Education experience

Education and Programs/Systems I Have Learned

Games Development (Design) - University of Huddersfield

As this is being written, I still have another year of learning at university, but this will be updated over time to show off newer projects!

Game demonstration video

Very early floorplan for the tutorial stage; you can see the ideas of the gameplay forming here with lights and correspondingly coloured doors.

Credits, visible in-game

"Gaze"

My most recent project involving flexing all the skills I have learnt in the past 4 years. "Gaze" is a survival horror puzzle game set in an abandoned space station where you navigate a path forward using lighting-based interactions to open and close different doors. My main inspirations were Alien: Isolation and Hue and I pitched the game as a sort of mashup of the two games.

Until the very final weeks of development, there wasn't going to be any enemy, but through feedback I felt like it lacked a real punch to sell the creepy atmosphere properly. I came up with a simple giant eyeball for a weeping angel type of enemy to keep you on your toes, and it does a very good job of being unsettling with its unrelenting and silent gaze. (Ha ha.)

It was my first project where I had complete freedom and no brief to fit to, and it was a really fun and expressive workout for my creative muscles, and I am exceptionally proud of how it came out. My professor for this unit even said the "design is 100/100" and featured it in a YouTube video of his!

"Spillways"

This is part of a team game jam project, the 1st one in my second year. I am exceptionally proud of this project as it is the first game jam that I got to partake in my preferred roles of leader/designer/puzzle & level design.

"Spillways" is a simple and relaxing puzzle game where you connect flowing waterways which cascade down into a lower level, and the way you solve some puzzles dictates how you solve the next layer's puzzles, creating an interesting and shockingly deep experience for a game made in a short game jam.

The vibe for this game is inspired by other puzzle games I loved like Dorfromantik and that is captured in the art aesthetic and simplicity of the gameplay.

As a team game jam project, credit also goes to my wonderful teammates who helped bring our ideas to life with art assets and a huge coding effort to implement some complex mechanics for students to be tinkering with.

Game demonstration video

Behind the scenes puzzle design sketches

Credits, visible in-game

Game demonstration video

Behind the scenes - brainstorming Miro space for UI concepting, some level design

"Pub Crawl"

This game is also dear to me as a game jam project too, being from the 2nd game jam of my second year. "Pub Crawl" is a wacky 'rage game' where you make your way home from a pub, and you just have to walk along the street. Simple... if you weren't so inebriated. It purposely controls very difficultly to make for a very funny slapstick experience.

It handles as if you're rolling on top of a heavily weighted ball, with spherical dynamic movement inspired by the Super Monkey Ball games. It would be very frustrating to play if it wasn't as funny as it was; a lot of people who played it found a lot of enjoyment in the silly (and relatable, as uni students) themes and premise.

I was designer/director on this project and again in charge of level design as my most prominent task. It was fun making a level with so many obstacles to weave through clumsily. I also did the UI design and kept a bold stylised look for it inspired again by Super Monkey Ball UI, which has simple colouring and bold elements. It turned out less successful than my previous game jam efforts due to circumstances out of my control but all that being said it's still a piece I'm happy to put on this portfolio.

"Faded Signals"

This was the 2nd game jam project near the end of my first year at university. "Faded Signals" is a puzzle game inspired by sections of the Ratchet & Clank series where you control a robot who has little minion robots, and navigate a level solving puzzles which leverage your minions in different ways, such as getting them to hold a door open for you to pass through.

I did a lot of 3D assets and texturing for this game, and my role as a designer was quite small due to how the dice were cast in who we had in our team. That being said, I am proud of the work I did on the art despite it not being my strongest toolkit, and I am happy with the way the product came out. It was a good lesson for me in assertiveness and working with a team as since then I learned to push my voice out and do the jobs I am best qualified for.

Game demonstration video

Slide of assets I worked on from our group presentation

Ui mobile rework for "Detroit: Become human"

As part of the UI/UX unit I did in second year, we had to redesign the UI of a game to be ported to mobile and design it to the control scheme and design of the platform in a way that fits in the same aesthetic.

I chose "Detroit: Become Human" for this project as I felt a story game with minimal controls would be an interesting fit for the mobile form factor.

I designed the UI to keep the dynamic future-tech look with the blues & whites, and angular shapes and fonts. It fits the same aesthetic as the UI of the PS4/PC versions of the game while being more suited for a mobile screen with rearranged larger buttons and unique QTE mechanics.

Creative Digital Media (Digital Games) - Huddersfield New College

I learned a lot in college about the fundamentals of development and specifically how to use Unreal Engine to make games, and the basics of 3D modelling and pixel art. While far from my best work, I want to showcase the most important parts as a demonstration of how I have developed in just the past couple years.

"Black Acolyte"

This was the first major project I made to end off my first year studying. It is a very rudimentary collectathon with a dark gothic setting where your objective is to collect all the keys and open a door at the end under a time limit.

It was my introduction to using 3D modelling software with Maya and my introduction to coding in Unreal Engine with simple systems like lives, pickups for score and timers.

"Technical Difficulties"

During our second year, we were tasked with making an educational 2D game using Unreal's flipbook mechanics for animation, mirroring a unit we did on 3D animation in Maya. Technical Difficulties is a simple 2D collectathon with pieces of information on identity theft over the internet. You play as an office worker with a special headset which allows you to see the normally hidden scammer enemies, whom you must defeat as you recover stolen ID badges from your workplace.

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