Nice to meet you! My name is Devon. I'm a Software & Audio Engineer with a little over 3 years of industry experience. My primary experience revolves around Real-Time Systems (specifically Video Games), but I have a relatively versatile skillset, which I'm exhibiting through this website that I've coded and designed myself.
At this moment, I am a freelance and independent game developer, but I am open to other work as well! If you would like to get in touch with me, please visit the 'CONTACT' tab at the top-left of the page. I hope to hear from you soon!
My college years in Chicago were spent working on a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science at DePaul University. The COVID-19 pandemic forced me inside for the last year of my degree, which had me real close to a computer during my most difficult courses. It was through this period that I completed a comprehensive amount of work on my Game Engine, along with a deep-dive into multithreading, and then finishing out with a capstone game project.
My most notable professional experience was at Microsoft's Turn 10 Studios, where I was a Gameplay Engineer for the award-winning Forza Motorsport.
I am also credited on Djinni and Thaco: Trial By Spire (a VR game from Dark Catt Studio), and I've worked on BlueJeans Spaces (a virtual workspace) at Verizon, which was unfortunately sunset.
CRUNCHTIME is a survival horror game revolving around a game developer's horrifying encounters at their job.
Currently, as the only developer for Coded Creativity, I am working tirelessly to prototype and develop game systems and mechanics to create a fun experience.
Along with the game's code, I have also been creating music and early models to work with and build upon as development progresses. All updates on development of this title can be accessed through the video embed above.
Forza Motorsport (2023) is the 8th installment in the renowned, award-winning franchise of racing simulators. Forza Motorsport was the winner of Best Sports/Racing Game and Best Innovation in Accessibility at the 2023 Game Awards.
My role as a Gameplay Engineer entailed modifying and creating several different systems in the game. The bulk of my labor was focused on the Builder's Cup game mode (the single player campaign), where players modify their chosen car as the cup progresses.
The most notable system I created would have to be the Tangible Rewards feature, which is simply a buzzword for reward popups during the post-race flow.
Some of the other systems I worked on include the Car Showroom Discounts, Onboarding, Voice-overs, Live-Service Data Transfer, Scoring for AI cars, and other Miscellaneous UI Modals.
Envrmnt (a subsidiary of Verizon) was a relatively small studio working on VR and AR applications, as well as developing a proprietary game engine. The most recent application from Envrmnt was BlueJeans Spaces (a cross-platform virtual workspace).
Unfortunately, Envrmnt has since dispersed, and the BlueJeans application as a whole has been sunset (more information here). I am glad to still be in touch with everyone from the studio.
As an Engine Developer, I dealt with various different tasks in multiple areas and systems. Despite my title, much of my time over at Envrmnt consisted of developing BlueJeans Spaces.
That being said, I did work on the engine and framework, on which Spaces ran. These engine changes ranged from multithreaded and networked calls, audio events, and connections to the application.
Much of the application work I did consisted of miscellaneous bug fixes, notifications, user searching, UI layout, onboarding, and styling the application. Before the app was sunset officially, I did some work making a Plinko minigame for Spaces, which preceded my transition to Turn 10 Studios.
Djinni & Thaco: Trial By Spire is a Virtual Reality tower defense game, set in a zainy world. You play a powerful Djinni, building defenses against Thaco's forces, and slamming them with your godly powers.
As a Gameplay Engineer Intern, I scripted the functionality for some of the enemies and towers in the game. Additionally, I found and fixed multiple bugs.
Developing the Modest Engine was a large part of my curriculum at DePaul University.
Through a 2-trimester course, I worked tirelessly when it came to learning how to create game systems from the ground-up.
The only foundation my collegues and I were given included a Renderer and a Math Library, which were pre-compiled libraries developed by one of our professors.
For a deep-dive into the engine and its systems, check out the playlist on my YouTube channel embedded above (or click here).
Upon that foundation I built the systems for the following:
Game Objects, Collision, Scene Management, Input, Alarms, Time, Sound, Terrain,
Resource Management, Sprites, Fonts, Screen Logging, and Math Tools
In addition to developing a Game Engine, I had to prove that the engine worked.
In the Modest Engine, I created a tank game that demonstrated many of the systems at play. To exhibit the Sound system in Modest, I also made all the sounds and music for the game. I've been told it's fun to play by friends of mine, which came to my surprise as I put very little time into designing it.
My 2-trimester capstone project at DePaul University was the partial development of a 3D, online brawler called Bumper Ship Showdown. The game was unfortunately left unfinished due to multiple circumstances (COVID-19), but we were able to complete many systems.
The systems I worked on heavily included Events, Game Modes, Networking, UI and Audio. Additionally, I made all the sounds and an entire soundtrack for the game, with the help of another team member for one of the tracks. You can listen to that soundtrack in the embed above.