After taking analog game design classes during my junior year, where I became educated in game design and theory, I began working in Unity and Processing to create games. I first worked in Unity3D, learning C# as I went, before taking classes in Processing and learning Java. Working in 2D made it easy to add my own pixel art to the games I've made.
If you're interested in seeing my game design documents, take a look at my "Writing" section.
Links: Website, Steam Greenlight
"Welcome to the stylishly minimal world of Zarvot, where cute tanks fight to the death for tomatoes and glory in voxel-brick arenas. Humor, friendship and colorful explosions abound in this stunningly designed, lighthearted local multiplayer game... Players fight with or against each other, crashing through destructible walls and duking it out with other players using finely-tuned tank cannons loaded with missiles and lasers. Up the ante by picking up power ups and level entire stages at a time!" ~ Snowhydra Games
Zarvot is a minimalistic action-shooter currently being developed by SnowHydra Games for the Nintendo Switch. During its final stretch of development, I was taken onto the project to design levels for Zarvot's new single-player mode, as well as to address any other programmatic and developmental tasks that may arise before launch.
While assisting in the development of Zarvot, I am under NDA. Once the project is finished, I'll update this space. Stay tuned!
Links: Incertidumbre
"Incertidumbre is a virtual reality game that investigates the sensibility of dislocation by presenting personal accounts from immigrants to the United States as well as individuals on the wrong side of gentrification." ~ Ricardo Miranda Zuniga, Incertidumbre
Incertidumbre is a virtual reality experience that aims to educate the player on the issue of gentrification and dislocation of various individuals in the United States. By using VR as a medium, players can gain a first-person, empathetic experience of what it is like living under uncertainty while hearing voices of real individuals who share their tales of cultural loss or dislocation.
Incertidumbre was developed in Unity using Google Daydream. The game was presented in Union Square Park, New York as a free VR experience for the "Art in Odd Places" public art exhibit.
Links: Mama Hawk Website
"Motherly love and killing animals; Being a single mom is tough, and sometimes you gotta get your talons dirty." ~ ComputerLunch
Mama Hawk is a side-scrolling adventure game about a hawk mother who has to feed her ever-growing brood of chicks. Using touch controls, players swipe their finger to control Mama, fly into animals to pick them up, and tap to drop newfound prey upon baby chicks. The varying worlds, animals, and objectives present puzzle-like challenges to the player. Players can upgrade Mama in the in-game store, helping them overcome these challenges.
Originally hired to assist with designing levels, ComputerLunch quickly converted me to a contract Game Designer and Developer, which gave me an opportunity to apply my scholastic knowledge out in the field. After programming AI behaviors for various animals, I switched gears to level and world design, which allowed me to express all of my programming, game design, and art knowledge over the years on a professional level. Wearing many hats was enjoyable and the support of my team helped me grow as a developer.
All of my worlds were placed into the final build of the game, including the animals I have made.
Links: Itch.Io
"Brave the Lonely" is an isometric role-playing game that explores player empathy towards game characters while also commenting on player desensitization. This is currently a work-in-progress project, created for my Master's thesis, with all art and design done by myself.
In Brave the Lonely, the player uncovers a secret world where abandoned game characters live on, previously rejected by their "Player" due to their "flaw". While a majority of their flaws were created due to their Player's neglect and carelessness, the game characters believe their flaw makes them incapable of being the heroes they were meant to be.
Due to a glitch in a save file, the old system began to flood with corruptions, tearing their world apart. Forests flew into space, enemies left their dungeons and, most importantly, the game cannot be beaten.
The game was discarded and eventually made it's way to your game store as a trade-in. Since all trade-ins must be play tested before they are resold, you offered to take the game home to see if it can be salvaged. Turning on the game, you weren't expecting the main character to ask for your help.
Tronify was inspired by Pippin Barr's Pongs, where Barr created 36 variations of the classic game Pong to challenge himself as a designer while understanding the principles of play. By taking a game, stripping it down and changing tiny rules, the developer is able to create something new while keeping the base game at heart.
For my variation, I decided to use Tron: Light Cycles for my base game. Every week, I could conceptualize and develop a new modification, adding them to a pack of games. To date, Tronify currently has seven modifications.
Links: Google Play, Website
The Games Industry class came with one goal -- fully develop and release a game in about three months. Working in a group with fellow graduate students, we all assessed our skills and abilities and developed Goop Troop -- a Lemming's inspired strategy platformer.
My role in this project was to be the Game Producer, Project Manager, and artist (mostly animator with artistic oversight over the Lead Artist). However, I didn't limit myself to these roles -- I ended up taking on programming and development tasks to ensure our final product was successful. I also designed the initial wireframes and finalized the mechanics before production in our documentation.
This may have been a required class for my Master's degree, but the knowledge I learned from this experience is extraordinary, and I couldn't be more grateful to work with an amazing group.
"A beautiful game about balance and conversion." ~ IndieCade East
Ōra was made in Unity3D over the course of three weeks. My approach to Ōra was to create a visually beautiful game that explores fluid, organic mechanics that arise from the game itself.
The end result was having the player control a star in a ethereal-like space. Energy is also the player's health. The objective is to emit sparks from their body (sacrificing their own energy in the process) to give energy to red stars, which attempt to consume you. Blue stars give you energy back -- however, stealing too much turns them red.
This created a space of balance, patience and careful thought. Firing and dashing lower your health, but it might be necessary to survive.
Itch.IO: https://sylaren.itch.io/ora
While interning at Arkadium, I had the pleasure to work underneath the Lead Game Designer, Heather Arbiter, and design new features for one of their top selling mobile games, Imago.
Links: App Store, Google Play
My task was to create a new Daily Flight mode, featuring new mechanics, hand-made puzzles and designing the UI for both the Daily Flight game mode and Facebook integration. Six new challenges were made, hundreds of puzzle layouts were designed and multiple QA sessions helped accurately find thresholds.
After release, Imago was featured both by Android and Apple multiple times and to-date has 100k+ current installs.
"Cure-Slay" is the most recent 2D project I've worked on, made in Processing. The game is surrounded by a switching-character mechanic, where by pressing SHIFT, the player switches from a healer to a knight, and vice-versa. The knight can destroy enemies by pressing SPACE and can withstand more damage. The healer is able to restore health to their shared health-pool by pressing SPACE, but takes twice as much damage. When the smaller bar is depleted above the character's head, the player is unable to attack/heal and must switch characters in order to allow the other one to rest.
"After Light" was my first experience adding my own pixel art to a game I made in Processing. The player controls a elf, who chases after a firefly (the mouse cursor) while shooting stars crash around her. The "firefly" (the player) must lead the elf away from danger until sunrise.
This project, which remains currently untitled, was my first attempt at creating a narrative-driven game. It was created in 2015 and was also my first time exploring the Neverwinter Nights toolset. The game remains unfinished and unpolished, but serves as a great momento in my portfolio as one of my first attempts at interactive storytelling, away from Twine.
Narrative: Inspired by Little Red Riding Hood, the game tells a story about a world governed by two divine siblings -- Solei, who blesses the world in Morning, and Lumos, who watches over the Night while Solei sleeps. Craving Solei's power, Lumos betrayed his sister and began drowning the world in Night, stealing the light from all those within the darkness and turning them into Lunatics. To keep her remaining creatures safe, Solei uses all her power to create eternal Morning to push away the Night, resulting in her weakening. Once a year, a child ventures into the Night to give her their Light to help her survive. But, the last child never returned...
