About the Project: Player is on a mission to explore the island, gathering clues to fulfill the objective. She encounters hostile enemies on her way and will have challenging combat. There are collectibles along the way to help her achieve her goal.

 

Genre: 3rd Person Shooter 

Software: Unreal Editor For Fortnite (UEFN)

Project Type: Solo Project

Development Time: 1 Week

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My Role: Programmer, Level Designer

My Responsibilities: 

• Designed and modeled PvE level challenges, NPC encounters, and combat system

• Crafted the open world environment 

• Designed and implemented macro and micro game beats

• Sculpted the landscape and applied texture

• Added environmental elements and props such as river, lake, waterfall, trees,  rocks, landmarks, and buildings

• Placed the player character, collectibles, weapons, and hostile guards based on the game objectives and challenges

About the Project: Obstacle Assault is a 3D platformer inspired by Fall Guys. In this game, I designed and developed a variety of platforming challenges in Unreal Engine, using C++ and Blueprints.

 

Genre: 3D Platformer 

Software: Unreal Engine 5

Project Type: Solo Project

Development Time: 2 Weeks

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My Role: Programmer, Level Designer

My Responsibilities: 

• Designed and modeled level challenges

• Developed different functionalities for multiple kinds of platforms and obstacles using C++ programming and Blueprints

About the Project: VR Two-gether is a cross-platform asymmetric cooperative multiplayer game in which one player uses a VR headset and controllers and the other player plays on a PC. Both players need to collaborate and solve cooperative puzzles in order to progress through the game. Within this game, we were seeking whether the asymmetric controls in VR and PC interfere or assist with the shared intentionality in a cross-platform cooperative multiplayer game.

 

Genre: PC-VR Cross-Platform Asymmetric Cooperative Multiplayer Game 

Software: Unity game engine, Oculus, Trello

Project Type: Team Project

Development and Research Time: 3 Months

Team members: Rana Jahani, Kalpan Agrawal, William Maier, Viraj Shirodkar

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My Role: Creative Director, Level Designer, User Researcher, Project Manager

My Responsibilities: 

• Designed and modeled two levels for the PC and VR based on their affordances and modeled them in Unity game engine​​

• Created 3D scenes in Unity to show encounters and game beats which included creating blockouts, building structures, applying texture and lighting, and placing game objects into the scenes to deliver the environmental storytelling (individual work)

• Designed cooperative challenges for the PC and VR characters

• Designed tutorial game beats for the PC and VR

• Managed tasks for the team on Trello 

• Contributed to survey administration, data collection and analysis, and paper documentation

About the Project: This is a sample of my student project in the Spatial and Temporal Design course. The project was about solving game design problems by designing a level using the game architectural techniques developed during the course. The design problem for this project was about 1) how to telegraph to players that they need a special ability in a way that informing them is not too obvious and make them feel that they figured it out on their own, and 2) how to vary that over the course of the game so that the player constantly feels like they’re being clever in figuring out they need something (special ability, upgrade, etc.) rather than they just encounter similar symbols, colors.

 

Genre: 3D Puzzle Solving Exploration with Time Travel Theme

Software: Unity game engine.

Project Type: Team Project

Development Time: 2 weeks of design and 2 weeks of development

Team members: Rana Jahani, Afraz Zackria, Wu Lyu, Shuting Zhou, Jiancheng Wu

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My Role: Technical Level Designer, Programmer

My Responsibilities: ​

• Designed the level layout using architectural plans, Parti sketches, concept diagrams, and proximity diagrams (individual work)

• Created 3D scenes in Unity to show encounters and game beats which included creating blockouts, building structures, applying texture and lighting, and placing game objects into the scenes to deliver the environmental storytelling (individual work)

• Contributed to scripting player camera and controls and environmental puzzles functionality

• Derived game design patterns and documented a game design Pattern Library (team work)

About the Project: This is a metroidvania-style 2D pixel art platformer game with strong narrative elements. The cartoonish visuals conceal the theme of ableism and inequality that are present in this type of game. Two novel mechanics are introduced in the game. First, the main robot character interacts with elements in the world with its power cord, allowing him to charge and drain its fellow robots and even swing across gaps or rappel up walls.  Secondly, enemies are afflicted with a virus that causes them to engage in violent combat. The player must control their viral load as they drain health from opposing robots to survive!

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Genre: 2D Metroidvania

Software: Unity game engine, Trello, Miro

Project Type: Student-Driven Studio Team Project

Design and Development Time: I contributed to the first development cycle of the game for 6 months in 2021

Itch.io

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My Role: Game Designer 

My Responsibilities: 

Contributed to the design for ideation, pre-production, and prototyping the vertical slice phases of the game

Contributed to designing the mechanics and game systems

Contributed to designing levels and puzzles

Communicated closely with game designers, artists, and programmers to deliver the design intent across teams.

Designed pixel art objects and sprite sheets for the vertical slice
 

About the Project: This project is about procedural generation of cooperative puzzle-platform game levels with mixed-authorship approach. In this game, players need to cooperate in order to progress through the procedural puzzle platforming levels. The game can be interesting for players who love playing cooperative games, puzzle games, and platformers.

Levels are generated in three phases: 1) Generating the main path consists of connected rooms with openings, 2)Generating room types with specific difficulty levels, 3) Generating puzzle pieces and placing them in each room

 

Genre: 2D Cooperative puzzle platformer with Procedural Elements

Software: Unity game engine

Project Type: Solo Project

Design and Development Time: 5 weeks

Supervisor: Professor Chris Barney

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My Role: Game Designer, Programmer, Artist

My Responsibilities: ​

• Designed the heuristics for cooperative level generation 

• Paper prototyped the initial design with modular pieces for path and puzzle generation

• Programmed the level generator algorithms such as path generation, room type generation and puzzle generation

• Programmed gameplay system and mechanics for the Unity game engine scenes

About the Project: Melon Smash has the characteristics of a tower-defense game with just one tower (player). It's about a farmer trying to save his precious pumpkin from the incoming waves of vermin that want to get to it. The farmer can keep the vermin away by moving around the map, harvesting his melons and throwing them at the vermin to save his pumpkin. There are two different types of melons and two types of vermin with different characteristics that would attack the farm in multiple waves.

 

Genre: 2D Tower Defense 

Softwares: Game Dev: Unity game engine, Artwork: Adobe Photoshop, Sound FX: FL Studio

Project Type: Team Project

Development Time: 4 weeks

Team members: Yang Hu, Rana Jahani, Viraj Shirodkar, Afraz Zackria, Daviti Tsintsadze, Jai Dodechani

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My Role: Game Designer, Artist

Responsibilities: 

• Collaborated in designing game mechanics and game system 

  • Balanced the combat system - the weapons and enemies characteristics

• Designed characters, objects, and sprite sheets of each character and objects’ state

• Designed the UI and the tutorial for controls

About the Project: This board game is inspired by the popular Crash Team Racing (CTR) video game with elements of strategy and competition. The essential experience of the game is competing with other characters and becoming the first player to reach the final destination to win the game. Characters can acquire different weapons, power-up cards and use them against each other, or boost themselves to accelerate their progress. Each character also has its unique abilities (super power) that can be used by the player at any point in the game...

 

Genre: Dice- and card-based racing board game

Software: Tabletop Simulator

Project Type: Team Project

Development Time: 4 weeks

Team members:  Rana Jahani, Afraz Zackria, Daviti Tsintsadze, Jai Dodechani

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My Role: System Designer, Level Designer, Artist

My Responsibilities: ​​

• Contributed to designing game mechanics and the power-up system

  • Set up the rules to provide specific player experience such as competition, surprise, and agency

  • Balanced the risk-reward effects of power-ups to make player choices meaningful

• Designed the maps and level layouts

• Designed visual arts and the look of the game

• Analyzed players feedback after each playtest