Portfolio

2022-2023

Super Crazy Rhythm Castle

Since graduating from Southampton, I’ve been working at Second Impact Games on the upcoming Super Crazy Rhythm Castle (trailer). A twist on rhythm games that mixes in character-based co-op adventuring for chaotically fun results.

It’s a small team, so I’ve had the opportunity to contribute in a wide variety of ways:

Gameplay programming - working with the art team to realize some very fun and unconventional level designs (including the game’s finale!)
- Finding the answers to important questions like “How much gravy-filled artillery does it take to captivate a meat-based crowd?”
Designing, implementing and/or optimising of several of the game’s core systems - including plenty of work on network synchronisation for the game’s online multiplayer
Significant contributions to the cross-platform release of the game
- Implementing the vast majority of Xbox One/Series specific support
- Designing many of the core platform-specific abstractions
- Creating sizeable systems for the PS4/PS5 support
- (and debugging Switch/Steam too)

I’m immensely proud of the impact I’ve had on this game, from the (hopefully) invisible systems working in the background to the tiny design decisions sprinkled across its levels.

I’ve also been helping with the rapid prototyping of some of their exciting new ideas.

2021

Procedural Generation Experiments

I developed a library for procedurally generating fantasy world maps, extending a project I started in 2019.

Uses a simplified tectonic model to create full-globe maps
Lightweight enough to be used at runtime on mobile devices
Spherical (generated cylindrically, but with distortion to account for map projection)

To populate these worlds I made a quick stylised portrait generator.

A simple parametric model for creating a wide variety of suprisingly characterful faces
2D meshes designed to support simple animation through adjustment of the generation parameters

Starfall: Chapter One

University of Southampton coursework project. Developed in around 2 weeks with Istvan Zeno Hevesi for COMP3218.

I designed and implemented many of the core systems:

Robust interactive dialogue system
Branching narrative system
Obstacle-aware AI for physics-based single-thruster AI ships

I also created the story and all of the graphics and art for the project. Including generative sprites made with Processing.

Download available on my itch.io

2020

Divergence

University of Southampton coursework project. Developed in around 2 weeks with Daniel Best for COMP3218.

A stealth/puzzle game where time itself is tied to the motion of your throwing knife.

Key Developments:

A system for rewinding time and the world around the player
Enemy AI that can be rewound to any point and resume what it was doing.
Efficiently logging data by only storing changes that cannot be interpolated.

Writers’ room

During lockdown my friends often struggled to find things we could all play, so I developed a few games that worked as discord bots.

My favourite was Writers’ Room. An extension of the classic 1 word story game, players work together to create movie prompts and then write scenes for those movies. The game is designed to epitomize the saying “a camel is a horse designed by a committee” with very funny consequences.

A Night in Guntown

Small local-coop shoot-out game made with a group of 5 friends during lockdown.
I led the team and provided most of the code.

Made for Major Jam: Isolation

2018

A System for the Procedural Generation of 3D City Environments

A personal project that I turned into a very successful A-Level Computer Science coursework.

Organically generates road networks using a blended variety of growth patterns
Subdivides enclosed areas into buildings
Later developed to include a simple driving simulation

2017

Knowledge is Power

I provided additional programming work for this PS4 PlayLink quiz game at Second Impact Games.

I helped work on the AR face detection system for the mobile companion app.

Raise Tower Bridge

While in sixth form, I did a week of work experience at Second Impact Games. It went well enough that they asked me to come back for an internship over the summer. While there, I was tasked with updating their Raise Tower Bridge augmented reality IOS app to add 64-bit compatibility.

Older

Not completely representative of me now, but I’m still proud of it.

The Last Miner

Made in 48 hours for Ludum Dare 39

Trapped in an asteroid, with no chance of escape, finding power is your only chance of survival.
Placed 13th (of 988 submissions) in the Theme category.

Developed Solo.

Available at my itch.io

An Intergalactic Quest for Interior Walls

Made in 48 hours for Ludum Dare 37

I made this bizarre little puzzle game over a weekend with a little help from a few friends.

Subdivide space ships with interior walls to ensure that each of the strange coloured blobs is in a colour-coded room.

Naumachia

Made for Ludum Dare 36

I led a small team of my friends to make this game based on an Ancient Greek form of entertainment

I was responsible for all programming in the project.

Ben Beasley

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