The projects in this section are documented for posterity. I love to look back at these old games, reflect on what I learned, and see how far I've come in my game development journey. That being said, these older projects aren't intended to represent my current technical skill level.
Project Distant Signal is a 2D Unity action platformer created in two weeks for my Technical Design course. Rather than treating it as a throwaway class assignment, I used it to prototype one of my “dream game” concepts and push the presentation as close to a real indie game as I could.
The movement combines the bomb-burst mechanics of Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows with a Mega Man X-style dash, double jump, and physics-based grenades. I handled programming, design, asset sourcing, sound design, game feel, presentation, and even commissioned custom sprite edits to turn Mega Man X into an original character with animations for the expanded moveset.
The project won “Best Design Execution,” selected by my professor and a panel of his former Electronic Arts colleagues. The finished demo contains three levels and remains a favorite example of what focused polish can accomplish on a short schedule.
Collaborators:
Main Character Art: commissioned from @MajorasCask
Environment Art: purchased from "unTied Games" on itch.io
Rolling Revolt is a third-person action beat-em-up on roller skates, created in Unity. As Lead Project Manager, I led a team of 15 people to create this game over the span of an entire school year, starting production in August and finishing in May. The game was praised by our peers and professor alike, earning an A in the course.
My main responsibilities during the school year were split between programming and project management. As a member of the code team, I was responsible for level/progression scripting, fixing bugs, and implementing mechanics like the dialogue system. As project manager, I was responsible for managing the rest of the team using the productivity software ClickUp to assign tasks and delegate work. I was also responsible for creating frequent presentations to show the team's progress, managing interpersonal issues, producing productivity reports for our Professor, and video production (like the Production Documentary).
Collaborators:
Creative Director: Andrew Rodgers
Programming: Vanessa Scott, Chris Trenary, Kevin Perez, Noah Lam
Design: Michael Rodriguez, Jason Abaleda, Demetrius Redman, Casey Temple
Art: Raul Placido, Kirsten Futch, Catalina Dukeshire, Richard Brauckmiller
Melody Knight is an Android rhythm game created in Unity over the course of one semester. I served the role of Lead Project Manager, responsible for managing team tasks and hitting deadlines.
I was also one of only two programmers on the team, so I was directly responsible for implementing many features of the game. This game is currently available for download on itch.io. The game features four main levels in the main story, along with dozens of songs to play in free-play mode.
Collaborators:
Creative Director: Connor Nolen
Programming: Chris Trenary
Design: Jonathan Melo, Jack Galeassi
Art: Alexandra Kotzeva, Christopher Mason
This first-person shooter was created using the Unreal Engine in the span of about one week. As my final for my Level Design class, I was the sole collaborator on the project. All code (including a fully custom character controller) was written by me using C++ and Blueprints, and all of the graphical assets came from the Unreal store, with the challenge that they all had to be free. This project's main claim to fame is the "Orbital Redirector" mechanic, a unique weapon that causes rockets fired at the player to rotate around them, allowing the player to redirect at enemies and to destroy obstacles.
Collaborators:
N/A
I created this first-person movement level using the Unreal Engine in the span of three days. The main objective of this project was to use free assets from the Unreal store to create a believable, realistic, and well-lit 3D space that a first-person character could move around. The goal of this game is to collect all of the armor pickups scattered throughout the level before the time runs out.
Collaborators:
N/A
I programmed this third-person Unity platformer in one month as my final project for Game Production, with the assistance of one level designer and three artists. I was responsible for project management, 100% of the game's code, all video production, and version control. The project earned the highest grade in the class.
Collaborators:
Level Design: Cole Hedlund
Menu Design and 2D Art: Victoria Richey
3D Art: Nik Gardner, Graciana Baker
This stealth demo was created with Unity in 2 weeks for my Game Production class. As the team's only programmer, I was responsible for writing all of the robot's behaviors, creating the player controller, and setting up all other mechanics like picking up the keycards or moving between menus. My proudest achievements with this project were setting up the robot AI and the security feeds on the monitors.
Collaborators:
Level Design: Cole Hedlund
Menu Design and Textures: Victoria Richey
3D Art: Nik Gardner
When given the task to use Unity to remake a 2D game from the 80s in just 2 weeks, I knew I had to show Gradius some love. As the sole programmer on the team, implementing the deep power-up system was my proudest achievement. I was also responsible for setting up version control with GitHub so that the level designers and artists could collaborate on the game in real time, which would become standard on all of my future projects.
Collaborators:
Level Design: Cole Hedlund
Menu Design and 2D Art: Victoria Richey
3D Art: Nik Gardner
2021-04-23 21-15-20.mp4A triathlon-themed rhythm game for the Technology Student Association’s High School Game Design competition. This game was made over the span of many months with the prompt “Olympics”. I served as a 3D modeler, level designer, and programmer on this project. Notable features of this game include a fully modeled replica of Tokyo, a functioning level creator, multiple difficulty levels, motion-captured animation, and online leaderboards. This game won 2nd in the state of Florida, and was created in Unity. My favorite parts about this game are the cityscape, level creator, and animations for the player character, which were motion-captured using Kinect cameras from Xbox.
Collaborators:
Game Director: Gabriel Moncau
Musical Composer, Documentation: Matthew Mulhall
Music, Sound Effects: Spencer Waldshan
3D Modeling, MOCAP Animation: Alan Goff
User Interface: Chase O'Brien
I was Creative Director and a Programmer on this project, which I worked on at DigiPen's Pre-College Summer Program. This endless arcade platformer was inspired by classics such as Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. (Arcade) with a touch of Kirby's "eat the enemy" combat. There are three levels that loop once the third is finished, but with more and faster enemies each time. The goal of the game is to earn the highest score, or to beat as many levels as possible. I directed a team of classmates to create this game over the span of three weeks.
Collaborators:
Programming: Drew James
Art and Graphics: Taylor Earhart, Michelle Foster
Sound: Vail Kuntz
Download Link:
This 2D platformer was created in Unity for the Technology Student Association’s High School Game Design competition, earning third in the state. The prompt was "Sports", so we created a game about boxing. I served as Creative Director on the project, and designed every level. This was my first game that I made working in a team and my first time working with Unity, so it presented a lot of challenges! The game is clunky, but overall I am proud of the final product.
Collaborators:
Programmer: Gabriel Moncau
Art: Mary Goncharenko
Sound: Spencer Waldshan and Ryan Karp
Documentation: Matthew Mulhall
Download Link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fIP1UUFQQB993QxFjOq07gHLVMi--3Ky/view
This Shovel Knight fangame is a time-based endless runner written in Java. The game's concept was inspired by how fun it is to "skate" around levels on Specter Knight's scythe (as ridiculous as that may sound) in Specter of Torment, so I decided to make a 'whole game' out of the concept. I wrote this game in one week after finishing AP Computer Science in High School, since I wanted to write a program that used graphics instead of the command line.
Collaborators:
Graphics: Yacht Club Games (Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment)
Music: Jake Kaufman (A Cargo of Fineries, from the Specter of Torment soundtrack)
All non-original assets used under Creative Commons Noncommercial License.