A psychedelic survival horror game that focuses on a ritual gone wrong during a spiritual retreat. Published by Prime Matter and developed by Brass Token. My role on this project was working as a Game Designer.
While a part of this project, I had a hand in a lot of different aspects of the game and had many jobs I was given lead on. I designed the layout, function, and puzzles of some key locations in the game as well as some side areas such as the Commune Farm, the Wretcher Arena, and the Saw Mill. My goal and focus was to create engaging designs that allowed for multiple routes for the player to travel, creating a more dynamic landscape and experience for the player. I wanted players to feel as though their exploration of the world was rewarded, but also experience different encounters or challenges based on the routes they take. Additionally, I designed locations and events that used environmental storytelling to pique the player’s interest in the background story and history of the island and its inhabitants. Helping design lore notes that would offer hints to items or resources while also coming across as genuine and diegetic or using objects and the environment to allow the player to recreate the events that took place in their imagination.
I designed some encounters in the game and was one of the main editors of enemy pathing. This allowed me to create unique challenges and fights that would combine different enemies and skill sets to pose distinctive challenges, both challenging the player and encouraging different lines of thinking or weighing the risk/reward of certain encounters. This posed an interesting challenge to me as I had to plan out routes enemies would naturally take, ambushes that made sense but weren’t always predictable, and the different parameters that dictated when an enemy would continue the chase and when they would return to their original paths.
I was placed in charge of streaming levels and collision implementation throughout the entire game. This was a large responsibility as it required me to take many other considerations into account such as optimization, enemy pathing, how the camera interacts with the environment, as well as creating a playable space where the world seamlessly streams in and out outside of the user’s view.
Outside of organization and desgin, I also assisted with some motion capture for the main character and the Ram Cultist enemy. With previous experience in acting work, I loved the chance to embody some of the characters that I was working with and be a part of the design process in multiple aspects. I recorded multiple attacking and idle animations for Jess as well as all the animations that you see from the Ram Cultists throughout the game. It was a fun chance to be able to do this work, then go into the editor and say “Alright, I’ll put down 3 of me here, and one of this enemy”.
Being able to work on this game was monumental learning experience for me. It offered the chance to work with an amazing group of skilled designers who helped me and mentored me develop many of the skills. It allowed for a unique opportunity to collaborate on ideas and build off each other’s ideas to create a more engaging experience.
I gained experience developing spaces and environments that could offer more opportunities for the player to interact or define their own experience. I learned more about how to grab a player’s attention and help direct them around an environment using the environment itself, items and resources, or using enemies to guide the player through a level. My technical skills in Unreal Engine allowed me to learn and improve my work in blueprinting events, dialogue, enemy encounters, and progression work. This allowed me to contribute further to the project has opened up new avenues in my own work.
An Avatar created using Autodesk Character Generator for a Directed Studies at Simon Fraser University where I designed a human avatar for an AI assistance. Alongside the avatar, I worked in a team to design a variety of animations in Maya for when the AI listens, thinks, and responds to the user. The avatar runs using Unity.
I was invited to the Directed Studies by Professor Steve Dipaola and PHD candidate Servet Ulas to join their group for two semesters to assist with their project. In the first semester, I used my skills in Maya to create animations for the Avatar. In the second semester I led the next group, helped organize the tasks and divvy out the work. I also assisted with creating more animations and create the Avatar above.
This cosplay model was a final project for IAT 336 Material in Design, where the focus was creating physical models using various different techniques and materials. My role in this project was to design and print the Helmet and Blasters. The designing of the helmet and blasters was done in Maya and was printing in PLA+ using an Ender 3 3D printer.
I had a lot of fun designing this project as it allowed me to do something new with Maya that I hadn’t done before. I was able to create a full object, divide it into sections and be able to create custom connectors and clips that kept the entire project together. I did this by creating protrusions from certian pieces that would fit in correspodning holes in the connecting pieces, or using a clip that would snap into place when insterted into its slot but is still removable. This technique allows the helmet to remain as a whole piece, but the back is able to be removed so the wearer can remove it. I loved being able to use Maya in this project in a new way, carefully designing the piece so that it wouldn’t just look visually appealing, but also being something wearable.
