CAS 117 Projects
Space First Person Shooter
This project was the first 3D project that featured player interactivity, unlike the Solar System project which only featured a movable camera. The FPS project allowed me to take the game design and level design fundamentals I learned form the other projects and apply them to a linear FPS level. I was able to explore the impact of verticality in player experience. I also got to learn how Unity's navmesh system works for pathfinding algorithms. Considering that FPS games are a genre I am interested in developing projects for, this project was very useful for giving me an insight to how games of that genre are developed.
2d Platformer
The 2D Platformer project gave me the opportunity to add my own unique spin on the project, as aside from the sprites for the tileset and the basic 2D character controller, the rest was left to the students to complete. I was able to explore 2D level design and even learned advanced practices such as coroutines to add unique elements to the level, like a spike trap and timed puzzle section. I learned the most about developing and coding my own ideas in Unity from this project, and it has inspired me to focus on the level design and programming roles for my future projects.
Space Shooter
This was the first interactive project from CAS 117, and it consisted of a top down arcade shooter. This was the first project where I had to develop a player controller and enemy AI, which was an important process to learn. I coded an enemy AI that would slowly approach the player until the player was in close range before lunging at them and pursuing at a high speed. I also made a stationary "turret" style enemy that forced the player to hide behind cover and dart out when the turret's weapon was on cooldown. This project taught me how to use pointers to detect player position and how to make unique behavior for enemy AI.
Solar System
The Solar System project was the first introductory project for the CAS 117 course. It taught the basics of navigating the Unity window and explained the behavior of code with systems like parenting and the syntax of C#. The goal was to make a model of the solar system, and then add additional modifications. This project gave me a familiarity with Unity, and the modifications I made gave me a deeper understanding of 3D spatial audio and projectile physics within Unity.
High Concept Document
The High Concept Document was my honors option for this course, and it required me to make a high concept document for a hypothetical game project. This was a great way to see how game pitches are conducted in the industry, and it gave me experience with tailoring a game design document to a professional studio level. I was able to understand how game pitches are handled in a professional setting, and this document allowed me to create a game pitch with an industry standard level of quality.