Prototype Developer – Strata
“Strata” is a unique and innovative Unreal 5 application that I created for my interactive and performance art client. “Topography” uses this technology and techniques in documentary film and interactive media to explore a set of overlapping philosophies of land-use in the area in a particular region in South Dakota in and around the Badlands National Park. Ultimately, this project will include a feature length documentary film, an installation at a major interactive festival, and series of performances, some of which are already underway.
As the prototype developer, I worked with project directors to create prototypes proving out the concept, visuals, and mechanics of the experience. I imported and optimized motion capture data and photogrammetry scans. I also developed custom shaders for environmental features and created several camera controllers that utilize a live-streaming toolkit. I built the user interface for performers to use, where they can select and customize key values and content elements in real-time.
In the latest phase, I collaborated with project directors to create prototypes for interactive technical installations adaptable for any setting or structure. I worked with Unreal virtual production tools allowing for real-time features in conjunction with needed assets and effects on the project to be conveyed in real-world spaces. I also designed tools for recording both media and audio outputs from Unreal for use in installations.
Gameplay Engineer – XLA Metasites
“Metasites is a modular 3D internet framework built by XLA, that provides individual creators with the capacity to deploy their Unreal Engine-built content and connect it to the XLA ecosystem of features and services. The presentation revealed high fidelity graphics core experience, instant access to the system in the cloud through the browser, OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 integration powering non-active characters and their behavior, virtual assistant IVEE, ability to semantically analyze text and generate 3D scenes in UE5 and many other features.” – Alexey Savchenko, XLA Chief Product Office
On the project, my main focus was developing a custom Plugin in Unreal 5 to handle all the information between our company’s propriety event-driven distributed game server for asynchronous games and the XLA’s Unreal client. The plugin was engineered specifically to give tools to developers to access critical mechanics required for making and running different Metasites. I worked on the quest handler, game AI behavior (including conversations, spawning, movement, and actions), an abstract inventory manager, and player tracking. All of these features required work both on the plugin in Unreal C++ and blueprints, as well as network code on the game server.
Gameplay Engineer – Unannounced Project
This unannounced project was a completed AI role-playing VR game prototype made for a major tech firm in Unity.
My main responsibility on this project was the procedural map generation, which required creating systems on both the company’s game server in JavaScript and the Unity client in C#. On the game server, I developed the map generator which handled creation of the maps from generated data in 2 different map scales. Using traditional procgen techniques combined with an AI generated art overlay API, this system created consistent maps that matched the desired gameplay and artistic goals of the prototype whenever a new procedural instance was made. I also dealt with storing the data in an accessible and compact fashion on the server. On the Unity Client, I programmed the functionalities to receive and display the data and handled the gameplay aspects of the map. I also created a tool in Unity to store and assign the relevant prototype’s art per each procedural instance. Finally, I created technical art and game transition states in regard to the map in game.