Alannis Davis

Game Programmer & Developer

Summary

Hello, I am a game developer with a focus on game programming and design.I have used Unity for several years to make a variety of games as well as Unreal Engine for the past 2 years.
Additionally, I have used code and visual scripting to create shaders and visual effects.
I have a passion for creating and learning new things both mechanically and aesthetically. I wish to be able to develop these skills further to create fun and engaging experiences.

Projects

September 2023 - April 2024: Project Theseus
https://ace-savaid.itch.io/projecttheseus
Worked in a team of 6 to create a third person 3D isometric roguelike. In this game, you switch your limbs to creat the best build as you try to clear rooms and bosses in an attempt to get to the end.

  • Programmed the boss AI for all 3 bosses. This ranges from melee bosses to ranged bosses and has aspects such as enemy spawning and bullet patterns.

  • Designed all 38 Rooms in the game, starting with greyboxing to adding the environmental assets and textures before passing it off to the VFX artist for post process.

  • Created the art and 2d sprites used in the menus and UI

  • Created concept art for the 3D modellers to use as a reference for their models

  • Created spreadsheets and documents to detail and keep track of the various limb options, upgrades, environmental assets and enemies that the game would need, their features, and what state of development they were in.


September 2022 - April 2023: Rock Bottom
https://ace-savaid.itch.io/rockbottom
Worked in a team of 7 to create a 3D action roguelike game in 8 months. In this game you use a variety of abilities and upgrades to power through foes and move through rooms.
This game was selected to be showcased at Level Up 2023, Toronto.

  • Programmed the HUD of the player consisting of the health bar, icons to display what weapon is currently selected and a hurt overlay that displays temporarily when the player takes damage.

  • Programmed menu functionality including the transitions from scenes and to other sub-menus with added sound effects and visual changes. This was then passed on to the UI artist to polish.

  • Programmed the weapon swapping ability that takes in the players input as well as factors in the current number of weapons and availability of these weapons and changes the weapon based on either the direction the player scrolls in or the button input selected.

  • Programmed the keyboard keybind display used to show what input is needed to swap between weapons. This system was also used by the other programmer and internal play-tester for bug fixings and testing.

  • Directed 4 artists to maintain the consistency and aesthetic of all assets implemented in game.

  • Handled Trello and kanban meetings to maintain team's progress in development


January 2022 - April 2023: Computer Graphics Shader Project
https://github.com/AceSavaid/ComputerGraphicsProject
Worked in a team of 3 to create and showcase various shaders coded in Unity ShaderLab throughout the semester. This ranged from visual effects and shading to post processing.

  • Programmed the player movement, health and attack systems using the new Unity input system.

  • Coded enemy AI (chasing player, shooting at player in range, flying at player in range) and their ability to be damaged and take damage from the player. This included the ability to add particles effects to the enemy for added effect and this part was passed onto another member to create the particles for this.

  • Coded various shaders in both ShaderLab and ShaderGraph such as a toon shader that factored in normal mapping, textured and coloured stylized shadows, holographic shaders, outline addition to shaders and stylized toon shaded water displacement that moves based on time. All of these shaders included exposed parameters to allow for customization of the material they were applied to and easy alteration.

  • Using a combination of ShaderLab and C# coded various post processing effects, including a depth of field, togglable bloom effect, colour correction and pixelization effect.

  • Coded system to change the lighting and colour correction of a scene based on the area of the level the player is in. This was through the use of triggers and preset coloured Look-up tables that were then applied to the camera's rendering system.

  • Coded and implemented the menu systems as well as the debug systems to easily showcase all implemented shaders. This was aided by the fact that I created those shaders with functions and parameters that can be called in other scripts to change aspects of the shader easily.

  • Handled documentation and release set up on GitHub for the project and kept the ReadMe file and the linked resources updated for ease of readability.


August 2022 - August 2022: Dice Descent
https://ace-savaid.itch.io/dice-descent
Repository: https://github.com/AceSavaid/Dice-Descent
Solo developed a 2D turn-based combat game in 48 hours for the GMTK 2022 game Jam
with the theme "Roll of a Dice"

  • Programmed a turn based system factoring in transitioning to the next enemy and moves missing.

  • Programmed and implemented the player and Enemy health bar and hurt and heal effects

  • Programmed damage scaling based on RNG (Random Number Generation) and chance of attack success based on a percentage.

  • To assist with keeping the player updated with what is happening in game, programmed a status window that updates with information from the battle as it happens.

  • Created the various player, enemy and UI sprites and implemented these assets into the game

  • Created the pixelated sound effects and soundtrack and implemented these sounds into the game


October 2022 - October 2022: Magical Girl Mayhem
https://ace-savaid.itch.io/magicalgirlmayhem
Worked in a team of 10 to create an arcade styled bullet-hell game in 1 week.- Programmed and implemented the animation system for the player character and enemies
- Programmed and implemented the UI and menu systems
- Assisted in programming the base enemy system

Experience

Game Design Teaching Assistant - Ontario Tech University, Oshawa, ON, Canada (Sep 2023 - present)Created and taught tutorial course content. Graded students’ assignments and answered any questions or problems that arose. Held meetings with the professor and other Teaching Assistants to ensure that course content was translated into the tutorials as intended.

Research Assistant - Ontario Tech University, Oshawa, ON, Canada (February 2023 - present)Assisted the User Experience Research Lab with tasks and projects.

Education

Ontario Tech University, Oshawa, ON, Canada (Sep 2021 - present)Bachelor of Information Technology - Game Development and Interactive Media
Overall GPA: 3.90
Courses Studied:
Digital Game Design, Math for Games, Programming for Games, Algorithms and Data Structures, Intermediate Computer Graphics, Game Sound, Game Engine Design and Implementation, Collaborative Leadership, Game User Research, Creative Narrative and Writing, Social and Emotional Game Design
President of Rhythm Game Club (September 2023 - present)
Executive of Game Programming Club (September 2023 - present)
Achieved 2021 Fall Semester Dean’s List
Achieved 2022 Winter, 2022 Fall and 2023 Winter Semester President’s Lists


Harrison College, Bridgetown, Barbados, WI (Sep 2014 - Jul 2021)Placed on the Principal's Honor Roll in the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 academic years
Achieved the Regional Merit List, placing 7th in the Caribbean region in Building and Mechanical Engineering Drawing Unit 2 in the school year 2020-2021
Additionally, studied Computer Science and Communication Studies at the CAPE levelBoard Member of Fine Arts Club (Sept 2019 - July 2021)

Skills

LanguagesSoftwareMicealaneousSoft Skills
C/C++UnityFigma & MiroProject Management
C#UnrealWord ProcessingTime Management
JavaScriptVisual StudioPowerpointCommunication
React NativeGitTrelloPublic Speaking
HTMLGitHubPhotoshopOrganization
OpenGLBlenderGoogle workspaceTeamwork
RRPG MakerMicrosoft WorkspacePresentation Skills

  • In depth programming knowledge in C, C#, Unity HLSL and R

  • Ability to Brainstorm and Create Game Design Documents

  • Knowledge and use of HTML and Markdown to create websites for my game page.

  • Knowledge in JavaScript and React Native libraries to create application and prototypes for productivity applications and tools

  • 5 Years experience in Unity working in both 2D and 3D to make several different styles and genres of games and applications.

  • 2 Years practicing Unreal to make games, shaders and special effects.

  • Use of version control (GitHub) with knowledge of how to use packages, documentation and commit ettiquete to ensure that changes are well documented and easy to track.

  • Coding shaders to fit different aesthetics using ShaderLab and visual scripting. Such shaders included a toonshader with outlines with the ability to apply a normal and displacement map to it as well as a shader that allows you to customize the colour and textures of both an object and the shadows casted upon that object. I have also created some post processing shaders from scratch using shaderlab and C# scripting such as a bloom filter, a depth of field with optional coloured fog and a pixelation shader.

  • Use of several art and animation programs such as Photoshop, Medibang Paint, Krita and Blender

  • Well-versed in Google Docs, Slides and Sheets and their Microsoft Alternatives

  • Presentation Skills in presenting to an audience in both regular presentations as well as continuously at showcases to hundreds of persons

  • Teamwork and team leadership

  • Time Management and Planning skills

  • Communication skills with team members, executives and potential players of the game being developed.