SNHU GAM-495
Professional
Self-Assessment
&
ePortfolio
Professional Self-Assessment:
I have never been what anyone would consider an “avid gamer”. While I enjoy playing games, I have found that my skill is mediocre in comparison with many competitors, including the CPU at times, lol. I find it a lengthy endeavor for me to learn the controls of a new game before I can be anything close to a challenge or competitor. I have had more of a spectator’s and creator’s view on gaming for quite a while. Creating something that could inspire such a motivated gaming community to play what I have built sounds like a lot of fun. I would like to think I would also like what I make, but I really would be thrilled if others enjoyed my efforts too.
I created CorteXSynaptix Studios as a brand that encourages innovation and creativity in technology and electronics. We are currently a small team of creators and collaborators focused on full-stack game development and programming.
My “specialization” will be a very broad scope outside of this course and degree path. With my more proven experience in programming and team management, for this course, I focused on helping in a design concept and creation perspective. This will help me contribute in the future to 3D graphics design as needed. Though I do not plan on being a final render artist for high-definition concepts, being able to assist in concept and even the design and creation phases of character and asset design, development, and creation will make me a better leader to the team.
I came here to SNHU as a hobby-building experience mostly. I am currently gainfully employed as a software engineer at a large tax/audit/accounting software design corporation that has paid for most of this degree. I do not have plans for working for a large game development company. I do not look to make a career change out of this, at least not yet. I have approached this leg of my journey as more of a hobby than for a career. I am comfortable as a software engineer in my current job, I will not be leaving that comfort any time soon.
I would like to make a couple games on my own or with me overseeing a small team of creators that are willing to work for peanuts(until profits are realized).
Since I believe that I could help manage a small team of creators, I will need to be able to assist in all aspects of the design and development process as well as handling project management duties. With my more proven experience in programming and team management, I will be focused on helping in a design concept and creation perspective this term. This will help me contribute to 3D graphics design, though I do not plan on being a final render artist for high-definition concepts. Being able to assist in concept and even the design and creation phases of character and asset design, development, and creation will make me a better leader to the team.
I am more employable now in my current field and in game development avenues with the workload that was expected throughout this degree course. I will have many new skills and achievements to add to my resume, should I ever need a resume.
The degree program has helped me understand and realize concepts that have great value in the gaming industry as well as many new ideas behind coding as well. I have been able to incorporate these techniques and ideas throughout my course studies. I really enjoyed the immersive concepts of my team from GAM-305 where we put the player character inside the human body to fight off angry viruses! I think that immersion is a large factor for holding an audience captive. Make someone feel that they are part of the story and experience, you are going to keep them enthralled and wanting for more!
My stepdad saw my GAM-465 “Showcase Gallery” that I created to hold my “exhibits”, including a recording of the required slideshow proof-of-concept, with all of the AI “gallery visitors”, and thought that there should be someone guarding the exhibits! I had taken the Unreal Engine 3rd person character model, changed the textures to a wooden texture and made a simple AI that made them wooden-mannequin visitors of the gallery that paced to the different exhibit and could track me if I toggle on tracking. So, I made another copy of the AI blueprint character I had developed from the base template asset and created a security guard that only paced to hunt the player character wherever they go in the gallery. I recorded my stepdad spouting off the rules of a gallery like “No running in the gallery” and “No touching the exhibits” or “You break it, you buy it!”
Click here to view the refined artifact
The Emperor prides himself a warrior though he has never attended battle in victory. He holds an attitude mandate over the heads of the public and enforces his distorted view of this gratuitous concept.
The original artifact is a 3D gold bust statue of the Emperor with the laurel wreath upon his head.
“The Catabow” was a concept I thought of when making the Habitus Mandatum(video) proof-of-concept last term. The concept takes the form and stock of a crossbow and adds a vertical bow with spoon and a crank to pull the spoon/cradle into firing position. I only had the time to go through the creation of a static mesh without any motion.
The company I work for has developed a program with the image of a calculator scrolling “8675309” across the face of the calculator when certain functions are called in the program.
As a joke, I started creating “Crunchy the Calculator” with that same premise. I took an image of a super-old adding machine and created an endearing character out of it and attempted to get the “8675309” to animate on the paper roll. I was able to get it to work in a way, but it is not perfect. The crank is also animated to advance the roll of paper to the next line.
The original Crunchy exhibits my older abilities to create a likeable character from scratch and develop them into a relative asset to my current career. Being able to take a single 2D image and create a 3D render out of it is a great skill to develop.
The Proof-of-Concept Showcase Gallery was originally fashioned in the style of ancient Rome to resemble a museum that would be fitting for the antiquities I have created to exhibit there. Created for GAM-465, it did well to showcase my specialty of Lead Games Designer and Developer while also exhibiting technical skills on a more granular level for 2D, and 3D concept, design, creation, and development. AI visitors that roam the gallery, and a security guard to enforce the rules made a very creative exhibition space for the work I have done and can be utilized to showcase of other project assets and artifacts.