Navigating My Programming Career: Insights From University
I had a University module where I could research how I want to progress my career. This allowed me to learn about all the different pathways a programmer can take.
Posts about game development, mentoring, talks and my career.
I had a University module where I could research how I want to progress my career. This allowed me to learn about all the different pathways a programmer can take.
From some research, learning about build tools and graphics libraries is beneficial for my future roles in the games industry. This was a University assignment.
For one of my University modules, I worked with a group to pitch a game idea. Experience in pitching gave me a different perspective on game development as a whole.
I attended West Coventry Academy to represent Sumo Digital. I helped run a game pitch day with some colleagues.
I attended #GirlsTechWM 2022 to represent Sumo Digital. I helped run a game dev workshop with 2 colleagues, and did a talk for ~160 secondary school-aged students about how they can use their current school subjects to help them start up a portfolio for the Tech Industry.
After working on his prophunt game for a while, Thomas wanted to try out different game ideas, and so I helped him with making some of his own FPS Gamejam Games inspired by some games he enjoyed playing!
In August, I started my year-long placement at Sumo Leamington, and in that time, I’ve learned and done so much at work!
I’ve been mentoring Thomas in Games Development, and his next step after making his GDD was designing! I helped him with this process and in this blog, I talk about his work.
I got invited back to my old college to talk to students studying Games Development at an industry day, this talk was a few months after my first talk, so I was able to reflect upon my speaking and presentation from then.
Pathfinding algorithms have always been something which interests me, and so I decided to make myself a pathfinding tool!
I delivered a talk to students in my old high school, this was my first time talking in front of a large audience in person, as up to this point, a lot of the stuff I had done was online due to covid!
In this blog, I talk about my process of setting up a games development course for a student I've began mentoring 1 to 1, and the process of helping him make a design document for a game which he wants to make.
Back in July, I volunteered at Into Games to help a group of students with project management for designing and prototyping a mining game loop. This was my first ever mentoring experience.
Shortly after volunteering to mentor at an Into Games event, I had found an opportunity to help students solve any problems with programming in a Gamejam using Twine, which is a tool I’ve not used before!
I was given the opportunity to work on engine programming for Old School RuneScape's C++ Client, this helped me learn lots about how game engines work.
One morning, I woke up to an email titled 'Welcome to Jagex Games Studio' - I could barely believe it!
This blog will compare and define the games Resident Evil 4, (2005) and Twilight Princess, (2006), and their respective genres.
This project helped me learn so much, in this final evaluation, I look through what I've learnt over the 8 weeks of working on Beat City.
This is where I was wrapping up everything. I implemented SFX, and Save Data, as well as making some 2D art for a final UI update, and then making a stable build, as well as advertisements and setting up the itch.io page for the game.
I have got song functionality/song selection working, and I have also concepted and created a death screen, as well as other small UI improvements.
I have been carrying on my work on the user interface for the game, making menus functional, as well as a proper gameplay loop with UI.
I've been working on the UI for the game, in particular, the score and combo system, creating a fire shader to tie into this combo system. I also investigated a mobile version of the game.
I added in lose conditions, scoring and combo systems, as well as visual changes like creating a shader which makes buildings crack!
I have adjusted the city model so it scales nicer from its pivot point, I fixed some bugs, and I made a sun shader, as well as a few other things.
I go through my production plans, some music I've made, sketches I've done, shaders I've made in Unity, code for audio visualisation, and finally some 3D modelling.
This is the specific research I have gathered for my game, Beat City. Youtube videos which I have studied on the topics of game mechanics an audio visualization.
This is my proposal for my Beat City project. Talking about my outline for the project, a plan of what I want to include and create, my workflow and presentation.
I write about the initial ideas I have for my Beat City project. The different engines I can use, and approached I can take to fit the theme.
In this blog I research the history, themes and aesthetics of Cyberpunk to help me develop my game, Beat City.
My final evaluation for Western Runner, reflecting on how the game met my audience's needs, how research informed development, and what I learnt.
A video presentation of my finished game, Western Runner, walking through the final product.
I tackle jump pads, lane movement, a health system, collectibles, spawning/despawning, UI, animation, mobile packaging, scoring, menus, sound and cutscenes.
I began prototyping the gameplay mechanics for my endless runner game, Western Runner.
For my planning, I thought it would be a good idea to make some flow diagrams of how I roughly want my code to work out.
This is my level planning, I drew out some level plans, and done some research into the assets I can use for the environment.
I have come up with three ideas, and I have researched into how I can make them, and how they would meet my audiences needs.
I research the history, environments, tv shows, films and games around the theme of 'Western'
My final evaluation for Perennial Garden - how it links to the theme of Forgotten, what changed from my proposal, what I learnt, and a look back at all my peer feedback.
A round-up of three peer reviews on my mind map, prototypes and combat, plus feedback from my tutor Rob.
My full development log for Perennial Garden - start menu art and animation, piano-based music, dialogue, health bars, a dungeon, lighting, post-processing and a basic combat system.
I design health bar concepts, a logo, three original piano themes, character headshots and a start screen, then get my first UI prototypes and a change-sprite mechanic working in Unity.
I dig into UI heuristics, flower reference for my characters, Unity tutorials for combat/menus/dialogue/sound, my own screenshots of games with great UI, and exhibition presentation research.
My final major project proposal, reviewing what I've learnt on the course so far and pitching a UI/UX-focused game about personified flowers fighting off weeds.
I pitch four ideas mixing War, Legends, Robots, Ruins and Plants, then pick a UI/UX-focused personified-plant idea as my final concept.
I research the theme 'Forgotten' through word association and mind maps, narrowing down to Ruins, Plants, Religion, Legends, War and Robots as potential directions.
My final evaluation for Lemonade, reflecting on my research, what I learnt about Unity, sound and graphics, and how peer and tutor feedback shaped the project.
My week-by-week dev log for Lemonade, covering concept art, sprites, UI, colour theory, sound, and the win/lose screens across all 9 weeks of production.
I research what visual production means in games using NieR: Automata's UI as an example, then explore isometric art, plan my UI and HUD against references like Ace Combat, flow diagram the game's mechanics, and photobash concepts for the main menu.
My project proposal for Lemon & Lime, a bullet hell game about two tiny characters battling their way out of a fizzy lemonade bottle.
I pitch four initial game ideas - a nautical shooter, an isometric puzzle game, a bullet hell shooter and a music rhythm game - before settling on the bullet hell concept.
I mind map the nautical theme, research mood boards and game genres, set up my Trello board, research enemies/assets/music, break down interactivity and game mechanics with examples from Call of Duty, Fifa and World of Warcraft, and research diegetic vs non-diegetic sound.
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