Game Development Portfolio
TV PALS DELUXE
Context
- 2024
-
multiplayer festival/party game
- Solo project
Tools/Materials
- Unity
- C#
- Shadergraph
-
Blender
- Unity Netcode for GameObjects, Relay
Description
TV PALS DELUXE is a remade / remastered version of UM TV PALS, featuring online multiplayer, new graphics, and one new level.
TV Pals is an action / platformer for many many players, and is multiplayer only. Bring tears to TV to receive power, knock out opponents to win.
Background
I wanted to get some practice working with Unity’s online multiplayer tools. As a learning exercise, I decided to take an older project of mine and add networked multiplayer. This project quickly expanded into a full blown remake of the original, which I completed in about a month.
This included, a big pass of graphical and quality of life updates. I’ve learned a lot about technical and 3D art since the first version, so many of the graphics from the original game were replaced with new models with better animation, cleaner topology, new custom shaders, and so forth.
Finally, I tweaked some level designs and rebalanced certain aspects of the game, and redesigned one level that was previously designed with a now-cut “Capture the Flag” mode in mind.
TV PALS DELUXE is a remade / remastered version of UM TV PALS, featuring online multiplayer, new graphics, and one new level.
TV Pals is an action / platformer for many many players, and is multiplayer only. Bring tears to TV to receive power, knock out opponents to win.
Background
I wanted to get some practice working with Unity’s online multiplayer tools. As a learning exercise, I decided to take an older project of mine and add networked multiplayer. This project quickly expanded into a full blown remake of the original, which I completed in about a month.
This included, a big pass of graphical and quality of life updates. I’ve learned a lot about technical and 3D art since the first version, so many of the graphics from the original game were replaced with new models with better animation, cleaner topology, new custom shaders, and so forth.
Finally, I tweaked some level designs and rebalanced certain aspects of the game, and redesigned one level that was previously designed with a now-cut “Capture the Flag” mode in mind.
Cinder Ridge
Tools/Materials
- Unity
- C#
- Shadergraph
- Blender
- Unity Netcode for GameObjects, Relay
- FMOD
Description
Cinder Ridge is a cozy game about tending to California’s forests. It borrows ideas from survival games, farming games, and third person RTS games. It is set in the near future, after drought, floods, and wildfires exacerbated by climate change have radically altered the landscape.
Players take on the role of a new recruit working at a rewilding camp in the mountains, and must make decisions about how best to tend to the woods. The player and their crew work together to manage and restore the forest; planting trees, building trails, clearing firebreaks, tearing up pavement, and more. Players can accomplish many tasks on their own, but it’s usually easier, faster, and more fun to work together with the other characters.
Background
In 2022, my partner and I founded Understory Games to support work on the game full time. Together we led a small team of artists and engineers to develop the game. In addition to directing and managing our team, I remained one of the main programmers and visual artists working on the project. Sadly, we have had to put the project on haitus for now.
This project is extensively documented here
Cinder Ridge is a cozy game about tending to California’s forests. It borrows ideas from survival games, farming games, and third person RTS games. It is set in the near future, after drought, floods, and wildfires exacerbated by climate change have radically altered the landscape.
Players take on the role of a new recruit working at a rewilding camp in the mountains, and must make decisions about how best to tend to the woods. The player and their crew work together to manage and restore the forest; planting trees, building trails, clearing firebreaks, tearing up pavement, and more. Players can accomplish many tasks on their own, but it’s usually easier, faster, and more fun to work together with the other characters.
Background
In 2022, my partner and I founded Understory Games to support work on the game full time. Together we led a small team of artists and engineers to develop the game. In addition to directing and managing our team, I remained one of the main programmers and visual artists working on the project. Sadly, we have had to put the project on haitus for now.
This project is extensively documented here
Fire Underground
Context
- 2017-2019
- animation / simulation, 1 hour
-
Solo project (with original music by Sarah Louise)
- MFA Thesis
Tools/Materials
- Unity
- C#
- Blender
- Agisoft Metashape
- Small Sculpture (metal, clay, papercraft)
Description
Fire Underground is an animation which presents a fantasy loosely based on the events of the West Virginia Mine Wars, the Homestead Steel Strike, and other labor conflicts in US history. While a labor conflict escalates into a war, the dead and dying find themselves in a prehistoric carboniferous swamp deep below ground, where strange creatures are stirring in the dark.
The story is framed by scenes from a surreal “museum at the end of history'' where heroes from America's past are immortalized forever as animatronic statues and looping dioramas, alongside prehistoric creatures, war machines, and other historical artifacts.
Context
This piece was my MFA thesis project at Carnegie Mellon School of Art. It is documented extensively here.
As an MFA I was interested in:
Fire Underground is an animation which presents a fantasy loosely based on the events of the West Virginia Mine Wars, the Homestead Steel Strike, and other labor conflicts in US history. While a labor conflict escalates into a war, the dead and dying find themselves in a prehistoric carboniferous swamp deep below ground, where strange creatures are stirring in the dark.
The story is framed by scenes from a surreal “museum at the end of history'' where heroes from America's past are immortalized forever as animatronic statues and looping dioramas, alongside prehistoric creatures, war machines, and other historical artifacts.
Context
This piece was my MFA thesis project at Carnegie Mellon School of Art. It is documented extensively here.
As an MFA I was interested in:
- Developing my skills as a 3D artist and as a technical artist.
- Incorporating physical crafts into my art as a means of creating rich 3D graphics quickly and cheaply.
- Using games, animation, and fantasy/world building to explore the history and culture of appalachia (where I was living at the time), and in general blurring the line between documentary and subjective fantasy.
Vietnam Romance
Context
- 2014-2022
- Computer Game, Theater
- Team Project (usually 3-4 people)
Tools/Materials
- Unity
- C#
- Blender
Links
- Documentation
- Official Website
Description
Vietnam Romance is an art game, video installation, and live performance piece, which recreates and interrogates the fictionalized history of the Vietnam War and its culturally commodified remains through a mash-up of cultural artifacts drawn primarily from Hollywood film culture as well as war literature, comic books, popular music, collectable war memorabilia, and adventure tourist packages.
Background
I joined the project as a programmer after finishing my degree in 2014, and have worked on it off-and-on ever since. As people have joined and left the project, my role has expanded to include production tasks like character animation, UI design, various visual effects, and designing and prototyping many of the game's core features. For many years, I was the lead (and sometimes only) developer working on the project.
More extensive documentation available here.
Vietnam Romance is an art game, video installation, and live performance piece, which recreates and interrogates the fictionalized history of the Vietnam War and its culturally commodified remains through a mash-up of cultural artifacts drawn primarily from Hollywood film culture as well as war literature, comic books, popular music, collectable war memorabilia, and adventure tourist packages.
Background
I joined the project as a programmer after finishing my degree in 2014, and have worked on it off-and-on ever since. As people have joined and left the project, my role has expanded to include production tasks like character animation, UI design, various visual effects, and designing and prototyping many of the game's core features. For many years, I was the lead (and sometimes only) developer working on the project.
More extensive documentation available here.
Goldlich
Context
- 2017
- animation / simulation, endless
- MFA Exhibition
- Solo Project
Tools/Materials
- Unity
- C#
- Blender
Links
Description
A virtual creature / haunted skeletal jewelry. The Lich extends itself, perpetually extracts more lengths of chain from the terrain. It's body is animated by a real-time physics simulation. As the hand at the bottom feels it's way around, momentum imparted increases as it climbs up the chain. Eventually, the chain falls apart, segments of the Lich fall to the ground. The cycle begins again.
Context
This project was a study in 3D modeling and procedural animation. I would eventually use some of the techniques I worked out with this piece for Fire Underground.
As an MFA student, I was interested in developing my skills across 3D modeling, animation, and technical art. I was excited about the work of artists like Federico Solmi, Ian Cheng, Peter Burr, and others, who use game engines to create rich animated portraits and tableus, and thought that “real-time animation” using Unity (meaning, an animation that runs as a standalone executable) would be a great way to practice these skills in the context of an MFA, without the labor overhead of creating a complete game.
A virtual creature / haunted skeletal jewelry. The Lich extends itself, perpetually extracts more lengths of chain from the terrain. It's body is animated by a real-time physics simulation. As the hand at the bottom feels it's way around, momentum imparted increases as it climbs up the chain. Eventually, the chain falls apart, segments of the Lich fall to the ground. The cycle begins again.
Context
This project was a study in 3D modeling and procedural animation. I would eventually use some of the techniques I worked out with this piece for Fire Underground.
As an MFA student, I was interested in developing my skills across 3D modeling, animation, and technical art. I was excited about the work of artists like Federico Solmi, Ian Cheng, Peter Burr, and others, who use game engines to create rich animated portraits and tableus, and thought that “real-time animation” using Unity (meaning, an animation that runs as a standalone executable) would be a great way to practice these skills in the context of an MFA, without the labor overhead of creating a complete game.
Pachinko With Nick
Context
- 2016
- minigame
- Solo Project
Tools/Materials
- Unity
- C#
- Blender
- Agisoft Metashape
Links
Description
Launch me into the machine and watch me tumble chaotically among pins, spinners, and pinball bumpers. Earn more Nicks to play with by landing me in comfortable chairs and couches. Land me in my dad’s desk to earn a jackpot (+50 Nicks).
Players can launch Nicks with space, and can press the left and right arrows to tilt the machine, jostling Nicks towards the couches.
Context
In 2016 I became excited about photogrammetry after attending a workshop on the subject by Aurea Harvey of Tale of Tales, and over the years it became one of my primary tools. I made this minigame with a 3D capture of myself. It’s kind of a riff on a maddeningly frustrating level from Mario Sunshine, and a joke about agency in life and in games. The cups are modeled after significant seating in my life; a desk and office chair from my dad’s study, a leather seat with a burned-in drawing of a cowboy from my grandfather’s house, a colorful ikea couch from the UCLA Game Lab (where I spent most days at the time).
Launch me into the machine and watch me tumble chaotically among pins, spinners, and pinball bumpers. Earn more Nicks to play with by landing me in comfortable chairs and couches. Land me in my dad’s desk to earn a jackpot (+50 Nicks).
Players can launch Nicks with space, and can press the left and right arrows to tilt the machine, jostling Nicks towards the couches.
Context
In 2016 I became excited about photogrammetry after attending a workshop on the subject by Aurea Harvey of Tale of Tales, and over the years it became one of my primary tools. I made this minigame with a 3D capture of myself. It’s kind of a riff on a maddeningly frustrating level from Mario Sunshine, and a joke about agency in life and in games. The cups are modeled after significant seating in my life; a desk and office chair from my dad’s study, a leather seat with a burned-in drawing of a cowboy from my grandfather’s house, a colorful ikea couch from the UCLA Game Lab (where I spent most days at the time).
UM TV PALS (original)
Tools/Materials
- Unity
- C#
- Blender
- HappyFunTimes massively local multiplayer plugin
Links
Description:
Action Game for many many players. Just connect controllers and GO. Supports up to 10 players at once! Bring food to TV for power, knock out opponents to win.
TV PALS is multiplayer only and requires gamepads or smartphones.
Context:
As a fan of indie action / fighting games like Nidhogg, Samurai Gunn, etc, my goal was to make a contained, elegant multiplayer action game with great game feel and an interesting aesthetic. I’ve revisited this game a few times over the years, and it’s become a fun little project to practice game dev / design with.
In 2014, we had Gregg Tavares as an artist in residence at UCLA Game Lab, who developed a tool called HappyFunTimes, which supports “massive local multiplayer” by allowing players to control a game using their phone over wifi (similar to the popular JackBox games)
My friend Peter Lu and I took some of the assets from a weird festival game I had made using HappyFunTimes, and reworked them into a more streamlined multiplayer action game.
Peter and I worked together on the core gameplay and architecture. Peter had a lot of previous experience as a game developer, so as a design student interested in code, I learned a lot about organization, architecture, and best practices from them. Once the core gameplay was basically done, I spent a couple of weeks polishing the visuals and game feel, and added additional levels and game modes.
In 2016, for an event at CMU, I revisited TV Pals, removing a convoluted “capture the flag” mode, and making several usability improvements.
in 2024, I revisited TV Pals again to add online multiplayer.
Action Game for many many players. Just connect controllers and GO. Supports up to 10 players at once! Bring food to TV for power, knock out opponents to win.
TV PALS is multiplayer only and requires gamepads or smartphones.
Context:
As a fan of indie action / fighting games like Nidhogg, Samurai Gunn, etc, my goal was to make a contained, elegant multiplayer action game with great game feel and an interesting aesthetic. I’ve revisited this game a few times over the years, and it’s become a fun little project to practice game dev / design with.
In 2014, we had Gregg Tavares as an artist in residence at UCLA Game Lab, who developed a tool called HappyFunTimes, which supports “massive local multiplayer” by allowing players to control a game using their phone over wifi (similar to the popular JackBox games)
My friend Peter Lu and I took some of the assets from a weird festival game I had made using HappyFunTimes, and reworked them into a more streamlined multiplayer action game.
Peter and I worked together on the core gameplay and architecture. Peter had a lot of previous experience as a game developer, so as a design student interested in code, I learned a lot about organization, architecture, and best practices from them. Once the core gameplay was basically done, I spent a couple of weeks polishing the visuals and game feel, and added additional levels and game modes.
In 2016, for an event at CMU, I revisited TV Pals, removing a convoluted “capture the flag” mode, and making several usability improvements.
in 2024, I revisited TV Pals again to add online multiplayer.
SNEAKY CACTUS: CACTICAL ESPIONAGE ACTION
Context
- 2015
- local multiplayer / festival game
- Solo Project
Tools/Materials
- Unity
- Arduino
- Custom Electronics
- Ardunity plugin
- Live Succulents
- Laser Cutter
Live cacti serve as game controllers in a succulent racing game for two players. Poke and prod one of four rotating cacti to guide your character to the finish. Watch out for juice-slurping insects that patrol the desert. Replenish your plant’s moisture at one of several desert oases.
Each cactus corresponds with a direction in-game. When a player touches a real-life cactus, a disembodied cartoon hand enters the screen and prods the corresponding virtual plant. If the on-screen character gets spun around, a motor activates and the physical cacti suddenly rotate to match.
Plants were chosen for their visual appeal and for variety. It’s more challenging (or maybe just more painful) to move in certain directions, depending on the orientation of the controller.
Painful pricks from tiny needles disrupt the 'flow' of play, and the controller itself gradually wilts as players poke and prod its fleshy buttons.
Context:
Festival game developed first for an event on campus at UCLA, and then improved upon for the UCLA Game Art Festival at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.
Each cactus corresponds with a direction in-game. When a player touches a real-life cactus, a disembodied cartoon hand enters the screen and prods the corresponding virtual plant. If the on-screen character gets spun around, a motor activates and the physical cacti suddenly rotate to match.
Plants were chosen for their visual appeal and for variety. It’s more challenging (or maybe just more painful) to move in certain directions, depending on the orientation of the controller.
Painful pricks from tiny needles disrupt the 'flow' of play, and the controller itself gradually wilts as players poke and prod its fleshy buttons.
Context:
Festival game developed first for an event on campus at UCLA, and then improved upon for the UCLA Game Art Festival at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.
TAP OUT SAGA
mobile game, custom housing, ipad mini
2014
2014
- Solo Project
- Unity
- Photoshop
- Laser Cutter
Description:
TAP OUT SAGA is a two player game built for tablets, which transforms on-screen cartoon violence into an intimate and playful encounter with another player. The rules are simple: tap to punch, don’t get punched.
The game features a variety of characters with unique abilities. Tapping and holding activates a special ability, most of which use the tablet’s accelerometer.
Context:
This game was my undergraduate thesis project at UCLA Design | Media Art
The game features a variety of characters with unique abilities. Tapping and holding activates a special ability, most of which use the tablet’s accelerometer.
Context:
This game was my undergraduate thesis project at UCLA Design | Media Art
NASA Jet Propulsion Lab - Ops Lab Design Internship
2013For around 6 months I was an intern at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, assisting with UX research around uses for emerging consumer tech like early Oculus DK1 and Xbox Kinect for telerobotics and space exploration.
My role included shadowing and interviewing mission planners and scientists, helping design and run experiments, and prototyping different ways of visualizing and interacting with data from rover missions in 3D in Unity.
The videos to the left show the main projects I was involved with.
My role included shadowing and interviewing mission planners and scientists, helping design and run experiments, and prototyping different ways of visualizing and interacting with data from rover missions in 3D in Unity.
The videos to the left show the main projects I was involved with.