Cannon Brawl is a game I worked on for FUSE in late 2021 and early 2022. FUSE is an event for Bradley University students to create and display work as exhibits at the Riverfront Museum in Peoria, Illinois. Cannon Brawl is a two player versus experience built for a large touch screen table where players compete for victory by shooting cannons at each other's ships. I was on a team of three developing the game's UX/UI.
My Process
Like many games created for FUSE, this game is supposed to be a very quick experience. Therefore, I kept simplicity in mind when thinking of ways to convey information to the player. Health of the ships, time remaining, and player ability (through various power-ups) were focal points during UX development. I worked mainly on user flow and the tutorial, both of which were crucial for our wide audience of museum-goers.
This game went on to win Volition's Design Award for Galactic Excellence.
Cumulo-Madness is a game that was developed in 2 weeks for a rapid prototyping class. In this arcade-style shoot 'em up, players take the role of a child, Conny, having a nightmare. In his nightmare, evil clouds are trying to attack him in his hot air balloon, and the player is tasked with shooting them down with a slingshot. I was on a team of 5 developing this game.
My Process
As the one who hatched the idea for Cumulo-Madness, I was passionate about seeing my vision for the game come to fruition. I designed the title screen, credits screen, and tutorial screen in a way that gives the feel of a dream. I also designed certain assets for the game such as the logo and the sanity meter. Functioning as the player's HP, the sanity meter portrays Conny's fear rising as he gets hit and the bar decreases. His terror is also seen as the clouds he is shooting get more horrifying as he is hit. Subtle storytelling and theming were my main concerns when designing Cumulo-Madness.
Banana Split is a game that was developed in 2 weeks for a rapid prototyping class. In Banana Split, the player controls two halves of a banana character that have split and are trying to join back together. This is achieved through pushing crates and pressing buttons to solve puzzles so that the two banana halves can reach each other. I was on a team of 5 developing this game.
My Process
My main contributions to Banana Split were the title and credits screens as well as various art assets. My goal was to give the game its feel; we were going for a decrepit laboratory overgrown with jungle plants. I made many of the plants tropical and fantasy-like, to play into the oddness of the player character being two halves of a banana. I also created rust and leaking water for the background walls to add to the forgotten theme. Though the setting is heavily stylized, how this story may relate to the banana is left up to interpretation. A science experiment gone wrong, perhaps? Or, a wild banana escaping into the only shelter he could find? When designing for this game, these themes of mystery, fantasy, and comedy were strong in my mind.
David's Tye Dyeria was developed for IndieCade's 2023 Hidden Heroes game jam. Developed in a weekend, this game is based around David Abzug, one of the lovely game design professors at Bradley University. Because of his love for tie dye, this game was created with the premise of creating different kinds of tie dye shirts. The player is tasked with creating shirts based on the specific instructions on color, pattern, and creation method that David gives. I was on a team of 4 developing this game.
My Process
The point of this game jam was to create a game based on a family member, teacher, caretaker, or other mentor. Because our team couldn't think of one, I brought up that maybe we should make a game about our collective mentor, David Abzug, and have him make tie dye shirts. This idea was agreed upon. Due to this as well as this experience being my first game jam, I was very dedicated to the project. I created nearly every art asset, as well as every UI asset. I also gave ideation on how the gameplay experience should flow, as well as art direction. Our team thought it would be funny to include real images of David throughout the game, and because of this the game developed a multimedia style. This theme reminded me of an art collage, so much of what I designed was represented through paper and pin board style buttons. This developed further as the font design married the tie dye and collage idea into colorful, bubbly letters.
Fortissimetal was a game developed for Bradley University's FUSE of April 2023. It is a one versus three rhythm game where all players use guitar controllers to attack. The lone player acts like a boss and has generally more power, but the group of three has strength in numbers. A sabotage system that disrupts the team of three spices up the typical game flow and allows for some strategy and variance. I was a member of the UI/UX team.
My Process
My biggest contribution was designing the game's pop-up banner (below). I wanted this banner, standing at 82 inches tall, to act as a sort of advertisement for the game - a piece that captures the style of the game while enticing onlookers to come give it a try. I also helped dictate the overall gameplay flow of Fortissimetal, including its visual cues, tutorial, and testing. Knowing that FUSE is an event for all audiences, and that this game was a flurry of unconventional control schemes, our user experience team of four was crucial in making sure our game was a success.
Forklift Monkeys was a game developed for Bradley University's FUSE of April 2023. It was a four player free-for-all where the goal was for each player, a monkey driving a forklift, to knock as many other players off of the stage as possible. Played in third person with a steering wheel controller, the game's goal was to be a chaotic party game aimed towards a younger audience. I was a member of the UX/UI team.
My Process
In the early stages of UI development, I helped create a basic layout of how the main gameplay screen will look. Using Mario Kart as a reference, a progression of the main gameplay screen's UI is shown below. A large focus for me was fine-tuning player feedback; providing emphasis on sound effects and visuals to convey what is happening to the player has been key during development. I also thought of and helped design our leaderboard (right). Since Forklift Monkeys was designed for FUSE, I wanted our younger players to be completely immersed in our experience. During the showing, I was in charge of updating our live leaderboard, which many children greatly enjoyed as it sparked their competitive nature.
R. 3. Racer (or R3R) is a single player racing game where the player races through a total of five tracks. We've had one semester to complete development for this game. The game centers around an R.C. car in a child's bedroom, racing around whimsical and toy-like tracks. R. 3. Racer's core mechanic is that the car can transform into an ice-mobile and a drone to traverse ice and fly.
My Process
It has proven slightly difficult to master tying the feel of an action-packed racing game with our toy box aesthetic. In making the UI, I have focused mainly on the former with bright reds and oranges and sharp angles. I have also done a fair bit of 2D art for this game because our other artists are exclusively 3D.
GAMES IN PROGRESS
'Pus the cat started as an idea over dinner about what my roommate's Dungeons and Dragons character should be. I suggested an octopus who, in a past life, was an orange cat. This octopus, despite being completely different physically, still wholeheartedly believes he is still the cat he once was. His name is 'Pus, and the idea of the game was to have the player play as an octopus but complete cat-like tasks, such as knocking over a cup or sleeping in a cozy pet bed. The game's selling point was to be its humor and its odd control scheme, similar to Octodad or I am Bread.
My Process
In the early stages of UI development, so far I have created a mood board for the project and a rough layout of what gameplay menus will look like. Doing this, I prioritize the humor and feel of the original idea, mixing fur with squishiness.
Project Lost Water
Project Lost Water is my current senior capstone project. We have continued development into the summer of 2024. As a team of twenty-five, we have been striving to create a tense movement shooter game set in a cyberpunk dystopia. I am the UX/UI lead on our team.
My Process
Diegetic UI has been the name of the game for Project Lost Water. As a movement shooter, we have one unique pistol and three unique traversal weapons planned at this point in time. To avoid overloading the player with bars, cooldowns, and timers, I have been incorporating vital information into the tools and weapons themselves as much as possible. For example, our Dash Tool (a crescent shaped blade that enables the player character to dash forward and do damage) has a cooldown to of course balance the game's combat. This cooldown is demonstrated as a glow or dim effect on the blade itself rather than a tacky bar in the bottom corner of the screen. Another example is that our main weapon, a pistol, has a momentum mechanic. The faster the player is moving, the more damage bullets do when they are shot. The velocity of the player is intended to be shown as actual glowing parts of the pistol model. This diegetic UI has been a blast to work with. It is new to me, but it is plainly evident how this style immerses the player and aids our worldbuilding (which is a major goal of this project).
Untitled Petunia Game
This game is very much still in its ideation phase. Thought up by my roommate and myself, we wanted to create a visual novel romance game with shop keeping and flower growing mechanics. We wanted to create this to show off our writing and artistic skills, as well as deviate from our norm.