I was responsible for the VR interactions throughout the game: making sure the controls were comfortable and immersive while keeping in mind that people might have different preferences, as well as adding interactions to all the objects in the environments so that the player can pick things up, poke them and not run directly through walls. I got to bring some more experimental features like vision tunneling into the game in an effort to reduce cybersickness. In short, the mind behind the VR player. I was also the project lead who handled most of the project management tasks, scheduling, planning, leading meetings, and generally just keeping everyone on task. However, I didn’t do it alone, I have the best team around me helping out every step of the way.
The brains behind the puzzles and the hand behind the 2D art, I worked behind the scenes throughout Fowl-Play's development. The contribution of mine that is the most visible are the posters scattered around the rooms of Aviary Laboratories, including those relevant to one of the first floor puzzles. Well, that and the narration the VR player gets to listen to. Background additions, such as the initial goose concept and artwork, the game poster, the trailer, and this very website were also created by me.
I had a hand in every part of the game! I was the brain behind the performance optimization, puzzle implementation, and Goose creation. I modeled the Goose from scratch and rigged the model to allow us to animate it. I also made the walk and idle animations, giving our test subject its dinosaur-like movements. I also lead the research and development of the main mechanic, multiple camera switching. This was a performance challenge since we are rendering 3 screens instead of your average 1 or 2 (two VR lenses and one PC screen).
I played the villain for this project, which is to say, my main role was AI programming. I spent my time on this project creating and refining the enemy AI so it could be threatening, yet still fair during gameplay. My other main task was implementing the desktop player view like the camera system and the email window. Beyond programming, I also implemented the desktop UI elements, test subject sound effects and a few of the animations for the test subject.
Every game needs set dressing, and I was the lead in asset collection, modification and creation. Finding relevant and similarly styled asset packs our team could use to build the world, modifying models to meet our specifications, and creating models for precise purposes within our game. I was also a large contributor to puzzle implementation, especially involving the randomization of puzzle elements.
