Brown RISD Game Developers

Sep 2016 - May 2020

About

The Brown RISD Game Developers club is a joint effort between Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design (and more recently Berklee College of Music) to produce games. We work primarily to grow talent in artists, programmers, game designers, and sound designers and provide a structure for them to practice their skills. Each semester, we split our members - ranging from 30-80 students depending on time of year - into 3-6 smaller groups. These groups then spend the entire semester concepting, ideating, and then developing their own game from scratch culminating in an end of semester public playtesting event. Veteran members are there to guide newer members and teach them how to use the applications that we use (such as Unity or Github or Maya).

I joined the EBoard of BRGD after my first year in the club, and as a member of the EBoard, I've been responsible for organizing meetings, speakers, and playtesting events as well as creating workshops to teach skills to new members. I'm available as a resource to up to 80 students hoping to become game developers. I have personally led five different teams during my three years in the club. And, while not all the projects turned out as well as others, each project taught me new lessons in programming, design, leadership, and production.

The more successful projects that I've worked on in BRGD have their own webpage dedicated to them. Below are the other projects that - though not as polished or enjoyable - led the way to where I am today as a game developer.

Dark Rye on the Fly

Development

Dates Sep 2016 - Dec 2016

Genre PC, Platformer

Role Programmer

Tools Game Maker

Team Size 4+

Where does a toaster go when it's deemed too dangerous for society? Make your way through perilous obstacles and dangerous enemies while propelling yourself through the air by shooting toast out at incredible speeds.

As my very first time both working on a game and programming in a team, working on this project taught me valuable lessons in teamwork as well as showed me how the game design process works.

Jailbreak Lockdown

Fish N' Ships

Development

Dates Sep 2017 - Dec 2017

Genre PC, Survival

Role Producer, Lead Programmer, Designer

Tools Unity

Team Size 6+

Stranded on an island with nothing to your name as flying fish descend from above to attack you. What's there to do but gather supplies, fight some fish, and build a boat to escape?

My first experience with Unity was marked by a lot of complications. We took on a project slightly outside of our scope while using an engine outside of most of our comfort. Despite that, I used the opportunity to learn to become familiar with Unity and am now much more comfortable with gauging how much time is required to attain certain mechanics in games.

Dragon Drop

Development

Dates Jan 2018 - May 2018

Genre IOS, Android, Tower Defense

Role Lead Programmer, Designer, Co-Producer

Tools Unity

Team Size 6+

Some dragons are so attached to their gold that their own life force is forever intertwined with their fortune. With invaders attempting to steal your gold away, you must spend use your own life force to keep them out.

Dragon Drop was my first attempt at mobile game development. UI gave us a lot of issues as we didn't yet know the beauty of proper padding. Our end result was buggy, yet enjoyable.

After Hours

Robin