I’ve just finished my game design bachelor’s degree at the Hochschule Macromedia University of Applied Sciences in Stuttgart, Germany. During my studies, I completed a half year internship at HandyGames in Würzburg. This is my portfolio website where I publish some of my projects, if you have any questions or are just interested in my work, you can send me an e-mail with the contact form at the bottom. Or look me up on the social network sites.
Orb Numeris
Orb Numeris is a fun game to boost your mental skills and compete with your friends. I programmed it starting from a concept I made for an assignment in the first semester. This was my first deep dive into programming. I have chosen the Corona SDK which is relatively easy to learn, because it is based on LUA. At the moment it is only available on the Google Play Store for tablets and Smartphones.
Animarbles Run
This is a prototype for a family friendly VR game, two of my fellow students and I made during the fifth semester. The Player has to guide three cute Animals from the top of a giant marble run to the end and sort them so that they reach the finish line in the right order. We developed the game in Unity 5 and used the OSVR devkit and their plugins. You can watch a walkthrough above. My main responsibility was the whole development in Unity.
Quadrätsel
This is a prototype for a 2D puzzle platformer. It was our task in the fourth semester to use Unity to construct a classic jump and run. We had to deliver a playable version of the game – you can test it here soon. It starts easily with one character having to solve one problem. In the last level the Player has to control four different characters – each with a problem of his own - with only one single input. So the prototype consists of 3 Levels with increasing difficulty, to show how a full sized version could work.
3D Projects
One of my skills is to model and animate different 3D objects and to set them in a fitting scenario. I work mainly with blender but I'm also comfortable with 3ds Max. With both I finished some projects. At the moment I'm learning Maya. The more complicated pictures were created in cooperation with Oliver Ulrich. Here is a short selection of my recent projects.
GLBike
GLBike is the project that showed me the world of game design and 3D modelling. Two friends of mine came up with the idea of making a game similar to the light cycle races in the Tron movies after we finished our A-levels. They both started to develop an own engine which worked quiet well and left me the complete art side of the game. We switched to Unreal 4 in the last year, and are still porting all features. The game is still not finished, because it is hard to manage something that big while studying for university.
Clamor
My experience is not only limited on digital games and art, but also I had the possibility to deal with board and other analogue games and their creation. In the fourth semester we had the task to develop an analogue game in groups of four students. We decided to make a tactical battle card game for two players with elements from officer's skat and games like hearthstone or magic the gathering. Our game Clamor is now release ready.
Orb Numeris is a fun game to boost your mental skills and compete with your friends. I programmed it starting from a concept I made for an assignment in the first semester. This was my first deep dive into programming. I have chosen the Corona SDK which is relative easy to learn, because it is based on LUA. At the moment it is only available on the Google Play Store for tablets and Smartphones.
The game
The goal of the game is to reach the number given by the game on the top, you are commanding one circle. You can choose if you add or subtract to the number in your own circle, pressing the toggle button switches the colour of the other circles sign. After reaching the goal a new goal is given and either a new circle appears or one zero changes to another number. The more levels you complete the higher is your score.
Conception
In the first semester we should develop an idea for game with the open topic “You and I”. The borderline between you and me is only relevant if we meet, else there is only me and no you. After a lot of thinking and playing the game Loneliness from Jordan Magnuson I developed the idea of a game: you are playing a circle and mixing your colour (your Self) by hitting (meeting) other circles to reach a goal (enrich your life). But I noticed that mixing of colours is very difficult to display and I switched to numbers.
The Flash version
In the first semester we had a very rudimentary programming course. We learned a bit about websites and Flash. After getting a bit more familiar with Adobe Flash I started to program a prototype of my game. It looked awful but it delivered a basic feeling for the mechanics and whether the gameplay was fun or not. I realized that it was an interesting puzzle game and it felt like it would have some potential.
Development
I always wanted to see how hard it is to make a mobile game for android, so I took the chance and just started privately after I turned in the project at the end of the first semester. I learned to program in LUA by doing, wich is the best way to learn, but I dosent garand clean code and that implies some long term problems. The first playable version was relatively easy to assemble but the more ideas I had the harder it became to finish the project.
Gameplay changes
The game changed quite a lot from the prototype to its final form. The main change was to remove the different half’s of the circles and to add a toggle button to switch between red and green. At first I removed it from all circles except the player´s but it was still too complex and it made the game more about skill than puzzling. The other big change was the whole control system, it changed nearly in each major version. The last task was the tutorial which is still not perfect.
What I learned
I probably would prototype more before deciding to finish a game and I would think more about the different platforms. All in all the idea is not bad but I is certainly not perfect for a mobile game: it is too complex to understand in the first minute and it is about mathematics which is surely worrying the most casual players. But the most frustrating thing was that I didn’t make a feature list before starting to program the menu by hand. This made it really hard to fit in other ideas later on.
This is a prototype for a family friendly VR game, two of my fellow students and I made during the fifth semester. The Player has to guide three cute Animals from the top of a giant marble run to the end and sort them so that they reach the finish line in the right order. We developed the game in Unity 5 and used the OSVR devkit and their plugins. You can watch a walkthrough above. My main responsibility was the whole development in Unity.
VR Concept
The basic conception for our VR game was to make it as easy as possible to acclimatize to the VR world without side effects like motion sickness, while using the limited quality of the OSVR devkit. To achieve this we decided to cut all player movement from the game. This led us to the marble run, because the action revolves around the player and he is always in the center without any movement. Our development was inspired by the uniqueness and family friendliness of the idea.
Controls
The second goal was to get rid of any controller inputs. So we gave all interactive elements, like the switches or the reset button, a hitbox which is triggered via ray casting if the player leans his head over a certain threshold to either side. This method is quickly learned by the players, but only suitable for short play sessions (< 15 minutes), because the neck gets tired. Although this is a flaw, it did not influence the gameplay experience because our game aims for sessions around 10 minutes.
Physics
The most difficult part of the project was the physics of the marbles. I used the normal physics system but, manipulated the acceleration and weight depending on their current speed. But the real problem was that a normal wall around the track gave the marbles an uncontrollable spin. So I added the two rails as separate hit objects and gave every marble a centered disc to keep it from falling off the course and lock their unintended rotations.
Testing
Especially in VR games testing is mandatory. Since this was our first experience with the device as developers we allocated a relatively big amount of time for the testing of multiple games and early prototypes with different test persons. Those tests confirmed our plan to cut the player movement and additionally the feedback called for input without a controller. The tests in the later stages were equally helpful to establish some do’s and don’ts for the level designs.
This is a prototype for a 2D puzzle platformer. It was our task in the fourth semester to use Unity to construct a classic jump and run. We had to deliver a playable version of the game – you can test it here. It starts easily with one character having to solve one problem. In the last level the Player has to control four different characters – each with a problem of his own - with only one single input. So the prototype consists of 3 Levels with increasing difficulty, to show how a full sized version could work.
Why Unity
In the course game engines the fourth semesters was assigned to the work with big engines. A jump and run has been chosen as it gives the possibility to experience many aspects of this kind of developing. As I did already have some experience with UE 4 which I could use for a head start in Unity 5. I also used this to help some struggling fellow students with their projects and helping them with the basics of programming.
Development
With a very small prototype I tested out the complex idea and checked the behaviour of the basic mechanic. It worked but I quickly noticed the difficulties this mechanic would bring to the development. The main difficulty is that the level design has to be completely focused on this one mechanic, as simple tasks become much more complicated if the player has to manage four at a time. As this kind of concept is not a common one, I had to write all C# scripts for the game myself, except the complex moment controller for the characters and the outline shader.
Graphic
The block optic is not only a simple and clean look for a prototype but it gets two other advantages. On the one hand it helps the player to judge distances and jumps very easily and on the other hand it helps to rapidly change the layout of the level via blender in order to produce and test new ideas. Furthermore it is very easy to patch small problems directly in Unity, this would be much more difficult to do if the design was more complex.
What I learned
I used C# for the first time in this project, this was the first real experience with an object orientated language for me and I finally understood what it is all about. Additionally I took some big lessons in level design from this game, how to build and reiterate the levels, solve the problems and make them solvable for normal players. This was probably the must fun part of the project to look at it from the perspective of a normal player and adjust the design.
One of my skills is to model and animate different 3D objects and to set them in a fitting scenario. I work mainly with blender but I'm also comfortable with 3ds Max. With both I finished some projects. At the moment I'm learning Maya. The more complicated pictures were created in cooperation with Oliver Ulrich. Here is a short selection of my recent projects.
Gypsum ornament
This gypsum ornament is my first take on sculpting in Blender, it took me quite some time to get used to the sculpting technique and I am working to improve my skills in the future. I looked up some basic shapes on the internet and chose this one for its medium difficulty, which was more than enough to start with this subject.
Dr. Frog
In my first semester we had to plan, design and model a character in 3ds Max. I have chosen a humanoid frog that could be a class for an RPG or something similar. He is a scientist and a fighter against the destruction of his own world (more information can be found here). The character is modelled from a basic box and has no bone rig. The main difficulty was to mix the anatomye of a frog with the standing position of a human (a frog looks like as if had one leg bone more than a human). A side from this the lab coat wasn’t easy either.
Bathroom
This picture, made by Oliver Ulrich and me in Blender, is perhaps the most complex picture so far. We wanted to create a bathroom similar to the rooms in furniture promotional brochures, with everything one can imagine. It was appealing to create a big bamboo bush and the towels. The overall high polycount brought some problems and a high render time with it. But the fun of designing a whole room was well worth it.
Loft
This is another cooperation with Oliver Ulrich. It is our second try to design a loft with a big window surface in a skyscraper. I put a special effort in the design of the chairs with the two missing legs. The concept is statically possible but still something abnormal and channels the viewers attention on to the two chairs.
Watching TV
The picture shows two aliens sitting in a room watching a romantic movie which is a strong contrast to the unpleasant environment. Oliver Ulrich and I created the picture as a concept for an idea we wrote down on a napkin earlier.
GLBike is the project that showed me the world of game design and 3D modelling. Two friends of mine came up with the idea of making a game similar to the light cycle races in the Tron movies after we finished our A-levels. They both started to develop an own engine which worked quiet well and left me the complete art side of the game. We switched to Unreal 4 in the last year, and are still porting all features. The game is still not finished, because it is hard to manage something that big while studying for university.
The Start
David Greiner and Lukas Feller, both are programmers, decided to start the development of a Tron like racing game after finishing our A levels. They asked me to make the whole art for the game. The motorbike was my first real 3D model with blender, earlier I only worked with Sketchup. For the environment I had to develop a simple system to build the city while still maintaining a si-fi look and a low vertex count.
The Bike
Following the basic concept of the game it was important to catch the futuristic style of Tron legacy while keeping enough distance to their light bike design. The players viewpoint is always from behind, so the bike has to look dynamically from this perspective. This lead me to the wider front and smaller rear, so it looks like it is trying to get away from the camera. I also choose to avoid a front wheel to underline the futuristic technology, but kept the one in the back so something is spinning, and keeping the impression of a bike.
The City
The skyscrapers are built out of cubes. I created 3 different texture patterns which are randomly assigned to the cubes. Each house has a random colour, a fitting roof and the edges are only placed on the outer corners. I also had to design futuristic cars and vehicles to arrange around the arena and to drive or fly through the city. The ground has reflecting material to make the city look bigger and more alive.
The swap to UE4
Our own engine mostly developed by lukas reached a pretty promising state but got stuck reaching our later requirements, like a LOD system and more controll in the menu. We lost a lot of time at this point but decided to bring new energy into the production by switching to the unreal engine 4 after it became free for students. This step allowed even more possibility for the game design which led to a new level of feature creep and new problems and frustration in the implementation of the basic gameplay mechanics.
My experience is not only limited on digital games and art, but also I had the possibility to deal with board and other analogue games and their creation. In the fourth semester we had the task to develop an analogue game in groups of four students. We decided to make a tactical battle card game for two players with elements from officer's skat and games like hearthstone or magic the gathering. Our game Clamor is now release ready.
The Game
The players choose a side, humans or orks, then they have to draft parts of their card decks and chose two heroes with special abilities fitting their lineup. The attacker chooses a unit to attack the defender, which also has to pick a unit with the same
My part in the group
We had tasks spilt in the group: art, story, game design, balancing, writing of the rule set, testing, documentation. I was involved in the initial conception and had a big part in the more sophisticated game design and setting the rules. Furthermore I was the balancing lead which turned out as quite difficult. There were a lot of things to be thought about like the advantage of the beginner of the first round and the overall stronger position of the attacker because he has the chance to finish the fight with one strike without relying on his defence.
The final product
As we had to deliver not a playable prototype but also a complete game set in a box. After finishing the game design, it turned out to be quite challenging to write down the rules in a fool proof way that it is easy to pick up but also brings enough complexity for experts. The art department did a great job in finishing the cards in time, but we all saw what difficulties lie before you if have to bring something so big to a state where it could be mass printed.
What I learned
The project pushed the boundaries of my understanding developing and prototyping. It is so easy to try mechanics and small balancing changes in a fast created set of cards. Surprisingly after a few stages it doesn’t feel like a prototype any more because if you have figured out all rules, it is a complete game, but you can still change and iterate with a pencil. Moreover I learned how difficult it is to write down the rules in a clear manner and how hard it is to find the right words.