About me
Programmer, artist, designer, leader… and gamer!
I’m a highly-motivated recent grad working to break into the industry. I studied both coding and game art, and I aim to create impactful experiences that players will remember!
I’ve been learning and working in the industry pipeline for more than 5 years, starting out as a 3D generalist with a focus on prop and environment art, and growing into a game designer and programmer as I studied coding. My current focus is on designing and coding interactive segments in which the gameplay itself plays an important role in the delivery of the experience.
While I am new to the industry, I aspire to work my way up to leadership roles; I already have experience in this field at the indie level. I am an effective communicator and enjoy coordinating a team toward development goals. Having a foot in both the art and coding fields helps with unifying a creative vision, too!
Since March 2022, I have been the team lead, sole programmer, and main gameplay designer on a small-team VR learning game (launching soon!). In addition to various student team projects, I have also been developing games with friends and in game jams.
I mainly work in Unreal Engine and Maya, but I am constantly expanding my horizons. I am currently learning Blender, Godot, and Unity, and I pick up industry-relevant software quickly as-needed.
Finally, I am passionate about video games as a medium: I think that they can be a confluence of many great arts and create experiences like no other. I have a special interest in Virtual Reality and the cutting edge of media experience. I hope to found my own studio someday!
Skills
Gameplay design, menus, dev tools, optimization…
prop & environment art, look dev, etc!
Unreal Engine
Full engine process:
UE4 & UE5.
Level and interactive
design, programming
(Blueprint & C++),
menus, shaders,
lighting & look dev,
optimization, multi-
platform development
Maya
3D Generalist:
Modeling, UV-unwrap,
retopology, shading,
game asset prep & export.
Some proficiency
with rigging, animation,
rendering
Visual Studio / IDE
Object-Oriented Programming:
Designing and implementing gameplay, systems,
development tools,
and optimizations.
C++, C#, UE Blueprint,
Python, GDScript.
Able to learn new
languages quickly
Godot Engine
Some experience developing
2D games in Godot with GDScript
Unity Engine
Some experience in Unity,
secondary to Unreal Engine skill
Blender
Some Blender experience,
secondary to Maya
Substance 3D
Some Substance proficiency,
enough for 3D arts pipeline
C++
Primary development language
Python
Strong Python capabilities
Portfolio & Projects
“DigiBio” VR Learning Game
Format: Virtual Reality game
Target Platform: Meta Quest 2; secondary PC desktop mode
Dates: January 2022 – Present (Ongoing)
Roles: Team lead; lead programmer; lead gameplay designer; lead tester & optimizer; server manager
This project is ongoing, and revolves around developing a virtual reality game with the goal of helping to teach scientific concepts (specifically, cellular biology) in an engaging way. It started as an internship while I was still in university, and evolved into contract work post-graduation.
I’ve acted as lead developer and team coordinator on this project, as well as lead (and only) programmer, primary gameplay designer, lead tester and optimization handler, target platform specialist, and project server manager. I’ve worn a lot of hats on this project!
I’ve led a small indie team working on this, only 4 people total. As it is a project commissioned by a professor, we have worked to craft the experience in accordance with his desires and with a focus on delivering effective educational content (in addition to engaging gameplay).
This game is developed in Unreal 4 for the Meta Quest 2 VR platform, and I have directed coding and development to allow for a secondary desktop play mode, to expand the potential reach of the game. Coordinating the multi-platform effort has been complicated, but worth it!
Project “Dead Ringer”
Format: Virtual Reality experience
Target Platform: PC-VR
Dates: January – May 2022
Roles: Programmer; prop artist; assistant gameplay designer; lead tester & optimizer
This project was developed within a semester at university (CSUF) as a group project thesis. The team of 6 was mostly artists, with a few programmers (myself included). While most of us had worked in the various facets of the game dev pipeline up to that point, this was our first time bringing those concepts together and making an actual full-fledged game experience, using Unreal Engine 4.
The game is in the form of an “escape room” experience, in which the player must solve puzzles in order to progress toward the goal: namely, opening an exit route to escape. We designed the portion that we developed as a vertical slice of a potential larger, multi-stage experience.
I assisted the project lead and another member in designing the concept of the game flow, as well as ideating the puzzles and interactive portions that the player would solve in virtual reality. I worked on various props and art assets for several puzzles, and together with the leader did all of the coding and gameplay implementation. I also did almost all of the on-platform testing and led the effort to optimize game performance to enhance the virtual reality experience.
Flutterbloom Emporium
Format: Mobile Game (idle / gacha / management sim)
Target Platform: Mobile (Android)
Dates: March 2024 – Ongoing; planned release early 2025
Roles: Lead programmer; game designer; tester & optimizer; market researcher
A small-team indie project dedicated to rapidly developing a mobile game appealing to major trends in the current market, innovating on features that work well and introducing new cross-genre concepts.
This project came together among myself and a few creative peers with the intent to develop something with large success potential, which we already have the fundamental skillset for. The goal with this project is to produce something that will earn our small team the capital necessary to move onto more intentional indie development, including hopefully founding our own studio.
Development is ongoing using Godot Engine and Android Studio, coded in C# and GDScript.
Look forward to the release of our game early next year!
(Coming soon!)
Upcoming Horror Game
Format: Third-person exploration and puzzle game
Target Platform: PC desktop; consoles as a stretch goal
Roles: Project co-lead; lead programmer; lead game designer; 3D artist; creative co-director
This is an indie game project early in development, with much to sort out still but a lot of excitement behind it. I am leading this project in cooperation with a very talented writer, aiming to create an experience that captivates the audience and invites them to think on deep issues.
Early development has begun in Unreal 5. We are still assembling our creative team and finalizing development goals, but even in its early stages, this project has been a great endeavor in creative collaboration, learning new software, developing creative vision, and thinking about how best to connect to a player and deliver an impactful experience.
Along with acting as creative co-director (along with the lead narrative writer), I am the lead programmer on this project, and am acting as a 3D art generalist in early stages until we recruit additional artists. While this is currently a passion project, we aim to develop it into a full-fledged indie team project and deliver a horror game that will make waves!
Résumé
Here is my generalized résumé. I’ll be happy to provide one tailored for a specific field upon request!
Contact Me
To contact me, the best method is via e-mail. Please feel free to contact me at: thomaswood.creative@gmail.com
Or, feel free to call (or text!) me at:
(949) 742-0139
(I’m still setting up my professional social media accounts, but they’ll be linked here ASAP!)
