Portfolio 01
Mostly solo projects, mostly combat. Everything playable below runs right here in the page. The itch.io pages are the source of truth if you would rather play there.
A combo-driven melee system built in Blueprints. Input buffering, animation canceling and cancel windows, defensive options, buff and damage-over-time systems, and telegraphed boss encounters.
The thing I care about here is feel. Frame data, startup and recovery, whether a cancel window is generous enough to reward reading an opponent without letting you mash. The video below is current progress, not a release.
A top-down action RPG with four playable classes, each with its own combat mechanics. Encounters are built so that a given fight wants a specific class mechanic, which means switching classes changes how you read a room rather than just changing your damage numbers.
I developed this live on stream while teaching. Students suggested designs and submitted assets, and a good number of both made it into the finished game.
A 2D puzzle platformer made for a jam on the theme "A Different Type of Combat." Every level is a self-contained puzzle rather than an execution test.
The pacing is the design work I am proudest of here. Each new rule gets introduced in a level where it is the only thing you can do, and then the next level asks you to use it under pressure. That is the same structure I use when I write a lesson.
What I actually do
Melee systems, character kit design, encounter and boss design. Input buffering, animation canceling, cancel windows, armor, guard crush, okizeme, telegraphing, buff and damage-over-time systems.
Startup, active, recovery, hitstun, blockstun, advantage. I can read a matchup and say why an option is safe, and tune it so it stops being safe.
Unreal Engine 5 in Blueprints with C++ study in progress, Unity with C#, and Construct 3 event sheets. Java background from earlier work.
My C++ goal is confident code reading and informed collaboration, not writing engine systems myself. I want to be the designer who can follow the conversation.