Hellsweeper VR (Mixed Realms)
Jan 2020 - CURRENT
I was appointed as the Game Lead for Hellsweeper VR and stepped up to be the Technical Lead as well. I designed and implemented the majority of the gameplay and supporting systems for the project.
In addition to leading the team of programmers and artists, I ensured strict quality control to produce a smooth workflow and to reduce wastage.
To prevent similar shortfalls and roadblocks encounter in the Sairento games, I had to plan for project scalability and avoid potential issues. One example would be the development of our own VR wrapper instead of using a commercially available plugin.
By creating our own wrapper early on, we were able build a stable codebase on the wrapper which allowed the team to easily add more platforms without having to edit any other code other than the wrapper. This could have easily been a roadblock in the future as button bindings might not be centralised and will require restructuring of the code that will make the codebase unnecessarily complex.
​
In addition to my stated roles, I have also coordinated with the marketing team as well as with external partners like our publishers and the respective platform owners. Communication between the various teams ensure a smooth delivery as well as to set achievable expectations to deliver a great game and to prevent burnout.
Sairento VR : Untethered (Mixed Realms)
FEB 2019 - DEC 2019
In 2019, I worked on the PS4 release of Sairento VR and also Sairento VR : Untethered on the Oculus Quest as a Game Programmer. My responsibilities were to port the game to the respective platforms and to add additional content post-launch.
​
One of my contributions to the project was the weapons that were added post-launch. While a brief concept of the weapon was given to me, I had full control over how the weapon function, its special features and implementation.
I also developed systems as well, like the Weapon XP system that is a completely new feature that is not present in the PC version. Additionally, I worked on the multiplayer side of the game when there is a lack of manpower and constantly optimised the code from after porting the PC version to Oculus Quest.
​
I felt that I had more control over my work as I am responsible from start to finish. I started the planning and design, implemented the mechanics and added the polish. It made my work consistent because it did not exchange hands too often.
Disney Epic Quest (goGame)
APR 2018 - DEC 2018
I was a Game Design Intern when I was working at goGame but I was treated like an actual Game Designer. I took part in meetings and made major level design decisions during production.
​
I worked on Disney Epic Quest for around 6 months. It was developed in Unity and my role was to design and implement the enemy AI behaviours and to input the level data. I also helped out in other technical areas like implementing the abilities for the playable heroes when there was a lack of manpower.
​
One of the issues that I faced was the lack of supporting programmers for my work. Many level mechanics that were planned ahead were not implemented due to time constraints for the programmers. Instead of relying on the programmers, I used the custom tools for creating AI to develop level mechanics, adding more flavour to the levels and also to reduce the workload of the programmers.
In addition to my role, I frequently opened up the code to help the programmers debug errors, pinpointing the errors to certain functions by reading the code. Even though I was capable of fixing the bugs, I was not allowed to make any changes due to my role as a Game Designer.