Professional Projects
Software I've created as part of a professional team
Xadia
Wonderstorm
Unreleased
- Created animation notify state for target focusing; designers and animators use this to fine tune how long into enemies' animations the player is targeted
- Augmented Tasks from Gameplay Ability System plugin to allow design to configure distance/time lerps. Also added improved customizations, such as for collision offsets (used in melee attacks) and navmesh restriction
- Reworked end-of-match flow for asynchronous match exit and improved victory/defeat events. Players can use a portal to exit the match once they complete the final objective, and if they quit after completing the last objective, they'll still get credit
- Improved efficiency of perception system. Previously, we had used a lot of default values, and all Pawns were considered for perception. Plus, all factions would consider friendly characters for perception (which was only necessary for one corner case). By changing this, I reduced the number of perception traces dratstically; in some levels, the trace count reduced by 90%.
- Added mouse pointer targeting, improving abilities and providing technical support for ping system
- Using a lot of Unreal profiling tools. On mobile, our memory budget is critical, so I've identified problem assets blueprint functions. I've also worked on some systemic memory improvements, like a level unloading system.
- Implemented root status effect, including implementing an animation root motion scaling factor
- Debugged various issues, such as failing dialog transitions and crashes
- How to profile for memory and performance (and identify problem assets and areas)
- Creating new systems that can be used and expanded throughout the project's lifecycle
- Balancing configuration vs. runtime complexity to improve the player experience
- C++ and Unreal Engine 4
- Gameplay Ability System, an Unreal plugin
- Unreal Insights, Memreport, and Unreal's stat commands
- A proprietary Racket-based configuration system
Rogue Company Elite
Hi-Rez Studios (First Watch)
Unreleased
- Created a system with UE4's UMG to allow stat bars for weapons and mods to be combined and fine-tuned by design
- Wrote a Python script to automatically play matches unatended to try to catch a low repro-rate crash that occurred at the end of some matches
- Interface with Android and iOS API to display battery life
- Various gameplay bug fixes
- Unreal Engine 4 (and interaction between native c++ and blueprints)
- How to write good documentation and tooling for designers
- The challenges of testing in a mobile environment
- C++ and Unreal Engine 4
- A bit of Python
- Visual Studio, JIRA, Perforce
Paladins
Hi-Rez Studios (Evil Mojo)
More Details
- Azaan. This character is a tank with a multi-wall ability, and a teleport projectile ultimate with many animation states. For more details, click here!
- Vatu. This character has some technically cool abilities - a chain teleport, a two-press ultimate, and sticky bombs that adhere to surfaces (and will drop from shields). For more details, click here!
- Built (and improve!) new Trials of the Realm system. These quests are nested in sections that open up at certain time intervals each patch. I was the primary programmer for this system, so I programmed the UI components, progress tracking, unlock/in progress/lock states, and so forth. Details? Here.
- An automated script for setting up each patches' challenges for TotR. This helps save our designers time and prevent possible bugs.
- Investigate, debug, and fix crash reports from live clients
- Fix live exploits that allow players to cheat - including hacking items and using unreleased characters - and other bugs
- Unreal Engine!
- Accounting for latency in a client-server environment.
- Documentation is important to both make and consult.
- Dealing with legacy code in supporting a game that's several years old
- How to effectively communicate and work together with others in a remote office environment
- C++ and UnrealScipt for Unreal Engine 3
- A bit of SQL
- Visual Studio (using debugging tools more extensively than I have before)
- JIRA, Perforce
SEGA Heroes
Demiurge Studios
- Created an extensible server tool to refund accidental purchases
- Implemented abilities (in reusable pieces) and connected animations for 10 new characters (plus tweaked some old ones)
- Various bug fixes and non-character features (ex: additional UI features, JITT, more precise and fair energy regen)
- The importance of communication on a cross-discipline team. In particular, character animations required a lot of artist input
- Thoughtful design decisions in creating a new API that others will use and contribute to
- Working on a smaller team means more responsibility and owning more tasks (a good thing!)
- C#, Go, C++
- Perforce, Git, JIRA
- A whole lotta JSON
Buildpacks
Pivotal
- Developed a wide range of language buildpacks (Node, Dotnet, Ruby) for compiling various cloud-based apps
- Contributed to the implementation of the first prototype V3 buildpack
- Updated and debugged testing pipeline corresponding to new features
- Responded to community issues
- Pair programming professionally - how to verbalize ideas and listen to others'
- How to explain my work. We rotated pairs everyday, so ~50% of the time I had to explain the previous work to someone new to it
- Agile development - my first exposure to standups, postmortems, and sprints
- Go and a bit of Ruby
- Bash (a lot of experience using CLI's)
- Git, Slack, Pivotal Tracker, Concourse
Personal Projects
Software I've created for fun or open-ended class projects
Darkfire Mod
For Slay the Spire
Team: Yours Truly
- Developed a new character (The Darkfire) with a new deck and mecahnics (ex: add random "flames" to hand)
- Progress is slow due to school and job search, but I'll be adding more cards (and relics) when I can
- I did the card art, though you can see I'm not an artist
- Currently: 1 new character with 13 new cards
- Beginning something is the hardest part - I spent a lot of time getting the first card working, then things got much easier
- How to follow wikis and documentation closely (since there aren't people to ask questions)
- It's incredibly fun to make something I can show to people and watch them play
- Java. I also used a Java decompiler (to reference game code) for the first time
- ModTheSpire and BaseMod, popular modding tools
- Git
Nekromanteia
2D stealth game
Team: 2 devs, 2 artists, 1 producer, 1 designer
- Behavior chunks for customizable enemy patrols - designers can set movement locations, rotations, and the speeds of each action
- Dialog and checkpoint systems
- Reset and pause functionality
- Lighting to visually indicate when a player is in enemy's sights
- Animation state transitions (including directional states) and animation events
- How to effectively utilize Unity's animator and manage animation states
- I love coding to enable others' work (specifically, making animations work and giving designers tools)
- Knowing other dev's code means we can help each other debug
- Usually everyone works great together, but, if someone doesn't, it's worth a conversation to try to fix things
- Unity (C# scripts)
- JIRA and Trello
- Git
Diet Clash
Android App to manage eating habits
Team: 3 Devs
- Database backend for tracking goals and servings, as well as frontend for displaying stored & entered info
- Locator for nearby grocery stores (using Google Places API)
- Tracking goal progress, managing & updating multiple goals of varying durations
- Development and testing on mobile
- How to publish apps to Google Play
- Creating and managing Google API Keys
- Java
- SQLite
- Google Places API
- Android Studio
- Git
Visual Novel Library
Team: 4 Devs
- Created "scenes" and dialog options that can load other scenes from JSON input
- User can specify background music for each scene - will continue or restart across scenes appropriately
- Can be imported and integrated to other projects
- I did the art for this, but it works with other (perhaps better) art
- Effective resource management - how to keep track of memory even when there's a lot of resources
- C++ (with SDL2)
- Git
Tsuro
Team: 3 Devs
- A digital representation of the game Tsuro
- Internal data representation of tiles
- Move legality enforcement
- Enemy AI
- Client and server capabilities for distributed players
- Tests
- Code is private because this was a school project, but please reach out with any questions
- Importance of future-proofing code; clean code makes future additions easier
- How to deal with changing specifications
- Python3
- Git
About Me
I graduated from Northeastern University in 2020 with a degree in Computer Science & Game Development. I now work at Wonderstorm as a Gameplay Engineer - you can see more about my past and present work here. When I'm not programming, I enjoy Dungeons & Dragons (as a player and a DM - you can check out some of my homebrew campaigns here), running, and gaming with friends.
If you make games and are looking for a programmer, send me an email or give me a call. Want more info to help make your decision? Check out my Github, my resume, or email me with any questions.