GDC 2019 - Chaos
Had loads of fun working on this GDC Project, it was like making a vertical slice for a next gen destruction game.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Amazing film! Super inspired after watching it, loved Spider Gwen's ballet landing so much I had to do my own.
Retroblast - Visual upgrade
- Gave the game a much needed visual upgrade using post process effects
- Added damage state VFX (The number of fires actually grows as your overall life goes down)
- Reworked slowmo/reflex combat system
GDC 2017 - UE4 Animation and Physics
It's strange working on the engine development side of games, but as a bonus I get to test and help improve all the cool new tools people will be using in the future before everyone else!
I had a lot of fun bridging the programmer / end user gap when it came to these features, especially the control rig. I also learned a lot about what the future of Animation looks like within the games industry.
Retroblast - Game feel
- Made the character larger
- Added banking animations
- Added damage + damage recovery system
(If you get hit once you get damaged,g et hit again during the recovery period you die) - Improved camera "lookahead" player is now offset from screen center to help when flying fast towards enemies
- Added UI elements for kill count game time and total score
- Added pause and restart screen
Retro Blast - Player interaction
- Implemented a unique touch screen control system, swipe twice to boost, double tap to break.
- Added the ability to boost
Retro Blast - Design elements
I wanted to have 'simple' way to tell players what buttons activated which doors and instead of just manually creating every connection, I took the Tech Artist approach and created a small construction script that utilizes an array of corners that can be placed by the user to dynamically add a very low poly mesh. This means it is easy to move design elements around. Still very WIP but it's a good start.
Retro Blast - Game feel and Combat
- Added buttons for fire and boost.
- Switched the model out for something nicer.
- Added a camera interpolation system so you can "Look ahead" on the tiny phone screen
- Started crating a basic lock/ key mechanism with boxes that you can pick up.
- Set up my own P4 server (Which was easy thanks to the creator of this YouTube playlist.)
Retro Blast - Hello World
For awhile I've wanted to make my own "thing" in UE4. I've been interested in the blueprint system for a while now. My brain likes visuals so carefully connecting logical spaghetti into spaghetti sounds like something I could learn to do.
I actually started making a 3rd person co-op game, where you have to switch between characters to solve puzzles and evade enemies, then quickly I then started to realise that I wou;d never finish it and thus RetroBlast was born!
Because RetroBlast is going to be heavily focused on learning UE4 and attempting to develop a small prototype I created a separate blog to document how I solve problems encountered during development, I'll post periodic updates here too.
I actually started making a 3rd person co-op game, where you have to switch between characters to solve puzzles and evade enemies, then quickly I then started to realise that I wou;d never finish it and thus RetroBlast was born!
Because RetroBlast is going to be heavily focused on learning UE4 and attempting to develop a small prototype I created a separate blog to document how I solve problems encountered during development, I'll post periodic updates here too.
Batman: Arkham Knight
First AAA title!
I was hired by Rocksteady to work Batman: Arkham Knight, due to my previous experience I was placed with the Player code team as their embedded QA.
I was tasked with covering Batman navigation, all the gadgets and gameplay interactions, the fear/predator takedown stealth system, freeflow combat, NPC/Vehicle AI and all the vehicular combat and navigation. As a result I gained a great deal of understating in regards to how gameplay features are designed and developed.
One of the most rewarding aspects of working with the player code team was learning how a single feature is developed by various departments simultaneously.
I was hired by Rocksteady to work Batman: Arkham Knight, due to my previous experience I was placed with the Player code team as their embedded QA.
I was tasked with covering Batman navigation, all the gadgets and gameplay interactions, the fear/predator takedown stealth system, freeflow combat, NPC/Vehicle AI and all the vehicular combat and navigation. As a result I gained a great deal of understating in regards to how gameplay features are designed and developed.
One of the most rewarding aspects of working with the player code team was learning how a single feature is developed by various departments simultaneously.