Goosthetic
Goosthetic
Implemented the main menu, options menu, pause menu, scoreboard, and HUD in a back-and-forth collaboration with the UX Designer, balancing juicy UX aesthetics with technical feasibility within sprint constraints.
Built a modular, flexible UI framework in Unreal Engine using Blueprints, streamlining iteration and debugging for all in-game widgets.
Empowered the UI Artist and UI/UX Designer by mentoring them on Unreal Motion Graphics, distributing implementation duties, and accelerating development.
Developed a lightweight CSV parser to efficiently serialize and deserialize saved high scores, powering a scoreboard widget that enhances the competitive high score design pillar of the game.
Integrated Wwise into Unreal Engine alongside the Audio Engineer, crafting a dynamic sound manager to handle music and SFX events with precision.
Designed a stack-based UI controller to manage all interactable game UI. The system provided an easy framework for widgets to communicate with each other as well as other actors in the scene. The architecture proved very useful for the other programmers and designers, and streamlined UI/UX development.
Implemented full support for the options menu (including Video, Audio, Accessibility, and Controls). Built a system for saving and reverting options changes, integrated with a game singleton to adjust Unreal Engine settings based on player preferences.
Programmed several dynamic assets for the in-game HUD, such as score popups, an expanding smart pistol reticle, dash bars, the Slimetime progress bar, and item pickup fanfare. Designed these assets to include adjustable variables and animations, empowering the UX designer to fine-tune visual effects while ensuring clarity in fast-paced gameplay.
Participated in regular meetings with our team of 6 programmers, leading weekly code reviews, discussing progress on the game, and evaluating current goals for the sprint. This brought the tech team closer together, resulting in a better understanding of where the game stood and what tasks needed to be completed week-by-week.
Directed the UI/UX strike team, coordinating tasks between the UX designer and artist to ensure efficient workflow and continuous iteration on all UI elements.
Worked closely with the art and design leads, ensuring that in-progress prototypes of the UI met both aesthetic and functional requirements. I also had the privilege of collaborating with the UR specialist to revise and iterate the in game UI according to eye tracking and playtesting data.
Engineered the backend architecture for the game's scoreboard, which tracks and displays completion times. This system handled writing player names and times to a local CSV file, sorting the top ten results, then reading the data back in to dynamically create UI widgets for each entry.
Developed a custom CSV reader tailored to this project's needs, providing a more flexible alternative to existing Unreal Blueprint CSV plugins. This method proved a very user-friendly and valuable tool for the UI/UX strike team, streamlining scoreboard development and iteration.
Implemented the FMOD core library into the custom engine, utilizing C++ functionality to refactor my old implementation and make the game more performant.
Developed a robust logging and telemetry system to write in game messages to a trace log, significantly streamlining the debugging process.
Built a UI system backend using OpenGL allowing buttons to trigger callbacks and send custom signals upon interaction.
Scripted custom behaviors in Lua managing all in-game UI, such as the main menu, options menu, and HUD.
Designed and edited JSON files to customize the deserialized level states and menu layouts.
Implemented the FreeType software library to render custom fonts and text efficiently, ensuring high-quality, programmatically generated in-game typography.
Developed the main menu gamestate, as well as transitions between play and options states within the game engine's state machine
Created reusable, modular button objects with flexable behaviors for use across the main menu and pause screen.
Implemented the FMOD core library into the custom engine, enabling efficient loading and playing of sound effects, as well as streaming music tracks directly from a file.
Took on sprite art responsibilities for level tiles, stepping up as the primary artist in the absence of a dedicated art team.