Portfolio Projects
VR Buckets (2024)
I was given a prompt to make a multiplayer VR game in 1-2 weeks with the following specifications: Multiplayer, voice chat, score tracking, physcis, VR gorilla movement, haptic feedback. This was my first time using the Normcore framework or developing for VR (other than simple 360 video wrappers) so I split the task into 1 week of small test projects, then 1 week on the actual project. All of the requirements were implemented, including the optional Gorilla Movement system - interpreted as a hoop-grabbing slam dunk mechanic. I kept a devlog which explains the project in more detail. If you have a VR headset, you can play it here. (Git)
Slime Game (2024)
This was made in 1 week using only free assets for the Druid Mechanics community game jam. The theme was "you are NOT the hero" so I made a simple game where you play as a slime. I built a custom shader for the slime that allows it to cheaply rendered as transparent and interact with the lighting. I also built AI for humaniod skeleton enemies, a dragon, and hazards like falling rocks and fireballs. You can play it here. (Git)
Untitled Open World Game (2022)
This is a passion project I started to teach myself advanced real time rendering. I used a large scale open world map that hot loads individual segments as they appear on screen. This project also uses new Unreal Engine 5 features like Global Illumination, Nanite, and Niagra. Currently it is unfinished, but you can view videos of my work-in-progress on YouTube.
The Wayfinder Voyage (2020)
This was a game I designed for an educational grant project that teaches kids Polynesian history through films and games. The game is based on Oregon Trail and features survival mechanics, crew and provision selection, ocean navigation, and fishing minigames. It was mostly developed with Javascript, JQuery, and Bootstrap. It was developed as a web-app so that students could easily play it on either their phones or in a computer lab.
The Walking Dead Slots (2019)
This was a mobile game where I worked as a technical QA on a 5 month contract. My duties included owning new features and managing the release and development of those features. We released on iOS and Android at a regular schedule and keep hotfixes to a minimum. The game involved real money gambling and we had to consider regional laws and regulations. I worked with the Unity editor, CUDLR, C#, Javascript, JIRA and Google Sheets.
Cancer Screen Week Website (2019)
This was an existing website that I updated from the 2018 design to the 2019 design which required a major overhaul of the styling and content in under a week. The backend was a custom PHP-based CMS, and the frontend was mostly done using CSS and a combination of PHP templates and vanilla Javascript. It also included server-side rendering of customizable PDF documents, which I had to modify using PHP.
Maine Lobster Website (2019)
This was an existing website with a backend based in Wordpress and PHP and a frontend that used JQuery, CSS, and Javascript. I managed the CMS, integrated and wrote custom PHP plugins, and made special landing pages at the request of the client. The most sophisticated part of this project was probably the search engine which was a modified Wordpress search combined with front-end filtering using JQuery. Updating the search engine also required standardizing and consolidating existing database fields.
Home Depot Website (2018)
I worked on this site at the Home Depot corporate headquarters on a 6 month contract via Tata Consultancy Services. My team was mainly focused on interfaces used by suppliers to update the content that is visible to end customers. I made interactive user interfaces using JSP, Javascript, JQuery, and Bootstrap. I held workshops where I taught the React framework to other developers. I also wrote unit tests in Cucumber framework, assured quality of the search algorithm and NLP micro-services.
The Future of [X] (2018)
This was a freelance project for the Institute for the Future. It was built with React and Node. It first pulls real headlines from Google News and generates a wordcloud of trending terms. Then it guides the user through the process of writing a speculative news article. The article is rendered on a dynamic newspaper graphic (using the canvas element) that the user can download and share. (Git)
Snake vs Mongoose (2017)
This was a General Assembly bootcamp project. It's a traditional "snake" game but as an asynchronous multiplayer game. The player competes against the ghost data of another player from a previous session. Both players are trying to collect the same apples while avoiding the other player. The game logic is all Javascript, and the data is passed from the database using Mongoose, Express, and Handlebars. (Git)
BurnVR (2017)
This is a virtual space that I created for the Burning Man organization using ReactVR and 360 degree cameras. The 360 footage was filmed by me and a crew at the 2016 Burning Man event. The videos were then injected with 360 metadata, re-encoded for streaming, and uploaded to AWS. The videos can be navigated using a simple ReactVR client. Android users can also look around using the gyroscope on their phone. NOTE: This project has been moved to a YouTube 360 playlist. (Git)
Autopilot AI (2016)
This is a prototype for a multiplayer mobile game I designed for NetEase games. It was used to quickly test gameplay systems and it was updated after every design sprint. The game included a dozen space ships with simple AIs for moving and shooting automatically. The player must shoot down the right ships to win. The game is rendered on a canvas element and the aninmations are drawn with Javascript. (Git)
Eternal Arena (2015-2016)
This was a mobile game with a competitive PVP MOBA mode, an MMORPG-like gear system, and a large single player story campaign. I was responsible for tracking and improving the game's KPIs over a 2 year period, similar to a product manager role. I also wrote the game's story, balanced the competitive PVP meta, and designed liveops content like new quests and characters.
Story War (2012-2014)
This was a Kickstarter project that I created which raised $360,000 in 30 days. We produced 3 card games, shipping over 20k units in total. We also developed a custom CMS to easily manage, edit, and print cards for rapid prototyping and UX research. As part of our Kickstarter's stretch goals, we created a companion mobile app, and an 8 minute animated short.
