Summary
Successfully shipped an indie video game on Steam, achieving over 200,000 copies sold and 97% positive reviews from over 3,500 reviewers, earning an 'Overwhelmingly Positive' status. Awarded "Best Hobby Project" for the Game Development World Championship Summer 2024.
Objective
As a gameplay programmer for Grimhook, my objective was to deliver a thrilling and immersive player experience by crafting, optimizing, and integrating character abilities, UI, audio systems, and gameplay mechanics that seamlessly fuse together to create an engaging and action-packed adventure. My goal is to empower players with dynamic and responsive character abilities, enhance their engagement through an intuitive and visually appealing user interface, create an evocative audio experience, and ensure that the gameplay mechanics are not only enjoyable but also challenging. Through my contributions, I aim to captivate players and provide them with an unforgettable, heart-pounding journey through our game.
Role
Gameplay Programmer
Gameplay Mechanics Implementation
Grimhook used a combination of a grappling hook and special abilities for movement and combat to deliver a heart-pounding, dynamic player experience. These mechanics empower players, promote creative interaction with the game world, and challenge them to explore new possibilities. With responsive controls and strategic depth, we aimed to captivate players in a thrilling and dynamic adventure filled with action and excitement.
Grappling Hook System
Environmental Interaction: The system enables creative interaction with the environment. Players can latch onto specific points and enemies in the air to increase movement and navigate the levels.
Fluid Mechanics: The grappling hook mechanic provides seamless and responsive controls. The player can aim, attack, and use abilities tied to the grapple with precision, creating a sense of flow and control over the character's movements.
Grapple Before
Grapple After
Ability System
Ground Pound: This ability is a physics-driven maneuver, closely following the principles of parabolic motion. We wanted the ability to feel precise and effective, so we opted to use external curves to dictate the direction and speed of the player when the ability is initiated. This combined with visual and sound effects created a powerful and exciting ability to launch, stun, and "uninstantiate" enemies.
Summon: This ability allows the player to form a menacing tentacle from the ground, grab an enemy, and squeeze them in the air, stunning them and creating a point the player can grapple to. This introduces a strategic and crowd control element to combat. Players can effectively neutralize and isolate enemies, creating opportunities for attack or evasion.
Ground Pound Before
Ground Pound After
Project Management
For the first 2-3 months of the project I was responsible for both programming and project management, leading team meetings, keeping track of task assignments and completion, and handling onboarding of new team members. Luckily, we were able to hire an incredibly talented project manager for me to resume working fulltime on programming tasks. During this time period I learned how important it is to handle workloads, balance project scope, and communicate in a team. Since the start of the project, our small game jam team has grown from 6 members to a studio with almost 30 developers.
Here are some ways we stayed organized:
Weekly Meetings: Meeting as a whole team weekly was extremely helpful in keeping everyone on the same page regarding project scope, game direction, and opened communication between departments to resolve issues and track progress on tasks. We also made sure to meet within our departments on a regular basis and created a healthy workplace environment where all team members could feel comfortable communicating with each other.
