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Ciaran Turnbull is a Computer Games Programmer, studying in 4th year at Abertay University - Dundee, Scotland.
DARE Academy Winner - Galactic Postal Servitude - UE5
Developed for Abertay on the Professional Project module - Jan-Apr 2025
Continued development for DARE Academy - Jun-August 2025
DARE Academy Winner - Galactic Postal Servitude - UE5
Developed for Abertay on the Professional Project module - Jan-Apr 2025
Continued development for DARE Academy - Jun-August 2025
About the Project:
During DARE Academy 2025, I worked on Riverboat Games as a core programmer to develop our entry - Galactic Postal Servitude - A puzzle-simulation game with classic point-and-click controls, set in an alien post office.
It was announced in October Riverboat Games had won DARE 2025, in addition to winning the DARE Audience Choice Award.
We initially worked on our entry during Abertay's Professional Project module, where our team of eight developed a game from scratch, whilst working on our teamwork and coordination skills to ensure the project was on track and that everyone was aligned.
At DARE, our goals with the project were to focus on player onboarding and accessibility, reducing immediate complexity whilst adding more content towards the end of the game. We set these goals as they were the primary issues raised by our playtesters and industry mentors.
Our team tackled these issues with discussions on design, project scope, and delegation, before implementing more tutorialisation, reducing over complex mechanics and reiterating on UI and text elements. Thanks to these changes, both kids and adults have been able to enjoy our game without external guidance.
Relevant Skills:
Unreal Engine 5 Development with C++ & Blueprints
Perforce/P4V Version Control
Professional Team Coordination and Development
Collaborating with both Artists and Designers
Graphics Programming with Shaders Demo - DirectX11
Developed for Abertay on the Graphics Programming with Shaders module - Sep-Dec 2024
Graphics Programming with Shaders Demo - DirectX11
Developed for Abertay on the Graphics Programming with Shaders module - Sep-Dec 2024
About the Project:
During this project, I learnt and researched many rendering techniques to implement into a single cohesive application, including options to adjust the application in real-time.
This graphics demo features:
Gerstner wave simulation with tessellation
Height mapped terrain with tessellation
Directional, spot, & point lights, with shadow maps for each light type
Bloom post-process using compute shader
Blinn-Phong specular highlights
A challenge I faced in this project was combing techniques together into one project and ensuring that they render in tandem with each other, as I initially developed many of techniques in individual projects before implementing them together.
To tackle this, I needed a strong understanding of each of the rendering techniques and how they would work together, then I planned out the project's structure and processes ahead of implementation, ensuring I built each render technique to be ready to work with the cohesive application.
Relevant Skills:
DirectX11 Graphics Pipeline with C++
System Structure & Efficiency
Github Version Control
Independent Research and Study
Two in the Chamber - In-House Engine and PS5 Development
Developed for Abertay on the Game Programming and System Architecture module - Jan-Apr 2024
Two in the Chamber - In-House Engine and PS5 Development
Developed for Abertay on the Game Programming and System Architecture module - Jan-Apr 2024
About the Project:
This group project was focused on developing a game for the PS5 using Skateboard, Abertay's in-house game engine. Development took place in a team of three programmers utilising PS5 dev-kits.
The game that we developed was "Two in the Chamber", a two-player PvP platform-shooter, which utilised the PS5's haptic feedback options in addition to Skateboard engine's entity management systems. Work was delegated between the programmers on the team, with each person taking charge of a different aspect of the game.
Working on this project involved learning a new in-house engine, as well as console development on PS5. Additionally, Skateboard was an emergent engine at the time, changing with continuous updates throughout the development of this project.
This experience has improved my skills for working in new engines and frameworks, as our project relied on a good understanding of the emergent engine, as we had to alter systems and mechanics with the dynamic engine updates.
Relevant Skills:
C++ Programming using in-house engine (Skateboard)
Team Development and Task Delegation
Development for Console (PS5 Dev-kit)
AI Techniques Demo - Enemy using Behaviour Trees - Godot
Developed for Abertay on the Artificial Intelligence module - Sep-Dec 2024
AI Techniques Demo - Enemy using Behaviour Trees - Godot
Developed for Abertay on the Artificial Intelligence module - Sep-Dec 2024
About the Project:
In this Abertay module, we were tasked with learning and implementing a AI technique within a basic game or application for a set goal. The aim of my project was to develop an AI enemy that feels both believable and fair for the player.
I chose to use behaviour trees as my AI module for this project, as it can replicate believable behaviour patterns that the enemy is able to switch between based on the player's actions and the game's environment. This allowed me to create realistic behaviour in the enemy, where it's behaviour would change in reaction to activating or breaking line of sight, where the player must outsmart the AI to outmanoeuvre it.
Relevant Skills:
Godot C# & GDScript Development
Behaviour Trees Implementation
Evaluating & Improving AI techniques
Grappling Hook Gameplay Mechanic - Unreal Engine 5
Developed for Abertay on the Gameplay Mechanics Development module - Sep-Dec 2024
Grappling Hook Gameplay Mechanic - Unreal Engine 5
Developed for Abertay on the Gameplay Mechanics Development module - Sep-Dec 2024
About the Project:
As my first exposure to Unreal Engine, I developed a grappling hook gameplay mechanic designed to be implemented within a movement-shooter game, starting out implementation in Unreal Blueprints then converting the project to purely C++.
This project gave me a good initial grasp at using Unreal Engine, designing and implementing a mechanic around what the engine can provide and working within the application's limitations.
Learning both Blueprints and C++ within UE5 was challenging for initial development, but overcoming it gave me a good grasp of their individual benefits such as blueprint's faster implementation and the performance improvements of C++.
I was able to use this knowledge going into the development of the professional project I worked on with Riverboat Games, where we chose UE5 to build our game because of it's unique features that benefited our game's direction.
Relevant Skills:
Unreal Engine 5 C++ & Blueprints
Mechanic Design and Development
Converting Blueprints to C++
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