Freight Hopper
A physics-based, fast-paced, first-person platformer. In a chaotic environment, the player must reach the goal in the fastest time possible. Developed by Husky Game Studio. Released onto Steam on July 29th, 2022, for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
In May 2023, Husky Game Studio updated Freight Hopper to 2.0.0! Adding: tighter controls, bonus content in levels, and Steam networking integration for cooperative multiplayer and leaderboards.
For Husky Game Studio and the development of Freight Hopper, I am the lead game designer and one of the software engineers.
I created Freight Hopper's game design document and defined the target gameplay by researching positive interactions players have with similar games, to determine what I know players will enjoy. In addition, I conceptualized Freight Hopper's levels using Lucid.app to find interesting level settings and challenges for the player to overcome. I built Freight Hopper's levels using Unity 2020.2.1f1. The gameplay videos demonstrate levels I conceptualized and built.
To continue, as the lead game designer, I participate in project management aspects like determining sprint tasks for my artists and engineers, target goals with deadline timeframes, and assisting in determining what content should be presented to the public on Husky Game Studio's LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.
As a software engineer, I created the game's custom finite state machine API. You can see more information regarding this API here. I developed this API from researching existing solutions and simplifying it so that my engineering peers my use it with ease. The player character, trains, and turrets utilize this API to control their behaviors.
From my time working on Freight Hopper, I have learned how to work with a small group of 10 people, by utilizing tight written and verbal communication to clarify progress and prioritize project objectives to complete. This experience has taught me how to organize my team for a project we want to publish for profit. We utilize agile development strategies, such as weekly SCRUM meetings, in addition to other specialized coding and art reviews; all our development runs through quality assurance and playtesting for iterative progress.
Not only do I contribute to the maintenance of our software development cycle, but more importantly, I ensure my friends and classmates in Husky Game Studio are not overworking themselves. We are a student-run studio, not a formal company. As such, I check in on my peers regularly to see that they are not pressured to put their work in Freight Hopper above their other responsibilities.
Here are UI samples I designed for the main menu, level section screen, gameplay, and level complete screen. I focussed on purely conveying information versus adding artistic UI elements. Notice how the texts are highly contrasted against the environment and utilize visual hierarchy, grouping, spacing, and weight.