Quillody is an atmospheric 2D top-down puzzle-platformer built in Godot that fuses striking art direction with a deeply emotional narrative. Developed from the ground up using GDScript, the project prioritizes real-time interactivity, responsive AI behaviours, and a seamless marriage between story and mechanics. 

Engine: Godot

Tools: GDscript

Project Type: Team (5 members), Academic (IAT 410: Advanced Game Design)

Duration: 4 Months

Genre:  Top-down 2D

Focus: Gameplay Interactions and optimization

• Designed and implemented responsive player movement, a specialized lantern interaction system, and complex enemy AI.

• Managed the technical pipeline for sprite animations, ensuring visual assets translated into fluid, frame-accurate in-game behaviours.

• Spearheaded debugging efforts and performance profiling to deliver a stable, high-quality user experience.

• Challenge: Initially, core mechanics were tied to the _process function, causing logic to trigger at different speeds depending on the user's hardware. This led to inconsistent physics and "game-breaking" speed variances on high-end vs. low-end machines.  
   

• Solution: I refactored the codebase to utilize _physics_process and implemented delta-time multiplication across all frame-based logic. This ensured the gameplay remained consistent and hardware-agnostic, providing a uniform experience for all players.
  
  

• Through rapid prototyping and iterative design, I mastered the framework’s signal-based communication and node hierarchy. This allowed me to build more modular, readable, and scalable code. 

• Engineered a level-agnostic audio controller that seamlessly transitions between SFX and dynamic music tracks based on player progress. 
  
  

• Resolved high-priority runtime crashes, specifically a game-freezing explosion mechanic, by implementing robust input buffering and cooldown logic.  
  
  

• Transformed a complex, resource-heavy project into a streamlined build that maintained high performance without sacrificing visual fidelity. 

Quillody is a testament to the power of thoughtful collaboration and iterative development. Beyond the technical triumphs, this project sharpened my ability to communicate within a multidisciplinary team, provide constructive peer feedback, and maintain a high standard of code readability. It remains my most ambitious and rewarding project to date, solidifying my passion for creating immersive, polished gaming experiences.