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Rory Simpson
Technical Artist
Games
A Journey Of Light
9
A Journey Of Light is an isometric light-based puzzle game.
The goal is to get the light from a spotlight to an orb that receives it using various blocks such as mirrors and light splitters.
As the game progresses, the requirements of the orb become more numerous and complex by changing the colour and intensity of the beam.
The pre-alpha demo is currently available on Scroll Lock Studios' Itch.io page.
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Zaru
8
Zaru is a PSX-style first person horror game where you lock up a warehouse for the night.
Spirits wander the rooms, generally imperceptable unless you give up a sense e.g. sight to be able to hear a certain monster.
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All assets are made by me other than a few sound effects which have been sourced online and a few provided by voice actors credited within the game.
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Food Chain
7
Food Chain is a real-time Android farming/zoo game in which you grow crops, cultivate herbivores and feed carnivores.
The game starts with a 4x4 of tiles that can be dedicated to one of three things: Crops, Herbivores or Carnivores. Crops are grown to feed the herbivores, herbivores are killed to produce meat for the carnivores. The carnivores attract visitors to the farm/zoo, these visitors will visit the shop and buy by-products from the animals such as eggs, milk or wool.
The game is available on the Play Store at no cost, ads, data stealing or microtransactions.
Dungeon(WIP)
6
Dungeon is an ongoing personal project. It is an online and local co-op dungeon crawler based in Unreal Engine 5. The players traverse randomly generated dungeons (using a tile system) and acquire loot to keep their camp maintained and upgraded. The players can be all locally based using a split screen, all be connected online or a mix of both.
From this project, I am hoping to learn: A vast amount about how to integrate online and local multiplayer in the same instance, how to successfully create a randomly generated environment using tiles, how to utilise Unreal Engine 5's new features to create beautiful environments.
Scale
5
Scale is a project that was created for the practical project for my dissertation in my final year of university. It is a local co-op game in which two players use an initially difficult control scheme and various tools to work together to reach their tents at the top of the cliff. An online version was made for the dissertation but unfortunately it required a major rework to be functional so they ended up being separate project files.
The online version was later replaced with a local versus mode which allowed the players to mess with each other in various ways including throwing rocks at each other. This version was showcased at the Game Republic Student Showcase 2022 at York St John University representing my university.
I learnt a lot from this project including character modelling, animal modelling, inverse kinematics and how to make decent looking water.
The game is available for free download on my Itch.io page.
Zombie Game
4
Zombie Game is a project that was made for the "Mechanics" module on my university course. It is a clone of the original Call Of Duty Zombies mode made to demonstrate that I could replicate all of its mechanics and add some of my own. The most interesting of the original mechanics is the 3D printer. The printer allowed you to spend points to print various items such as weapons or bandages. Another original mechanic was the use of a centrifuge which allowed you to infuse your blood with nanomachines which gave you various buffs such as increased speed, increased health regeneration or the ability to see the zombies' health above their heads.
The module was marked based on the complexity and stability of the mechanics which led to the modelling of only assets necessary to make a mechanic function. That is why the environment is made of blockout materials. I learnt many techniques in this projects production such as using enums, arrays and how to use 3D widgets.
Gone Blank
3
Gone Blank was a short project made for a university game jam. The theme was "Cheating". The gameplay loop consists of turning your hand to see the answers, looking at the hand to increase the quality of your work, then writing while the quality is high so you get a good grade. During this the teacher will randomly look over at you, if you have your hand turned round you will cause suspicion. If you are looking at the hand you will cause even more suspicion and will be caught within seconds. Admittedly it was a very bare bones concept but I am proud of it nonetheless as it was a solo game jam project.
I didn't learn much mechanically but I did learn how to improve my time keeping skills to produce good quality work in a tight time frame.
Suzanne
2
Suzanne was a project made for a university game jam with the theme: "Reversal". It's a short puzzle game which uses various sensors to find objects, paths or even just the walls around you. The game is made for controller as an output of the sensors is controller vibration but it can be played with mouse and keyboard using the on-screen representation of the sensors. The voice heard throughout the game is courtesy of Ryan Marshall. James Hubbard assisted by making some of the custom 3D assets. Throughout the production of this game, I learnt how to think of abstract mechanics and actualise them in a short period of time. I also learnt how to use controller vibration and adjust which motors are being used in Unreal Engine 4.
Teammates:
James Hubbard
Ryan Marshall
Act Natural
1
Act Natural is a project created for my first game jam. The theme was "Oxymoron". The title was decided first and then the idea grew from there. The game is about an alien(the player) attempting to escape from a facility by disguising as the inhabitants of the facility and "acting natural". The game jam team was composed of three people: Ryan Marshall, James Hubbard and I. Ryan and James did the vast majority of the pixel art while I did the programming with blueprints in Unreal Engine 4. This was my first time using the Paper2D functionality and creating 2D animations with flipbook in engine.
While I haven't made any 2D games since, I did learn a lot from the experience including how to manage time while working in a team environment. I did learn how to set up detection systems, albeit not very effectively as they were fairly buggy.
Teammates:
James Hubbard
Ryan Marshall
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