Gameplay Programmer
2024
Outlaw Heart is a stylized, fast-paced action game created by industry veteran Dave Hansan (MacabareMonster), whose work spans from the vibrant world of Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey to the competitive intensity of Riot Games’ 2XKO.
For this project, I assisted in optimizing performance through cleanup and profiling, in addition to implementing new gameplay systems and providing general consultation.
Gameplay and Code Refinements
As part of my work on Outlaw Heart, I was responsible for re-writing some key gameplay components to help with the game's stability, improve its performance and provide better options for scalability.
One of my primary tasks was rebuilding the game's Grapple System, which had suffered from inconsistencies and bugs that disrupted gameplay.
The new version was designed to be more reliable in situations, while being a more reliable tool for combat situations and for designing levels, for example being able to consistently grapple to a location.
I also implemented a new Wall Running System, allowing the player character to run along a designated wall surfaces using splines placed by a level designer.
Giving Room for Expansion
For refactoring focuses, i reduced the amount of code repetition between players and enemies with a standardised Health System, and some other functionalities leveraging Interfaces.
Additionally, I carried out further code and performance optimisations, including decoupling gameplay systems to reduce dependencies and optimising asset usagewhich contributed to a cleaner, more maintainable codebase, improved runtime efficiency and memory management.
Outlaw Heart was also built previously with a single playable character in mind. I extended the existing systems to support a multi-character framework, allowing for additional playable characters to be loaded easily.
