James Brown - Software Engineer

Additional Roles: Animation Implementation

A competitive skilled based wagering baseball game where players can bet and compete against each other to win real money. This was the first of a series of mobile games that Krome Studios developed for the developer GameTaco and was the first professional project where I was in charge of programming gameplay, UI and Animation Implementation. The project extensively employs a state machine to manage various gameplay states (such as batting and pitching) as this approach isolates gameplay code, making it simpler to switch between behaviors based on current conditions. Since all the biped models utilize the same rig, the animation controller I created I made have sub state machines for each of the different model types: batter, pitcher and fielder. This way on start up it would pick which sub statemachine to execute based on parameter values set on the prefab. This way not only made it a lot cleaner to set up and add new states for each model type, but also made it easier for others to understand.

Furthermore, I handled some UI implementation tasks, including the field diamond UI in the player’s hub that indicates loaded bases. I also implemented the pulsating batter art in the main menu. Both implementations were straightforward, utilizing Unity’s animation timelines and would be triggered through behavior scripts (for instance, the diamond UI animation triggers when a player arrives or leaves a base).

In conclusion, since this was the first real game project where I worked in a larger team, I was thankful for the experience I gained in collaborating with designers, artists, producers and other programmers both internal and external. My skills in communicating issues I had, assisting others In troubleshooting Git issues and helping other programmers resolve bugs have undoubtedly left me in a more advantageous position compared to when I initially joined the project