What: VR Game Jam winning entry.
When: August 2021
Where: Online collaboration
Who: Me – Unity, C#, Source control, gamepaly systems, team lead
Worked with another developer who built “ratatouille” style in-game controller system, as well as 3D and 2D artists.
Why: Game jams are a great chance to stretch creativity and skillsets. I lead a team of developers and artists on a unique concept for a VR game in which you drive a human painter by moving hair combs through and around their hair with the goal of painting art.
How: Team collaboration through Discord. Standard Unity VR implementation with addition of a 2D sprite canvas imaging system to detect player accuracy and errors.
Paint by numbers with Rob Boss as a baby squirrel perched on this great painter’s head. Control his movements using his hair and create the next great Rob Boss masterpiece! Available for PC VR and Quest here.
Implementation Highlights
Paint-by-numbers player scoring system
Expanded on a Unity package allowing for realtime texture mapping in order to track changes made to an image and cross reference them with the intended image to score player efforts.
Crane-like character controller
Assisted fellow developer with implementation of a control scheme for players to move a secondary character’s arms via 6 degree of freedom in-game grabbable controls.
Helped reduce conflicts with physics systems and XR tracking input priority to present more believable rigging movement behavior to player.
Challenges
Prioritizing project goals vs. individual assignments
As our leading developer, it was necessary to give time to assist other team members with their blocking tasks as opposed to progressing my own. This resulted in a better finished product overall, even through ultimately some of my features had to be cut from the game.