About the Project

I consider Team Spirit to be my first major game development project. It was created as my high school capstone project and was in development for over a year. Developing this project is how I taught myself the basics of C#/Unity and gave me a good foundation heading into my first semester at RIT.

My Contributions

Everything shown in this video (the art, the tile-based map layout, the movement/combat, etc.) was created by me (with the help of some YouTube tutorials). My main accomplishment for this project was creating the world of the game with a pixel art tileset. I used a program called Tiled, that allows you to cut tiles and draw out maps easily for Unity.

About the Project

NFTETON was my first major game I've completed with a group of people and was the final project of Game Design and Algorithmic Problem Solving II. The game was developed using C#/MonoGame and was planned, developed, and documented over the course of two months.

My Contributions

My role in the group was primarily implementation. I developed a large portion of the AI for the FPS player (which we referred to as "Cat"), the controls for the player (picking up ammo, collisions, etc.), and I created a system for building levels using pre-made external text files. Our external tool would save each tile in the grid as an integer, and the game would read the file and place each tile accordingly.

About the Project

This game is a personal project that I started with a friend over the summer. Project Aboleth has been my first major attempt at a 3D game and is being developed in Unity/C#. Right now the game really only features some example models we'll be using to build the map and some basic functionality.

My Contributions

Similarly to my other group project, my main focus was implementation and development while my partner created most of the models/textures you see. My current focus has been developing a system of typing on a computer that will eventually control parts of the submarine (you can see a preview at the end of the video). It should be noted that a few things shown such as the gun/movement physics and certain rendering elements were free assets we downloaded.

About the Project

I developed this game as my final project for my web design class using PixiJS. Since this was my first time actually making a proper platformer, the physics/collisions were definitely a challenge. In the end though, I was able to figure it out and create a pretty fun experience, especially since I only had about two weeks to complete it.

My Contributions

Unlike my last major class project, this game was a solo assignment. The idea behind the project was to take an existing homework assignment we coded in PixiJS, and turn it into our own unique game. The original assignment however, was a top down shooter game, so I encountered a lot of challenges trying to create this platformer almost completely from scratch. It was worth it in the end though, aside from a feel small bugs, I think the game overall is a lot of fun to play.

About the Project

Locke Smith was developed over a period of three days for Global Game Jam 2021 with a group consisting of myself and four other students in the Game Design and Development major. It is a 3D platformer made in Unity where the player plays as a bouncing metal key. The theme for this jam was "Lost and Found".

My Contributions

For this jam I first began primarily focusing on level design. After I first created the structure of the house I then began arranging furniture in order to create the platforming challenges. I was also responsible for implementing the AI for the Roomba cat seen in the kitchen.

About the Project

Matter Shift was developed over a period of two days for Low Effort Jam 8 with the same group of four that I worked with for Locke Smith. Our participation in the jam was documented as the subject of a student film. The theme for this jam was "Water" and was once again developed in Unity.

My Contributions

For this jam it was my role to create the art assets featured within the game, primarily the character animations.

About the Project

Rope Tool is a passion project that I have been actively working on since January 2023. Although the first iteration was conceived in October 2021, the game was only able to become what it is today thanks to the people I had the good fortune of meeting and recruiting through RIT’s Production Studio class. Stepping into a leadership role was a difficult challenge but with guidance from both professors and volunteer industry professionals, I was able to build a valuable repertoire of production skills. We have used the lessons learned and designs cultivated in this class as the foundation of our future work.

Production Timeline

October 2021

The project started as a submission for the Ludum Dare. In order to fit with the Jam’s theme: “Unstable”, I proposed a 2D physics based game where the player would control a spaceship that was perpetually falling apart. To be more specific, any thrusters and guns you collected became loosely tethered to your hull and would easily be knocked away in combat. With no good method of getting around without rockets, the final product ended up being very difficult to play, but it succeeded at being a fun experiment.

Summer 2022

Over the summer I decided that I wanted to revisit the prototype we had made for the jam. It was obvious that the first thing it needed was a method of getting around that wouldn’t overshadow rocket collecting. I went with a grappling hook because I believed swinging could be used in tandem with rocket thrust to create some really satisfying movement. The majority of my time from that point forward was spent implementing this idea and refining the game’s mechanics to work around it.

Spring 2023

I pitched my prototype to RIT’s Production Studio class with the goal of creating a vertical slice of a potential indie game. I recruited three of my classmates to work on narrative/level design, AI programming, and UI design respectively. I also found external team members for music, sound effects, and video production. In addition to directing the team, I created all the artwork/vfx and worked to refine the player controller.

My biggest challenge this semester was finding the most intuitive control scheme for the player movement. When you have several rockets attached to your ship, the player needs to be able to decide which ones they want active at a given time. By the end of the semester we settled on a rotating arrow; any rockets facing the same direction as the arrow will turn on when you hit the gas, which will move your ship in the direction the arrow is pointing.

Our final product included a dialogue-based tutorial, a “break the targets” level, and a boss fight. We brought what we made to three major events: the IGM Student Showcase, ImagineRIT, and RPI’s GameFest. For RPI’s event we were selected from a pool of applicants and received a nomination for the Experimental Game Award.

Summer 2023

I was happy to learn that the team wanted to continue working on the project beyond the scope of our class. Production continued steadily as we prepared to showcase a new build at the ROC Game Fest in September. Our efforts primarily focused on addressing the mountain of player feedback we had received from all of our playtest events. For me this primarily included bug fixes on the movement controller. Our biggest change from the previous build was the creation of a more beginner friendly boss. We also had several discussions about the future of the project and onboarded two new team members.

About the Project

Caravan of Cards was a semester-long project created for Tabletop RPG Design, a graduate level Game Design course. I and a team of four other students worked to develop a theme, style, world, and mechanics for an original tabletop RPG game. This culminated in a nearly 80+ page resource book for both players and game masters.

My Contributions

My major contribution to the book was the artwork featured as well as the powers/abilities section of character creation. The artwork I created includes the cover art, depictions of the world, and the 22 Major Arcana Tarot cards. My partner Lily Jenkins assisted me with design concepts for several of these cards and together we were able to complete the entire set within the rather small time frame of book creation. Because our game has a Tarot-based power system, each of the card artworks show depicts one of the abilities you will eventually unlock with that card. For example, the artwork for The Empress depicts a young woman painting flowers across the screen with a green brush stroke. This is meant to represent her card’s ability to summon plant life through artwork.

About the Project

Sunken Ship: Far From Home is an underwater exploration/shooter game that is being developed for a IGM Production Studio, a graduate-level class solely devoted to developing either new or in-progress projects over the course of a semester through mentorship, playtests, and agile development techniques.

My Contributions

My main contribution throughout this project has been the controls and movement of the player's submarine. We were very committed to evoking the feeling of being underwater with our gameplay. The game's movement was the subject of most of our in-class playtests and thus has gone through multiple stages of development. The initial version was a rover with a boost jump but was later changed to full three axis movement. I also programmed the responsive turbine animations.