May
02

Ghosts of Tabor

Ghosts of Tabor

PvPvE VR Extraction Shooter

Ghosts of Tabor is a multiplayer VR Extraction Shooter, similar to Escape from Tarkov.

Platforms: PC, Quest, PICO (soon to PS5/PSVR2)
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Role: Senior Gameplay Engineer

For Ghosts of Tabor, I came in the later part of development, where most systems were in a functional state. As such, other than backlog bug squashing, I focused on 3 critical areas:

  • Optimization
  • New platform support
  • Cheat prevention

My Approach And Contributions:

  • Prioritized performance optimizations by cleaning up widget trees and refactoring logic.
  • Provided guidance to junior engineers during code reviews and whenever needed.
  • Modified engine source code to facilitate communication between Target Platforms and Builds (UBT), allowing for ease of building for specific platforms and enabling or disabling things as needed.
  • Developed a custom plugin to seamlessly integrate BattlEye anti-cheat measures into the game, ensuring fair play and maintaining a secure gaming environment.
  • Spearheaded efforts to refine development pipelines, code reviews and establish coding best practices, resulting in increased productivity and codebase stability.
Nov
09

X8

X8

Multiplayer VR Hero Shooter

X8 is a multiplayer VR hero shooter, similar to Valorant.

Platforms: PC, Quest, PICO, PS5/PSVR2
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Role: Lead User Interface Engineer

For X8, effective collaboration and communication were the cornerstones of our success. As the Lead UI Engineer, I spearheaded efforts to ensure seamless integration of our global team’s talents into the game’s UI experience.

My Approach And Contributions:

  • Fostered an environment of open communication and collaboration, enabling team members across different time zones to work harmoniously towards our common goal.
  • Facilitated regular meetings and discussions to gather feedback, share insights, and iterate on UI designs and implementations.
  • Acted as a bridge between Art, Design, and Engineering teams, translating creative visions into functional UI elements that enhanced player immersion.
  • Developed and implemented various UI systems, meticulously crafted to meet the aesthetic and functional requirements outlined by the Art and Design teams.
  • Provided mentorship and guidance to junior engineers, fostering their growth and ensuring consistency in UI design principles.
  • Prioritized performance optimization to deliver a smooth and responsive UI experience across all supported platforms, enhancing player engagement and satisfaction.

Notable UI Systems Developed:

  • Buy Phase Wrist Shop
  • In-App Purchase Store
  • Custom Games Interface
  • Options Menu
  • Stats Tracker
  • Achievements Panel
  • Leaderboards
  • Scoreboard
  • News Feed
  • Heads-Up Display (HUD)
  • Character Selection Interface
  • Notification System
  • Death Screen
  • Tutorial

And much more, all made possible through effective communication and collaboration at every step of the development process.

Sep
30

Neko Ghost Jump!

Neko Ghost, Jump!

2D/3D Action Puzzle Platformer

Neko Ghost, Jump! is an action puzzle-platformer where you switch between 2D & 3D camera perspectives, and also between a physical & ghost form to solve puzzles, combat enemies and clear levels faster.

Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
Engine: Unreal Engine 4

In my role as Creative Director at my indie studio, I also took on multiple responsibilities including those of Lead Engineer and Level Designer, while overseeing project management, PR, and Marketing efforts.

Along with ensuring that milestones were met, I prioritized the adherence to established standards, ensuring maintainability and optimal performance throughout the development process.

Nov
28

Contagion VR: Outbreak

Contagion VR: Outbreak

Zombie Survival Horror VR Game

Contagion VR: Outbreak is a first-person survival horror built from the ground up exclusively for VR. 

Platforms: PC and PS4
Engine: Unreal Engine 4

As the Lead Engineer, my responsibilities encompassed overseeing all major game systems, both for multiplayer (which didn’t make it into the final version of the game) and single-player modes. I ensured that all code adhered to established standards. Additionally, I took the lead in integrating new technologies, both on the software and hardware fronts. In addition to these core duties, I handled various other routine tasks.

  • Created playtest builds (almost on a daily basis)
  • Created final builds for players
  • Verified and, if necessary, delegated bug reports to other devs
  • Ensured that bug reports were completed within a reasonable time period
  • Created and delegated tasks to achieve milestones based on roadmap
  • Maintained several Perforce branches
  • Updated Unreal Engine 4 to newest version when possible
  • Audited Perforce commits for possible issues
  • Audited programming team’s code for possible optimization or workflow improvement
  • Kept up to date with all the new engine changes
Jun
11

Centauri

Centauri

20-week Senior Project

Winner of The Rookies' Game of the Year in VR award

Centauri is a 1v1 Multiplayer Platformer Shooter in Virtual Reality. You are a scavenger sent to an alien planet in an attempt to find advanced alien technology that can save your home planet. Unfortunately for you, some space pirates are also here looking to steal the technology for themselves. Fight off the space pirates, defend yourself from the dangers of an alien world, and unlock the secrets that will save the world!

Project Overview

Centauri was created as my senior project at SCAD. The original team started with four core members. As the project progressed, we added sound developers and additional artists to a total of 14 developers.

My Role

I served as the Lead Developer and Programmer

  • Designing and implementing core gameplay mechanics, including character movement, combat systems, and multiplayer networking.
  • Adopting Agile/Scrum methodologies
  • Facilitating remote communication using Discord whenever we didn’t meet on-site.
  • Coordinating with artists and designers to create immersive VR environments and assets.
  • Implementing optimization techniques to ensure smooth performance across different VR platforms.
  • Organized playtesting sessions and gathered feedback to iteratively improve the game’s design and functionality.
  • Presented project milestones and final deliverables to faculty and industry professionals receiving positive feedback and constructive critique.

The Rookies Writeup

Game of the Year – VR

Jun
11

Oh Who Knows

Oh Who Knows

Theme: Goodbye Clone

Created for January’s Unofficial UE4Jam (hosted by yours truly), the theme was “Goodbye Clone”. Our idea was simple, there was an original host and then there were the clones. To win, you had to kill the original host. Killing a clone would kill you. You could communicate with emojis, but so could the original. Everyone had a weapon, but the original had a few extra things up its sleeves. 7-player multiplayer mayhem where deception is the key to victory, or just plain luck.

Team consisted of four members, two on programming (including myself), the other two on art. We went a bit out of scope on this one, a lot of the art was unfinished and it was a bit buggy, but at least we had a playable product within 72 hours.

We used Hacknplan for task management.

We used my home Perforce server for source control.

We used Discord as our main source of communication.

Jun
10

The Day Santa’s Toy Machine Went Boom

The Day Santa's Toy Machine Went Boom

Theme: Snowball Effect
Created for December’s UE4Jam in 2016, the theme was “Snowball Effect”. And let me tell you, there were plenty of games that had snowballs in it! Instead of snowballs, however, we went in the direction of Santa’s Elves and gifts. Every time a gift was picked up and put into the player’s bag, it would slow them down. The player could also take out the gifts from their bags and shoot it behind them to gain back some speed. Skilled players could cause the bags to hit other players, which in turn would increase the burden of that elf and slow them down. The goal was to drop off the most gifts to Santa’s sleigh before the timer ran out. This was a multiplayer-only game, 2-4 players via Steam/LAN.

Team consisted of two members. Originally a team of five, the theme of the game jam seemed to have an actual effect on the team. One after another the art/sound members had to drop out and take care of “personal issues” which increased the burden on the remaining team members, until there were just two of us left.

I ended up having to contribute all the art and some of the multiplayer/gameplay programming. Sounds were sourced from the Christmas Audio Kit by Evil Mind.

We used Assembla’s online-hosted Perforce server for source control.

We used Discord as our main source of communication.

Jun
10

Winds Of Revenge

Winds Of Revenge

Theme: Go With The Flow
Game jam Finalist
Created for November’s UE4Jam in 2016, the theme was “Go With The Flow”. A lot of great ideas came to mind for this theme, but as a team we finally decided on a course and it came out pretty interesting. Have you ever been mad at your boss? Ever want to punch your boss in the face? Well, you can’t do that in this game…but you CAN throw a paper plane at your boss’ face! Using the A/C systems, heaters, fans and some skills, your objective is to guide the paper plane right to the objective, your boss!

Team consisted of five members.

I contributed to the programming.

We used Google Docs for task management.

We used my home Perforce server for source control.

We used Discord as our main source of communication.

We ended up winning November’s game jam and while the YouTubers were prevalent, no one big ever got ahold of it. We did get a few articles written however: AlphaBetaGamer, PCGamer and RockPaperShotgun.

Can be downloaded here: itch.io

 

Jun
10

Highschool 101

Highschool 101
Speak Softly And Carry A Big Stick
Game Jam Finalist
Created for July’s UE4Jam in 2016, the theme was “Speak Softly And Carry A Big Stick”. We had a lot of ideas floating around, from a library setting (which a few other submissions had thought of) to finally agreeing on a school setting, thinking we would be pretty unique (we weren’t, another entry had a school setting). In this, the player has to help the class cheat on their exams in order to pass, using whatever methods necessary!

Team consisted of five members. Overall an excellent and well-round team. Kudos especially to the art team.

I contributed to the programming.

We used Hacknplan for task management.

We used a home Perforce server as the source control method.

We used Discord as our main source of communication.

We ended up winning July’s game jam and even had a Jacksepticeye playthrough. All in all, with all the YouTuber playthroughs, we hit over 10 million views.

Download: itch.io

Jun
10

Spring Into The Future

Spring Into The Future

Theme: Spring Into The Future

Created for April’s UE4Jam in 2016, the theme was “Spring Into The Future” and there was no originality whatsoever with the game title. I wanted to try out Substance’s plugin to see how it would work, I also wanted to try out morph targets from Maya. I had decided to do a simple twin-stick puzzle “shooter” where the “enemies” were springs, and the player was a water bubble that shot out its own self at the enemies to disable them. In this case, the water would rust out the springs allowing passage through them. There were also small elements of “threading the needle” puzzles.

This was a solo project. Everything but the music was created in the 72 hours.

I used a local Git repo for source control this time around as I was working solo.