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What is it?

A casual puzzle game with a time-looping mechanic. The levels are on a fixed timer and when the time expires everything resets. All of the player’s action of that time, however, are recorded and replayed for them as an “echo” which helps them solve complex puzzles.

What was its purpose?

The client for the assignment (JoTo Games) wanted to develop a prototype within a popular game genre that had a unique game mechanic. It was intended as a proof of concept that could be presented to publishers for further development.

What was my role?

As the lead designer and producer within the JoTo Games team for this project, some of my tasks included:
- Setting up milestones and roadmaps for development, relying on previously conducted extensive desk research.
- Organizing daily team stand-ups, taking notes during meetings.
- Generating and detailing different ideas for puzzles and game mechanics.
- Implementing various functionalities in Unity (player movement, CineMachine camera system, object interactions, and puzzle functionalities) by programming them in C#.
- Monitoring and combining GitHub branches, and resolving issues that arise from the merging process.
- Writing a Design Process Report to submit alongside the prototype, which totaled in over 140 pages / 15,000 words.

How long did it take?

One academic semester - 20 weeks. Preliminary research was conducted several weeks prior to the start of development.

Extra:

This was the most time consuming and complicated project that I have worked on to that date. In part this was because I had to conduct extensive research, user testing, and to iterate on the project multiple times. On top of that, there were multiple challenges that arose in the development process as well, yet it was still possible to produce a result both myself and the client were happy with.

What is it?

An augmented reality application that displays different animated models, as well as a functional pair of dice. The application used camera input to display those objects in a real-world space.

What was its purpose?

We were taught to expect future trends and were incentivized to develop a creative and entrepreneurial approach. We had to come up with a product from 50 years in the future and present a proof of concept for its functionality with the use of current technology. On top of that, a marketing video had to be developed in order to properly illustrate what the product would be like in the year of 2075.

What was my role?

Taking part in a team of two people, my task was to develop the functional aspect of the game while my teammate dealt with the documentation. Most of my work revolved around researching different tutorials for XR technologies, designing the project, and then eventually creating a functional prototype within Unity.

I was also the one to work on the “marketing” aspect of the project, creating a commercial with the use of stock videos, recordings prototype, personal footage, and exaggerated 3D models and effects from within Unity Engine.

How long did it take?

One academic block - 8 weeks.

What is it?

A gamified training application for the practice of Activities of Daily Living relating to cooking. The prototype incentivized children to practice movements relating to cooking (cutting a bread in slices, spreading butter over individual toasts, etc.). It relied on a device similar to a cutting board and cooking utensils that were outfitted with different sensors in order to translate real-world motions into corresponding in-game actions.

What was its purpose?

The prototype was intended for children with developmental disorders such as Cerebral Palsy who suffer from motor impairments. Such children might fall behind when performing Activities of Daily Living such as eating, getting dressed, cleaning up, etc. The client for this assignment (Umaco) had developed a device which aimed to increase children’s experience in such tasks through a measured and repeated physical movement that could be directly related to the previously mentioned examples. The idea was to motivate them and make the experience fun, rather than a chore, and our objective was to come up with a gamified prototype that did just that.

What was my role?

This was a group assignment, but as both the team and Umaco selected the concept that I had put forward as the preferred one for development, I was in charge with designing the majority of the product’s features. On top of that, some of the other things I did were:
- Developing the environment for the prototype using Unity assets from my personal library.
- Designing the User Interface and implementing its functionality within Unity.
- Conducting extensive desk research relating to Cerebral Palsy, and serious game practices.

How long did it take?

One academic semester - 20 weeks. The first half revolved around conducting desk research, expert interviews, concepting, and clarifying design requirements.

Extra:

The only issue with this project was that we had difficulties testing it with the intended target audience, as we only had one proper testing session. This made me realize the importance of preparing for testing early on, or at least finding other similar TA members that could indicate whether the project was going in the right direction.

Nevertheless, this remains one of the most interesting projects that I have worked on during my studies.

What is it?

A simulation of a clinical office space, where players (who have specific phobias) can progress through rooms with increasingly more realistic depictions of things that trigger their phobia. The contents of the rooms include a monitor showing still images of spiders, a static cartoonish 3D model of a spider, a terrarium with an animated spider inside.

What was its purpose?

The product was intended as proof of concept for computerized exposure treatment of specific phobias, in this case - arachnophobia. The idea was that this prototype could be used alongside standard treatment processes, as it would provide measurable way for patients to progress. On top of that, the project is designed to be easily expandable by adding more rooms, and it is easily portable to Virtual Reality consoles for later stages of treatment.

What was my role?

This was an individual assignment, so I was responsible for handling all aspects of the project’s creation, such as:
- Conducting extensive desk research into specific phobias, exposure treatment, and various applied game methodologies, as well as interviews with psychologists.
- Establishing design requirements, objectives, and target audience specifications.
- Translating the research into tangible gameplay concepts and features, designing the in-game environment.
- Implementing all of those designs into Unity, as well as things to accommodate for the needs of the target audience (such as pop-up text that appeared in the User Interface, displaying tutorials or important information).

How long did it take?

One academic block - 8 weeks.

Extra:

One of the most interesting projects that I have worked on, and further established my interest in developing serious games. I also applied multiple things I have learned from previous projects (such as an adapted version of the wandering behaviour I had developed for the Automated Space Battle).

A great deal of consideration was put into the level and gameplay design as the intended target audience would not adept at playing video games.

What is it?

Third-person shooter game set within a post-apocalyptic setting following an outbreak of a deadly virus that changes people into mutated creatures.

What was its purpose?

This assignment was created for a Game Design elective course, where we were supposed to come up with a game idea of our own, and once it was designed to create a proof of concept with Unity engine.

What was my role?

This was an individual assignment, so I was responsible for handling all aspects of the project’s creation, such as:
- Conducting market research and competitive analysis.
- Establishing design requirements, concepts, and thoroughly filling out a GDD.
- Designing the environment and encounters for the particular prototype.
- Implementing its functionality within Unity engine with the use of assets from my Unity library.
- Testing, iterating on the designs, and balancing the difficulty of the encounters.

How long did it take?

One academic block - 8 weeks.

Extra:

One of the main things that I learned while developing this project was the importance of a properly structured Game Design Document. Since then, I have always had a GDD to accompany the development of any given project.

What is it?

A Virtual Reality experience that depicts the life of a teenage boy in the Netherlands, exploring different environments such as his home or his school.

What was its purpose?

This assignment was meant of a particular client (the Groningen Police Department), as they had been made aware of the alarming trend of more teenagers carrying knives with them. The client wanted to better understand some of the factors that contributed to the issue, as at the time they attributed it to a particular style of music within the Netherlands popularized the idea of carrying knives.

What was my role?

This was a group assignment, and some of the tasks that I had that I contributed with include:
- Conducting extensive desk research, as well as interviews with people familiar to the topic.
- Keeping an open line of communication with the client to ensure they are up to date with any new developments.
- Designing the in-game environment for the players to interact within Virtual Reality, and then building it within Unity engine with the use of owned assets.
- Implementing the functionality of the dialogue system that the user could interact with within the game, allowing them to change the outcome of a conversation by selecting different dialogue options.

How long did it take?

One academic block - 8 weeks.

Extra:

This was the very first serious game project that I have worked on, and the research stage for it took substantially longer than any previous one. However, it already gave me a first-hand experience as to how games can be more than just a means for entertainment.

What is it?

A third-person survival game with tower defense and resource gathering elements.

What was its purpose?

For this group assignment, we were meant to come up with an original and innovative game concept, and to develop a proper “vertical slice” as a proof of concept to be presented at the end of the development cycle.

What was my role?

This was a group assignment, and I had the role of one of two developers within the team. Some of the tasks that I worked on include:
- Creating player various functionalities such as moving, shooting, and a health system.
- Developing a simple enemy AI that used State Machine to switch between several behaviours depending on how far away it was from the player: wander or follow path, chase, and attack.
- Develop the combat system, where the player could even deal double damage if they shot an enemy in the head.
- Develop a functional day and night cycle, which spawned waves of enemies after a certain time from pre-designated spawning locations.
- Ensure that players and enemies are fully animated and had a wide range of animations to correspond to the current state of the given entity (movement, attack, death, etc.).
- Implementing various VFX for different interactions (e.g. blood splatter on damaging an enemy).

How long did it take?

One academic semester - 20 weeks.

Extra:

Although I prefer designing the different aspects of a game more than I do only programing them, it was still quite enjoyable when I was able to get something to work. I specifically put myself in the role of a developer as I did not have that much experience with programming at the time and I wanted to improve myself.

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What is it?

A recreation of the classic game Tetris.

What was its purpose?

I wanted to get a better understanding of programming fundamentals, and I wanted to become more familiar with working within Unity engine.

What was my role?

This was an individual project, and I followed a course on Udemy in order to complete it.

How long did it take?

This project took approximately one week to develop as it didn't require any prior research or concepting.

What is it?

A rhythm-based game that used a Bluetooth connected Rubik’s cube as an input device.

What was its purpose?

The idea was to develop a product that presents the user with the option to experience something while using a non-standard input device (something different from a keyboard and mouse or a controller). With our concept we intended to teach the players the basic algorithms for solving a Rubik’s cube through constant repetition of movements that matched the notes of a soundtrack.

What was my role?

Taking part in a team of two people, my task was to design the various aspects of the game such as the game mechanics, the music sequences, and the User Interface, while my teammate dealt with the functional part of the project and the connection of the smart Rubik’s cube to the Unity project.

How long did it take?

One academic block - 8 weeks.

What is it?

A functioning Tarot deck that can draw up to five random cards and display relevant information about it.

What was its purpose?

This project was intended to help me learn more about programming and working within Unity engine. Around that time, I had the idea of using a Tarot deck of cards as a storytelling tool for TTRPG sessions, where the cards would either tell a story or would have some sort of an effect. I decided to try and create this deck of cards in Unity with the use of information that I taught myself from the documentation or random YouTube tutorials.

What was my role?

This was an individual project, and I adapted information I gathered from multiple online Unity courses to achieve the functionality of the deck that I was looking for.

How long did it take?

This project took approximately two weeks to complete.

What is it?

Infinite scrolling arcade shooter where the player aims to survive for as long as possible against waves of randomly spawning enemies.

What was its purpose?

We were meant to develop a full minigame that would take inspiration from another source yet would improve upon it or change it in some way. The project I developed was heavily inspired by retro arcade games, but the difference in my case was that I implemented an element of randomness to the way that waves spawned. It meant that no two runs would be the same, so players could not learn a specific pattern in order to have the highest score possible.

What was my role?

This was an individual assignment, and as such I was the one to come up with the concept, conduct research into prospective target audiences, and fully develop the project with the use of C# within Unity Engine.

How long did it take?

One academic block - 8 weeks.

What is it?

An automatic spaceship battle, that pitted several simple AI ships against each other.

What was its purpose?

This assignment was created for a Programming elective course, teaching us more about the use of State Machines and C# fundamentals.

What was my role?

This was a group assignment, where we came up with the project concept together, and then implemented several shared functionalities:
- A health system for each ship up to 100 points, and the higher the ship’s current health was, the slower it moved.
- A system that spawned healing packs at fixed locations on the map.
- A functionality that fired a projectile towards the closest enemy detected, damaging it on impact.
- A looping map, where if the ship went all the way to the left side of the screen, it would then seamlessly transition them on the right side.
- A “wandering” behaviour that made the ships randomly explore the space around them until they detected an enemy.

I was the one to develop the final shared functionality of randomly navigating the “galaxy”. On top of that, each group member was supposed to further develop the behaviour of their own spaceship. In my case, this involved making it so that the ship disengaged from combat when its health was low enough, and to seek out the nearest healing pack for repairs.

How long did it take?

One academic block - 8 weeks.

Extra:

I opted to work on this elective course as I wanted to improve my programming skills. Since then I have worked with states on another project (Hexcraft Tower Defense), where I created the enemies that spawned at night.

What is it?

A 2D narrative based game, where the player tries to reveal an NPC that is secretly an alien posing as a human.

What was its purpose?

This was a University assignment that aimed to teach us more about different cultures and avoiding stereotypes within our work. This was based on the concept of the Cultural Iceberg, and we were meant to familiarize ourselves with the hidden, deeper levels of a culture of our choice. The findings were subsequently implemented within Unity engine as a digital interactive prototype.

What was my role?

This was a group project, and my tasks mainly revolved around the following:
- Conducting extensive desk research about different aspects of a specific culture.
- Designing different NPCs for the player to interact with.
- Writing dialogue for each NPC with branching outcomes depending on the player’s choices.

How long did it take?

One academic block - 8 weeks.

What is it?

Players run through a haunted forest, collecting coins, and try to avoid colliding with any ghosts that get in their way.

What was its purpose?

The primary purpose of this course was to teach us how to identify core gameplay components, and how to effectively apply them ourselves.

What was my role?

This was an individual project. I re-designed the minigame, created all the pixel assets with the use of Photoshop, and implemented the functionality in Game Maker Studio.

How long did it take?

One academic block - 8 weeks.

Extra:

As all of the assets used in the game had to be made by hand and I had no prior experience with making pixel art assets, I had to research multiple online tutorials. Although I haven't had to make any pixel assets since then, it was fun to learn something so different for me at the time.

What is it?

A cooperative 2D top-down game which let two players simultaneously explore a mountain environment and try to avoid enemies.

What was its purpose?

The very first game-related prototype that was developed for university, and in this case the assignment was to explore how the concept of emergence became present within video games. Our group focused on incorporating multiplayer within the game as a way of creating a different experience for each playthrough.

What was my role?

This was a group project, where I was primarily tasked with designing and building the environment of the game within Game Maker Studio and I relied on tilemaps to do so.

How long did it take?

One academic block - 8 weeks.