Hello I'm Tammy, I'm developing PRISON OF HUSKS

↓↓↓ HERE ARE ALL MY PROJECTS! ↓↓↓

Hover over each image to learn the title, relation and roles per project.

SKILLS AND TOOLSDesign: Game Design, Level Design, Combat Design, Systems Design, UI DesignAudio: Audiokinetic Wwise, Studio One, Ableton Live, Logic Pro X, Pro Tools, FamiTracker, MilkyTracker, UTAU, Pure Data, MaxVisual + Editing: Clip Studio Paint, DaVinci Resolve, AsepriteEngines: Unity (C#), PlayMaker, GoldSource, RPGMaker

Albums Produced:

My CV

PRISON OF HUSKS

Roles:

• Game Design
• Composer
• Programming
• Sound Design
• Sound Implementation
• 3D Animation
• UI
• Level Design

About

PRISON OF HUSKS is a nostalgic, single-player souls-like set in a bittersweet, melancholic world inspired by the interconnected level design of earlier souls games. Awaken as a doll and seek your beloved. Explore a painted afterlife full of secrets and adversaries.After my prototype received a great deal of attention and support, there was some demand for a full game. At the beginning of 2024 I continued to develop Prison of Husks alongside 2 volunteers APNOIAC and Moonskinned, both of whom have been of great assistance in providing additional concept art, models and animation work. I have also been involving them in the design process to encourage a more collaborative effort where ideas can flourish!A demo was showcased at Gamebridge 2024 and achieved the Runner Up in Design Excellence Award!The prototype was featured in a video by Iron Pineapple! Since then it has garnered over 3000 downloads!

• Wishlist on Steam!

Development Analysis

• Programming Analysis

PRISON OF HUSKS Prototype (2023)

Roles:

• Game Design
• Composer
• Programming
• Sound Design
• Sound Implementation
• 3D Animation
• UI
• Level Design

About

Assume the form of a doll and make your way out of this decrepit prison. Like a crossbreed between Sekiro and Demon's Souls.This is the result of 8 months of solo development, with some assistance from my good friend archieb303 during the final month of development. This project was made to practice Level Design, Animations, Programming and Game Design.The prototype was featured in a video by Iron Pineapple! Since then it has garnered over 3000 downloads!

• itch.io

Development Analysis

• Design Analysis
• Audio Integration

PRISON OF HUSKS - 1.03 Programming Notes

• Return to Game Page

This page covers some improvements I made to the programming over the 1.00 build! For a brief comparison check the following videos:

The Improved Character Controller

Player State Behaviours
Perhaps the most difficult area to refine. The player state manager needed to be versatile when encountering conflicts, robust in handling buffered inputs and jumping between states rapidly which alter dozens of parameters per frame.The general sort order is
> Await Input
> Perform Action & Enable/Listen to Buffer
> Wait for AnimationEvent or State to transfer to Follow Up State
> Check first index of Buffer Array
> If something is present then go into that action
> If not then await further input before animation completes.Every function has its set of failsafes in case a really arbritrary series of events occurs (eg. falling, committing to a plunging attack, and suddenly being hit by an attack strong enough to go into the stronger Hit state which overrides the animation. This isn't currently possible, but maybe someday!)

Switch from Character Controller to Rigidbody with OnAnimatorMove
A problem I faced in the original release was the use of Unity’s Character Controller, because opponents were Rigidbodies, they were able to do undesirable things such as clip the player through the terrain in corners. The player also suffered from grounding issues most notably lacking proper ground detection and being stuck in a “Fall” softlock state.I switched over to a Non-Kinematic Rigidbody and used OnAnimatorMove to handle movement with physics when performing actions, doing so resulted in much more effective results. I also added a process to identify slopes and adjust the angle of the movement’s velocity during either FixedUpdate when moving or OnAnimatorMove whilst performing an action.

Hitbox IDs

Characters check for certain trigger colliders with the respective Tag. In the prototype I had a failsafe to prevent re-triggered hits if an attack was still mid-swing by simply disabling the collider. This was a hacky solution, because you may perform an animation which clearly hits through several targets, or the animation involves multiple moments for the hurtbox to be active. It was restrictive.My solution was to simply have the collider's GameObject change ID everytime it is activated by the AnimationEvent. The clip below showcases how much more control the designer has with how frequent or infrequent a hurtbox is supposed to deal damage to whatever it makes contact with. (sidenote this clip is from January 2024)

Enemy AI

NavMeshAgent Syncronisation with Animation
Enemy AI uses Unity’s NavMesh agent for pathfinding when patrolling, returning to spawn or pursuing the player with no viable attacks.During any animation where the NavMesh isn’t used, the NavMesh Agent’s values are set to 0 while Root Motion takes control of the rigidbody and NavMesh simultanoeusly through the OnAnimatorMove Update loop.The rigidbody's position is frozen during most activity because the NavMeshAgent takes priority and the game does not utilise ragdolls or advanced physics.However certain animations will use an AnimationCurve called MagnetSpeed to override this rule and gravitate towards their target (the player). When this happens the rigidbody is being pushed in FixedUpdate, and so the rigidbody is granted freedom to move when MagnetSpeed > 0.

Player Tracking & Decision Making
When engaged in combat, enemies track various statistics like the player’s distance, angle and side positioning. For instance if the player is closer than 1.2 units the enemy is more likely to punch them to deal a stun that deals low damage instead of a jump attack to close the distance, which would be viable if the player were 3+ units away.

PRISON OF HUSKS - Design Notes

• Return to Game Page

Level Design Retrospective

Prison 3F Tutorial
I wanted to make a prison-themed tutorial stage that had a looping level design, with the player circling the stage and revisiting rooms. Another crucial focus was providing optional and/or "out-of-bounds" content to enjoy out of leisure. I was able to deliver upon this with the level that was present in PRISON OF HUSKS. Details can be read in the gallery images below.

Concept Art Comparison + Final Thoughts
The resulting level was a great success! Comments, playthroughs and data from the feedback form define the level as one of the primary highlights of the game.
One aspect I was particularly glad with, from both feedback and witnessing gameplay, was the variation in player experience despite the level's small scale.As a result of its positive reception however, I did not receive any in-depth feedback as much critique was reserved for areas like the combat or difficulty.In short, I gauged that the level served its purpose well and made for an all-round enjoyable dynamic experience and it's definitely an essence I want to recapture in future levels for this project's continuted development and future projects too.

Level Playthrough
Video of me running through the level. Would recommend trying it for yourself first!

Design Retrospective

Armour System
This system was developed to encourage exploration, taking risks and maintain aggressive combat when engaged.
The player expects to regularly take damage in an action-adventure game, especially a souls-like, however I noticed that this would encourage most players to shy away from danger and miss out on an enthralling experience by not taking the risk of participating in a more active gameplay style.

Kaiju: City Defender DX - Bullet Hell Jam 2023

Roles:

• Composer
• Game Design
• Sound Design
• Audio Implementation
• Programming

About

Developed in a team of 6 as part of the Bullet Hell Jam 2023, a game jam that took the course of 10 days.Destroy a kaiju dragon that is invading the city, however your helicopter can't take it down on its own! With the help of various turret buildings you can endure the assault and deliver enough damage per second to take down the kaiju whilst avoiding their perilous attacks.Development took place over 10 days. My core role was composition, however I also helped set up all the camera systems with Cinemachine and implementation/integration for both audio and user interface with Wwise.

• itch.io

Friend Collector - 32bit Game Jam

Roles:

• Composer
• Game Design
• Sound Design
• Sound Implementation
• Lead Artist
• 3D Animation
• Programming

About

Developed in collaboration with Greg Sutton.We wanted to create a fishing game with a twist by incorporating rhythm game elements. The player would perform the rhythm game whilst maintaining their balance via holding the triggers. Missed notes would punish the player by throwing them off-balance, a distraction from the rhythm game that challenges the player to maintain focus.The gameplay loops consists of performing the rhythm game well to increase your fish's value, purchasing time extensions and using consumables to alter the odds of catching your desired fish. The overall goal is to fill out your fishing log before the time runs out.Development took place over 2 weeks. A total of 3 3D models, 6 Music Tracks were developed alongside all of the spritework, key art and programming assistance.The game placed a #7 Overall Rating and #1 Sound Rating out of over 120 submissions.

• itch.io

Design Retrospective

A core element I designed was the Shop and Timer, which was supposed to reflect a parking meter. The goal of the game was to collect all the "friends", earning money to juggle between extending your time whilst purchasing new lures to guarantee collection of each category.Despite the game's positive reception, we did find that the intended endgame was not feasible due to the heavy reliance on RNG. The player had control over which category of "friend" they wanted to catch, as well as the amount of time they could have before the game is over, but not over the rarity of the catch.

As a result I designed some bait items used to alter the RNG in the player's chosen favour (Eg. high odds of catching a Rare, or a Legendary). Each bait costing a different amount, forcing the player to review their options when choosing between purchasing Time, Lures (Catch Category) and Bait (Catch Rarity).

Lys' Nightmare - Academic Project

Roles:

• Game Design
• Sound Design
• Sound Implementation
• Lead Artist
• Level Designer
• Programming
• 3D Animation
• UI

About

Developed during my final year at Bath Spa University. The goal was to develop a game that connected with my artist identity, particularly to my album LEXI'S UNIVERSE.The gameplay is reminiscent of Dark Souls, requiring the player to explore a gothic town and think tactically about their next move to avoid death. Exploration is key and rewarded, granting shortcuts like unlockable doors and elevators.Programming was done with PlayMaker's Visual Scripting tool in Unity while 3D models and animations were done in Blender.

• itch.io

Design Retrospective

• Level Design ArtStation Post
• Project Dissertation (Details)

Project: Sporox - Funded Incubator Project (Tranzfuser 2022)

Roles:

• Composer
• Character Artist
• Level Designer

About

Developed as part of Creature Friends, a studio of 5 university graduates.Initially conceived during a university module as a small prototype, it was applied and accepted onto the Tranzfuser 2022 programme.The game was developed over 3 months with the general level being developed in the first 2 months while characters and music were completed in the final month leading up to the game's showcase.The game was showcased at EGX London in September of 2022. Whilst we faced some UX issues, overall response was positive toward the game's concept, its quirky characters, unique visual style and audio.

• itch.io

Music Portfolio

Spotlight Playlist! (Games + Production)

VGM OSTs Produced

Albums Produced

Tracks and songs I have written and produced. florelle songs were written in collaboration with Lumin and vera, etc. while I mixed and mastered the songs myself. I work primarily in Studio One but am capable of utilising other DAWs and software such as Ableton, Reaper and an assortment of music trackers like MilkyTracker and FamiTracker.

Compilations Contributed

Commissions

I will produce music to fit your digital fantasy hellscape!!
Styles: Chiptune, VGM, Shoegaze, Hyperpop, Breakcore, Math Rock, 90s, 2000s