https://www.aldenmason.me/about-contact daily 0.75 2022-09-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/8e5ec2f3-e616-400a-8418-b50c2cc02b7a/grad+portrait+1.jpg About & Contact - About me My name is Alden Mason, a team driven Game Designer who wants to make games people can escape to. I specialize in gameplay mechanics and system design to create the most engaging experiences possible. I studied at Full Sail University and graduated with a B.S. of Computer Science in Video Game Design. I have experience working on projects in each type of modern media. From game design, podcasting, to web design, I’ve learned different ways to build an effective workflow specific to each project. These skills have taught me how to quickly and efficiently create and accomplish tasks for any project I work on. I learn more every day and further my skills to be able to stay up to date on the latest developments in the industry. https://www.aldenmason.me/resume daily 0.75 2022-09-06 https://www.aldenmason.me/work daily 1.0 2022-09-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/1653261183011-XXU2E7N1SCJRAKGESYPE/money.png Work https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/1653261183069-NYHSZXMC9L3JSUH08B0T/planets.png Work https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/1653261183734-BO3TYIB45JF3WD6TQGQ9/valeria.png Work https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/c6b71448-9cf5-4d3b-88f5-d3c38556f591/logo.jpg Work - Valeria Miner is a mobile idle game built in Unreal 5 using Blueprint Visual Scripting. My goal on this project is to learn more about Blueprint to execute complex equations. Researching and developing a simple idle mining game has taught me a lot more about both the language and the engine. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/50214a3a-906a-4e44-99fa-ebd606dfffd7/ssklogo.png Work - The mobile game Stalk. Scare. Kill. (abbreviated as SSK), is based directly off of the game the characters play in the movie, Stalk. Scare. Kill. A simple Cat chase mouse scenario with questions being asked and answered by players, to choose the road they go down. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/1653258606701-NQCUZGEIU5MND2T7XRE7/demographics.png Work https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/1653258606772-MHOJY62FJ2LHH5FYC05I/gamers.png Work https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/1653258609001-808EV7ONY6ITLX0WKW2O/mobile+gamers.png Work https://www.aldenmason.me/work/scraps-level monthly 0.5 2020-02-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/1580764387393-TU5RF8KGKWA7UQXUO7LV/gravnul+%26+door.png Work - Scraps - Warehouse Scavenging My level is a warehouse where the player has to collect wine and spirits to sell to the wealthy. These warehouse rooms are defended by the turrets. The doors are locked off of battery backups, these require the player to explore the warehouse rooms to find replacement batteries to open the doors to progress. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/1580765249894-PY9D03SDAW7JJ0ANFQDL/turret.jpg Work - Scraps - Turret Defenses The turrets have a limited range of vision and only scan within a 75 degree area in front of them. They have a barrel that swivels at that angle around the body . Pointing out the barrel, a raycast is used to find the specified Unity “player” tag on the player game object. When detected they lock onto the player and fire until the player is out of range. At range, the shots are slow enough to evade and can also be blocked by crates. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/fcd15d8b-2e43-4e00-b71d-a67af1ce27b8/Mason_Alden_BubbleDiagram+Scraps.png Work - Scraps - Level Diagrams I mapped out the level and it’s mechanics prior to building it in engine. Because of my preparation, level creation was streamlined and accomplished quickly. The diagram legend was universal for the team allowing easy collaboration when combining the levels for Scraps. https://www.aldenmason.me/work/space-force monthly 0.5 2022-05-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/4c0aa5e2-8d71-478e-8bcc-7c0775e4aeeb/serpantine+gameplay.jpg Work - Space Force - Enemies All enemies are children to a parent game object for each pre-built wave. The parent game objects contain the scripts and animations specific to each wave. As the player progresses the waves are selected randomly through an array and the spawn frequency increases. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/1653196586602-UPNCZ8KO9LKVXU7TPZZH/geese.png Work - Space Force - Enemy V Formation https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/1653196586681-EZX7T6AFU38KPJSUR2JM/impi+formation.png Work - Space Force - Impi Formation https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/1653196587281-RQ7VMQT524DY8KN0HFY5/wagon+wheel.png Work - Space Force - Wagon Wheel https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/1653197164834-INKVVI3O6INF7E7SUKC0/enemy+base.png Work - Space Force - Enemy Base https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/1653197119259-5IH4VDOUZUR0HBW3FX0B/homing+boss.png Work - Space Force - Homing Missile Boss https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/1653197119278-7FWTRQ4E3UBHTT0F39EX/laser+boss+scen+e.png Work - Space Force - Laser Boss https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/1653197119716-WSWONX0U14CQ4A6RWK32/space+lizarb+boss.png Work - Space Force - Space Lizard https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/1653197119775-ICA2XDT1VFCHCEBSKYXS/trojan+horse.png Work - Space Force - Horse Head Boss https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/e491040d-de06-4a77-a0f9-8edb2fd5d883/laser+boss.jpg Work - Space Force - Bosses Mechanics and weapons were designed exclusively for each boss. Designs range from typical space ship to a dragon or horse head. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/2c644a9f-0fb8-4dab-9b2f-d7953eec3eae/serpantine+gameplay.jpg Work - Space Force - Player Control Movement needed to be predictable but still represent the ship’s mass and movement in space. Floats had to be changed down to the hundredths to smooth the control properly. The weapon design spawns a bullet game object and the damage is calculated on the object it collides with. Variations of the gun or bullets were easily added with inheritance in C# and implemented into the power ups and the enemy weapons. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/ea2b195f-5c41-4a75-86c2-f23b12247f09/power+ups+in+scene.jpg Work - Space Force - Power Ups There are 6 power ups we implemented into the game. Additionally there is a health pickup to replenish lives. All of these have a chance to drop from the asteroids or mini bosses. The first three: splitshot, rapid fire, and giant bullet are all variations of the inherited bullet script. Whether it be a change to the fire rate float or which game object to spawn in place of the standard bullet, they all ran through the base bullet script. The nuke clears all game objects on the screen with the Unity tags “enemy,” “boss,” and “asteroid” and flashes an explosion overlay on screen. Shield puts a box around the players ship and disables the part of the script that handles damage and respawning for the player. Clone, as it says, puts two more ships around the player. They shoot alongside the main ship and also act as two extra lives. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/1580779468587-OIVBTZAI7EA7BEY7YTM3/SpaceForceScreenshot.png Work - Space Force - Working With Artists Artists were a big part of the team during the last month of the project. I gave them a very broad direction at the beginning and they came back with good work, but having not discussed proportions and sizes most of them had to be reworked. I learned a lot working with them, especially in the first few weeks. I now know how to phrase what I need done and how to explain or show reference for models or textures. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/9fb08970-b745-4899-8b3c-2e01b4f5d01f/main+menu.png Work - Space Force - UI and Menus I went through at least 15 iterations of the menu organization before settling on the current set up. I also scripted logarithmic volume sliders to allow for smoother adjustment compared to linear output. High scores get recorded with 3 characters and are saved to a text file, scores can then be viewed in the highscores menu. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/1653289773645-2ET6D9SJHTR9B7N7SN66/score+page.png Work - Space Force https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/1653289773366-KCQS50W58GSHEREOS7LI/serpantine+gameplay.png Work - Space Force https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/1653289776250-YOT9KK42DP9XJWBLLUC1/volume+control.png Work - Space Force https://www.aldenmason.me/work/adventures-bob monthly 0.5 2020-02-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/1580774673400-N00QLU9DEDOSB7ACBZPC/Annotation%2B2020-02-03%2B173842.jpg Work - The Adventures of Bob - World Rotation The world rotation took the most time out of this project. The camera loosely follows the player and will recenter on the player after movement stops or after a rotation. Smoothing out the recentering became very tedious. To prevent the player from outpacing the camera, we decided to use checkpoints that freeze the player and level to cinematically rotate and center the camera on the player. Adjusting the variables for rotation speed and pause length as well as the recentering speed took some time and a large amount of play testing. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/eeedc41a-230f-4e4c-98c9-6eadacb1b093/Annotation+2020-02-03+174115.jpg Work - The Adventures of Bob - Obstacles Each teammate contributed a unique level, all of them are fairly brief with varying mechanics and obstacles for each. On my own level, I added falling platforms that had a second delay before dropping. This was accomplished using a coroutine in C# to enable “isKenematic” in Unity’s physics, after a wait determined by a float, to allow the platform to drop with gravity. For a teammate’s level I helped add boulders their own platforming obstacles. The boulders ran our death script on collision which would wait a second before resetting the level. I wrote this script to disable player movement before resetting so that dying would be a less disorienting event. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e371c64fb55d36593a674b3/de07771f-88c8-4e3a-8eb7-ccf030a7424d/main+menu+bob.png Work - The Adventures of Bob - Splash Screen and Menus This project provided necessary practice for me to make functional UI elements for both the main menu and pause menu. Our team name was “Gravity Games” so I made a splash screen with an animated galaxy and our team name positioned just under the galaxy center.