks:

• Implemented local split-screen multiplayer
• Modelled three different cars in Blender.
• Made use of Unity’s Wheel Colliders to take care and fine-tune the car physics for a fun arcade experience.
• Prototyped and created levels speedily with the use of SNAPS.
• Made a car and colour select menu.
• Used Unity’s new Input System to handle input for multiple controllers.
• Programmed and designed a drift game mode

This project started by making the cars in Blender. Initially, I just wanted to get to know Blender a bit better. Then I decided to make some of my favourite cars. After I modelled the cars, I also wanted to put them into a game.

Firstly, I wanted to make it a bit more realistic by making gears and gear shifts. After diving deep into the topic, it proved to be a bit too complicated to implement. Then I decided to go with the arcade approach.

Tuning the Wheel Colliders also proved to be a bit of a challenge. I wanted every car to feel and handle differently, which I managed to accomplish with a lot of fine-tuning and playtesting.

I wanted the drifting to be easily initiated and easy to control. I also wanted the complete track to be driftable in one single drift. Utilizing snaps to quickly prototype levels helped me a lot with this.

The race mode was a one-minute race, the player that got the higher score would win. The players can only get points by initiating drifts and holding them for as long as they could. A multiplier was added for the speed and length of the drift, meaning the longer and faster you drift, the bigger the score.