Game Development

Entombed

Made in a month for a class final project, Entombed is an atmospheric horror puzzle game. Trapped in a mysterious underground tomb, the player must solve all the puzzles and destroy the tomb’s inhabitant before it’s too late. Entombed was a huge exercise in visual style with custom shaders and in asset pipelines trying to wrangle models and materials from Blender to Godot 4. During its development, I found and reported several bugs to Godot’s Github issue tracker as I tested the limits of the different beta versions.

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  This post-processing effect was the first idea I had for Entombed

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  Entombed has four puzzles spaced across the tomb

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  The claustrophobic feel ramps up when you are being pursued

Crop Carnage

Crop Carnage, my entry for Ludem Dare 52 and my first submission in the “compo” category, is a 2D base defense style shooter where the guns you fire and their ammunition are also plants that you have to grow and harvest. The game was created from scratch in 39 hours for the theme “Harvest”, and was made using Godot, Aseprite, Gimp, ChipTone, and BeepBox. The rating period for LD52 is still ongoing, so Crop Carnage’s does not currently have a ranking.

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  You must balance replanting enough but not too much, so that you always have ammo

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  Seeds are cheaper, but must be grown into crops before equipping

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  Pumpkins act like grenades, and are effective against larger hordes

Collapsing Cave

Collapsing cave, my entry for Ludem Dare 51, is a 2D resource mining / exploration / infinite runner created in 72 hours. Game jams are the ultimate exercise in not letting perfection get in the way of progress. Putting together a finished package playable from start to finish in three days tests your planning on flexibility, while also being a lot of fun. Out of 1,703 jam submissions, Collapsing Cave scored 638th in the theme category (the theme was “Every 10 seconds”).

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  The stone placement mechanic led to the only game-breaking bug

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  The hardest part about combat is refining the hitboxes

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  The upgrade system was incredibly flexible

Spellbreaker

Spellbreaker was made in a group for a class final project. It is a 2D side-scrolling action platformer made in GameMaker. As the technical lead in the group, I worked on foundational scripts including kinematic bodies, TileMap based collisions, and finite state machine templates. I also coded the player movement/attacks as well as the final boss cutscene and attack sequence. I then delegated the programming needs for the rest of the game to the other programmers as well as offered advice to solve problems.

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  Melee combat in Spellbreaker was risky, especially with the more agile enemies

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  The enemies were placed such that someone experienced could platform through without hitting an enemy

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  The platforming is quick and springy, and the best feeling movement I’ve put into a game

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  The boss fight, including its intro cutscene, is about half of the game’s code

Nightfall

Nightfall was made with most of the same group as Spellbreaker for another class final project. It is a 3D resource mining / crafting / survival game with an asymmetric daytime exploration and nighttime base defense cycle. I acted as the producer for this game, moving from managing the tasks for the programming team to overseeing the project as a whole. Compared to Spellbreaker, I implemented more rigorous project management including OpenProject task management. I still worked on the programming, creating the inventory, oxygen, and interaction systems.

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  Significant time was spent getting an outline effect to work in Unity’s HDRP

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  The inventory UI needs separation from the game world behind it

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  Getting trees to spawn at all in the short time we had was a challenge