Available on Steam

My most ambitious gaming related personal project, Frackin' Universe started as a mod for Starbound with a single new plant. It soon grew to become a whole new way to play the game and contains tens of thousands of new items and miscellaneous content.

There are far too many features to list, and after 8 years of development it is by far the largest mod for the game and potentially the largest anywhere. With over 500,000 players, it has a little something for everyone. It's been reviewed in established gaming sites such as Kotaku, Twinfinite, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, heaps of videos on YouTube and and the games' developers.

I have used every single one of my skills during this project. Some examples of my contributions include:

• • As Project Manager, created and managed tickets and epochs and ensured that each team member met their required objectives via Hack'n'Plan.
• • Responsible for all core game design elements (mechanics, features, etc).
• • Enhanced original gameplay mechanics of Starbound with expansive new features to bring players further agency in gameplay.
• • Scripted in lua to create new features and gameplay mechanics.
• • Planned and implemented a complex Research system to drive progression through gameplay choices and exploration. This creates a custom-tailored play-through for every newly created character.
• • Created and implemented hundreds of Levels and Microdungeons using Tiled, and via bitmap-based image files.
• • Added numerous new species for players to engage with or play as.
• • Created a racial abilities system, allowing each of the playable races to have their own unique advantages and disadvantages.
• • Enhanced Ship system that allows players to build their starship block by block and improve its capabilities with new technology over time.
• • Created UX/UI for various menus required for crafting and interactions.
• • Enhanced the Hunger and Survival elements of the game by changing the stakes of Hardcore, and adding diet types (Carnivore, Omnivore, Herbivore, Lithovore) to further specialize each species.
• • Enhanced combat mechanics to add new elements to gameplay such as: ammunition, reloading, weapon masteries, a new weapon generation system, new weapon types and mechanics, an armor system providing set bonuses, and more.
• • Added new pilotable vehicles.
• • Added hundreds of new weapons and tested and iterated on their balance for Player verses Environment combat.
• • Enhanced the existing Mech system to add mass, improved balance, and tied mech use to main gameplay elements.
• • Added a new quest hub with hundreds of quests.
• • Created a tutorial system that provides tutelage to new players about dozens of new mechanics they would otherwise be unfamiliar with.
• • Greatly expanded on status effects and planetary compositions across more than 70 new biomes: players need to be concious of environments to be certain they are properly equipped to survive.
• • Added a complex beekeeping system involving genetics, crossbreeding and favored environments for each species.
• • Worked iteratively with programmers and the community to test and iterate new gameplay mechanics.
• • Responsible for Camera, Character and Control elements (3C) across all levels.
• • Created hundreds of new assets including animated sprite sheets, sprites, parallax images, tiles and more.
• • Created new sounds and ambience using audio tools (Audacity, FruityLoops, etc)
• • Wrote hundreds of pages of new lore and narration, including NPC speech and storyline beats.
• • Planned and implemented puzzle-based gameplay features (light-based puzzles, liquid puzzles, platforming, etc)
• • Responsible for textures and materials.
• • Interacted with and maintained a community of thousands of players via discord.
• • Created branding and identity for the project.
• • Created and maintained GDD and LDDs for the project.