Okay, here goes

Hello, I'm Jason. I'm a self-taught software developer with industry experience and a passion for video games. I’m skilled at troubleshooting and solving complex problems, always eager to learn and adapt to new challenges. Feel free to explore my work, and reach out at portfolio@surely.mozmail.com

Skills

Languages

Typescript/Javascript
C#
Python
GDScript

Game Engines

Unity
Godot
Unreal Engine

Frameworks

Next.js
Pixi.js
babylon.js
Nest.js
TypeORM

I'm not an artist by any means, but I have over 15 years of experience with Blender and regularly handle my own exports and asset setup to ensure an asset functions exactly as needed.

Projects

Lethbridge College | Police VR Training Project

Year: 2023-2024

A VR training project using Azure's Conversational Language Understanding (CLU) API to allow current and potential officers to learn via scenarios with branching paths, navigated exclusively with their voice. Unlike other systems where you have to say specific phrases, Azure's CLU API allows us to simply input the same types of phrases and allow their AI systems to figure out if the intent is roughly the same, making the scenarios more natural to navigate through with your words.

My Role:

I was contracted by Lethbridge College to assist with development. I ended up reworking the entire setup they had to something easier to work with, developing tools and more elaborate systems to allow Lethbridge College to create whichever scenario they need without constantly needing more development from myself.

Toolset:
- An 'activatables' system allowing various objects to serve different purposes, such as moving to another scene or setting a flag.
- A comprehensive scene system that enables certain scenario objects upon visiting, branching paths based on flags
- Exposing as much as possible to the Unity Inspector to make scenario creation easy without any additional coding
Comprehensive JSON logging for every event in the game to assist with debugging
Debugging mode that says which intent was hit to assist with debugging Azure intents on builds
Menu system that allows adding new scenarios with ease
Gradient based skin tone selector allowing users to pick a skin tone that most closely matches their identity
Bluetooth Heart Rate Monitor support for use in future scenarios

Engine	Language	Platform	Other skills
Unity	C#	Virtual Reality, Meta Quest	Asset Prep in Blender, Troubleshooting

Jordan Jones Dies in Space

Year: 2022

Jordan Jones gets stranded in space after their ship performs an emergency jump. As they slowly lose oxygen the player journeys through their memories set in the void of space.

My Role:

Setting up an elaborate scenario manager that allowed us to create each experience as an individual scene. This made testing each scene individually much easier and made it simpler to rearrange the experience as needed.
Creating a system allowing artists to implement motion graphics on the HUD in game.
Developing a couple of the experiences and helping with some others.
Creating a movement system allowing for full three dimensional movement with ease, comfort, and even two different movement options.
Meta Store Deployment

Fun Fact

We ended up having to aggressively downscale much of the game's graphics and effects to make it run on the Quest 1. Meta removed the Quest 1 requirements a few months after release.

🏆Awards🏆

Award	Presenter	Year
Best New Media	Stinger Awards	2023

Engine	Language	Platform	Other skills
Unity	C#	Virtual Reality, Meta Quest	Asset Prep in Blender, Troubleshooting

Second Spirit

Year: N/A

This was meant to be a full immersive VR story game made with USAY about a character named Twig escaping the oppression of the outsider Skritans. The prototype showcases the ability for the player to turn into Twig's guardian, pick up a weapon, and switch between the two modes as well as teleport around the environment with hints on what to do next.

The project was unfortunately cancelled, but we still developed a full prototype for funding purposes.

My Role:

As this was a small demo, I was assigned as the sole developer. Despite this, we still overshot scope but pulled off something very nice.

Implementing all game features, including:
- A pop-up/pop-down player scaling system that allowed you to get a better look at the field.
- A teleportation system based on pads that exist in the world that you could use by placing Twig nearby.
- Navigating Twig, the main character using a precalculated navmesh while still ensuring direct and satisfying control via influencing where Twig would go via the control stick.
- Roko, a bear that lives on your arm, that you could throw to solve puzzles. It used precalculated physics to ensure consistency and no direct need for accuracy or skill while still giving full control to the player, and had various hiding spots that it would navigate to in order to despawn.

Engine	Language	Platform	Other skills
Unity	C#	Virtual Reality, Oculus Rift	Asset Prep in Blender, Troubleshooting, Shader Graph

Experience the Energy: Adapting Futures

Year: 2020

A sequel to "Take the Challenge" but for the Oculus Quest (now Meta Quest). This was a fully new effort that also included fully 3D in engine educational segments.

My Role:

Minigame Design and Development
Asset Cleanup and Importing
Development of Utilities for educational segment creation using the Unity Director:
- Custom Unity Director Asset to control the movement of our host NPC Appo without extensive scripting and being able to preview their position without having to run the scene.
- Assistance with asset pipeline and general Unity implementation.
- Assistance with rigging
- Materials and Shaders for educational segments using Shader Graph
Handling Steam Deployment

Links

Product Page
Experience Trailer

Engine	Language	Platform	Other skills
Unity	C#	Virtual Reality, Oculus Quest, Meta Quest	Asset Prep and Cleanup in Blender, Troubleshooting

Glacier

Year: 2020

Created for Telus Spark Science Center, this was meant to be an experience to allow visitors to experience sliding into a crevasse with narration written by an unfortunate hiker who thankfully survived such an event.

This project was unfortunately cancelled due to COVID-19 as people were going to be less willing to share a VR headset with strangers.

My Role:

I was the sole programmer on this project.

Created a movement system that allowed the player to move forward by striking the poles into the ground. This involved the following:
- Poles that have a slight need to actually be planted in the snow with some angle allowance.
- Moving the pole while it's planted actually moves you forward
- The character in the world actually replicates your movements using IK
I happened to have the expertise to actually import the terrain of the actual location into the game
As this was running on mobile hardware, the environment couldn't be too large. I ended up implementing a separate "3D Skybox" inspired by Half Life 2 so we could have a much larger environment during the fly-in.

Fun Facts:

When the player falls into the crevasse I actually made them drop the sticks and turn into physics objects. No one noticed.
It's not a misspelling, a crevice is different from a crevasse.

Engine	Language	Platform	Other skills
Unity	C#	Virtual Reality, Oculus Rift	Asset Prep in Blender, Troubleshooting, Shader Graph

Experience the Energy: Take The Challenge

Year: 2019

A series of immersive minigames for the Oculus Go designed to test skills and suggest potential occupations in the oil and gas industry to transitioning workers.

My Role:

I was the sole developer on this project for the Oculus Go portion. It was later ported to the Quest, but I was not involved in that aspect.

Minigame Design and Development
Asset importing

Fun Facts:

We added a level selector to more easily test the games. It was accessed by mashing the second E, and entering the level selector would play a long reverberating recording of myself saying the letter E dramatically. I was under the impression this would be a fun internal easter egg, but was later told our client asked for a way to access a level selector and they were given this secret information and heard the E.
All the games had unique gameplay. My favorite is one where you have to read a board and see what gauge needs to be set to what. You then had to teleport around hallways to find the gauges needing changing, and you had to point at them, pull the trigger, and physically rotate the controller to turn the gauge.

Engine	Language	Platform	Other skills
Unity	C#	Virtual Reality, Oculus Go	Asset Prep in Blender, Troubleshooting

Nutrients for Life

Year: 2018

An educational game for children designed to be shown at trade shows and fairs to teach them about how their food is made and where it comes from. The game involves keeping all nutrient meters in the middle; not too much, not too little. Depending on how much you used you would be scored in three different categories.

My Role:

This was my first real 'game' project. Previous to this I had worked exclusively on VR video players for various events. My excitement at that time was for Unreal Engine 4 and as a desktop only experience I wanted to use the more high powered engine, but due to not knowing C++ and the relatively short timeline on this project we instead went all in on Blueprints.

Game Design and Development
Asset Importing
Handling Steam Deployment

Fun Fact

We ended up redeveloping the game to be played on touch screens. I developed this in about 2 weeks in Construct2 as that was something I happened to know quite well at the time, and this version of the game is still shown at the Calgary Stampede.

🏆Awards🏆

Award	Presenter	Year
Best Immersive Experience	AMPIA Nominee	2019
Best XR Experience	Digital Alberta Ember Award	2019
Best VR: Branded Interactive	Webby Honoree	2019

Engine	Language	Platform	Other skills
Unreal Engine 4, Construct2	Blueprints	Virtual Reality, Installation, Oculus Rift, Touch Screen	Asset Prep in Blender, Troubleshooting

Thunder VR

Year: 2018

An immersive experience telling the story of Thunder (Ksiistsikom) as the player searches for their wife. Players would learn simple words in Blackfoot and narrated by an authentic Blackfoot Elder, Saakokoto. Blackfoot is considered to be an 'endangered' language, so the creation of this game was also considered to be a preservation project.

My Role:

At this time I was the sole Programmer and was the only person developing this project. Everything in engine was handled by myself, including scene setup, asset preparation, importing, and implementation.

Game Design and Development
Asset Importing

Fun Facts:

The Elder had to speak the same lines in 3 different ways so we could randomize the order of a certain puzzle.
This is still my favorite game we made for the Oculus Go. The headset's controller only had a gyroscope, a touch pad, a trigger, and a back button. We utilized all of it throughout the project finding joy in the limitation.

🏆Awards🏆

Award	Presenter	Year
Best Interactive Game	AMPIA Nominee	2020
Best XR Experience	Digital Alberta Ember Award	2020

Engine	Language	Platform	Other skills
Unity	C#	Virtual Reality, Oculus Go	Asset Prep in Blender, Troubleshooting

Lenica Escape Room

Year: 2018

Part of a research project with Lenica Research Group we developed a series of minigames in the theme of an escape room for the purpose of assisting people who have suffered a brain injury such as a stroke or concussion.

My Role:

I developed all the minigames and functionality for this project, including a trace by numbers game, a flashing light sequence, and a password solving game where you had to pick the letter of the corresponding currently playing instrument.

Links

Product Page

Engine	Language	Platform	Other skills
Unity	C#	Virtual Reality, Oculus Go	Asset Prep in Blender, Troubleshooting

Non-VR

Safety Train

Year: 2022

A multiplayer train driving game where you explore multiple environments reflecting the sights of Saskatchewan. The game involves answering various trivia questions about trains and train safety, doing so removes cargo from your train and allows you to move faster. Whoever gets to the end wins!

My Role:

Locomotive simulation
Efficient track generation and path following
Rigging the cars to allow the wheels to move independently from the cars
An aggressively optimized world loading system to avoid stuttering between players as they could each be in a different zone at the same time while running on different PCs.
Cinematic camera switcher to showcase the environment as much as possible

Fun Facts:

I went way too hard on the locomotive simulation. Each of the cars actually does add weight and affects acceleration and braking speeds, and I actually have the locomotive start braking based on its current distance to the next stop. No one noticed or cared.
Expanding on environment optimization, this issue came up rather close to the end of the wire as we couldn't have all locales loaded at the same time without putting stress on the gpu, and since we were rendering up to 3 different perspectives on the same machine (which was actually meant to be 3 different machines originally) this would mean that simply enabling the new environment would cause a hitch for all the other players. I ended up creating a rather hacky solution where I created an array of all the objects across each scene, and when a player enters a new scene it enables all the objects over the span of a few seconds. Once a player exits, it steadily disables all the objects again (provided there are no other players in the area). This made sure there was no hitching and lead to a smooth experience.

Engine	Language	Platform	Other skills
Unity	C#	Desktop Installation	Asset Prep in Blender, Troubleshooting

Web

Lion Gaming Group

Year: 2023

A web crypto casino built with Lion Gaming Group technologies.

My Role:

We were meant to be doing game development but were needed for assistance on a new web project. I had never done web development previously

Implementing Stream.io chat features
Adding a role system to allow users to have various roles.
Working on a Next-Gen version of the site switching from PHP to Next.js

Frameworks	Language	Other skills
Next.js, Nest.js, nodejs, getStream.io, TypeORM	PHP, React/Typescript	Troubleshooting

Lion Gaming Group - Next Gen Casino

Year: 2023-Ongoing

A full rebuild of Lion Gaming Group's games using existing game APIs and creating new ones using Node.js

My Role:

I ended up being the sole backend developer on this project

Implementing existing APIs and creating an extensive local game client making API requests easy to handle
Creating new games including Plinko, Dice, and Keno
- Creating the first steps towards a provably fair system allowing users to recreate the result clientside after being provided the seed by the server.
Creating a renderer to recreate the result of the plinko simulation locally on a client with fun animations using Pixi.js
Creating reusable React components for use across the games
Implementing Lottie animations for use in the UI

Frameworks	Language	Other skills
Next.js, Nest.js, getStream.io, TypeORM, Pixi.js, Lottie	React/Typescript	Troubleshooting