heya!
I'm Declan and I make games. I've been interested in games design and development as long as I can remember and carried that passion through to my career. This is a webzone I made to document the games and other cool things I've made.
I'm currently a Master's by Research candidate at UTS, researching accessibility issues in games. I'm also working on a solo indie project releasing soon on Steam!
In 2023, I graduated my Bachelor of Science in Games Development at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) with distinction. (See my academic record here)
I love that game development lets us combine problem-solving and engineering with imagination to create fun and immersive experiences!
Games
i'm passionate about game design and a strong coder.
i've been working in unity for about nine years and programming even longer.
also featured here are various programming projects.
Gambit
Medieval-themed isometric turn-based-strategy game with unique tactics rethought from the ground-up.
We made Gambit in Unity as a team of 6. I primarily worked on programming for gameplay and back-end systems as well as some UI design. The game was originally made for a uni project.
Through this project, I've learnt a lot about the process of game development, working as a team and dividing tasks. It's also been a platform for great iterative design opportunities as we've constantly looked over the game to find and push for what works, and change what doesn't.
We've continued working on the game, and whist development is slow, we plan to one day release the game independently on PC and mobile!
The original version of this game was featured in the Autumn 2022 UTS Games Showcase and we won the People's Choice award.
Heavy Metal
In Heavy Metal, you wield a giant sword and must defeat hoards of foes of many types, each with various defences requiring a different attack strategy. The sword is controlled with the mouse, a unique control method that creates physics-based mayhem. You have three abilities that each support your mobility in different ways - a jump to leap above enemies, a slow-motion speed burst to dodge enemies and help with timing your attacks, and a risky dash move.
This project began life as a uni assignment where I played a lead role as both a programmer and designer.
This was one of the first projects I felt we really effectively approached from a design-first attitude. We started with a very basic prototype of a stick figure with a sword and gradually week-by-week built it out and followed the fun elements based on playtests. That was a really powerful process and this was where I made the most progress as a developer from this project.
We've recently begun rebuilding Heavy Metal from the ground up as a more arcade-style mobile game, with endless gameplay and a deeper progression system.
The original version of this game was featured in the Autumn 2021 UTS Games Showcase.
Project Inertia
Project Inertia is a 3D action platformer where you are tasked with zooming through levels to deliver packages as quickly as possible. You are armed with your Surf-Sword, both a defensive weapon and a mode of transportation. You can toggle between two different control methods; on-foot is best for getting through tricky platforming courses with tight jumps, and surfing mode is better for speed and style, inspired by skating games.
My contribution was for this project was primarily as a gameplay programmer. As part of this project, we collaborated with music and sound design students, working with them to bring our vision to life and integrating their content into our game through FMOD.
As a gameplay programmer on this project I learnt heaps about physics and game feel. We had a lot of obstacles to completing this project so we found ways to adapt our plan while still expressing what we wanted to. I also learnt a lot about team management through this project as we worked with students from a totally different field and learned to effectively communicate what we needed to achieve the vision we had for the project.
The original version of this game was featured in the 2022 UTS Sound Project Showcase.
Remote Object System
This is a system I designed for Unity projects to communicate with Raspberry Pi devices over a local network. I created a simple protocol to network a host device to many child devices. I primarily experimented with audio, making physical devices play sounds to reflect gameplay. I also implemented interfacing with GPIO, allowing you to control LEDs and other basic electronics. My intent is that developers can cheaply and easily use off-the-shelf electronics, 3D-printing, etc. to create a novel physical representation of their games. It's theoretically scalable to any engine or device, and almost anything is possible functionality-wise too. I provide instructions on how to add extensions to the package I've developed, however the backend for this isn't particularly elegant.
The documentation is rock-solid and I break down all the systems at play pretty thoroughly. I produced this for a self-directed study in my last semester at university. As niche as it is, it was one of my favourite projects at uni, and I learnt a lot about networking and problem-solving through iterative development. The demo video is a bit rough, but it gives an okay presentation on the features of the system. (2023)
Video demo DocumentationPirate & Dragon UE5 Animation
A pirate and a dragon go to the big city to deposit some treasure at the bank! A simple comedy short I made at uni with two other talented students.
We made this animation in Unreal Engine 5 by shopping together stock assets available on the Unreal Marketplace and other sources. Through this project we learnt about realtime animation techniques and their potential in the 3D animation space. It also gave me a way to explore storytelling technqiues and start thinking about 3D animation shots similarly to in live action cinema. It also refined my skills in UE5 especially regarding lighting and animation.
Watch the animation on YouTubeother game projects
Quack (Unreal Engine 4, 2021) - This is an online multiplayer FPS I made during university to demonstrate a high technical ability in Unreal Engine and game programming. Players compete to score as many kills as possible! It features a procedurally generated arena with randomised weapons. Whilst there's no demo available for this game, here is a video where I run through the technical side of the level generation system.
Noclip (Unity, 2021) - Noclip is a game I originally made in 2021 during COVID lockdowns as a silly multiplayer game to play with my friends. The concept: a free-for-all FPS where everyone has no-clip. We never actually ended up playing it, but all the same this was my first time making an online multiplayer game. The implementation is a little bodgy and anti-cheat hasn't even been considered, but it supports a listen server for games over the internet using Unity MLAPI back when it was in Beta. I have no idea how balanced it is, but it's hopefully a bit of fun for some crazy multiplayer shenanigans!
SUPERPAC (Unity, 2020) - Way back in my first year of uni, we were tasked to make a remake of Pac-Man, with a bonus 5 marks for adding bonus features. I made a whole mode based on the game SUPERHOT, where you fly around the Pac-Man map shooting the ghosts. I was one of only four first-year projects featured in that semester's UTS Games Showcase.
A is for Archery (Unity, 2023) - A proof-of-concept prototype for an archery-themed turn-based-strategy game. Each turn you can give your squad two actions, each of these actions may either be to MARCH or FIRE. This was made in an afternoon for fun :).
Helicopter Game (Unity, 2022) - Based on the Atari 2600 game M*A*S*H, this simple arcade game was made solo for a one-week university task, and I got a little carried away adding extra features and polish.
Check out my itch.io to see even more of my games.
audio
i am an amateur musician and music producer. 🎧🎸
i'm also very familiar with audio technology and have made complex audio systems for games.
i'd love to make music for a game one day!
apryl
Apryl is an experimental electronic music project I've been releasing music under since 2021. I mostly use it to explore ambient soundtrack-like soundscapes and complex rhythmic ideas.
The debut album, which I solo produced, mixed, and mastered, came out in December 2023, and has been well received by my small group of passionate fans :)
Bandcamp YouTube Spotify
Other Music Stuff
Prior to Apryl starting up I released music as Delcan, and continue to use that name to publish music content on my YouTube channel from time-to-time. I'll likely have many other music projects going on in the future.
My YouTube channel
Gambit and other games
As well as the programming, I also designed Gambit's Unity audio system. Whilst the audio itself was mostly outsourced from royalty-free sources, I compiled it all together and used my knowledge from music production to make sure it came out sounding great.
Also see my Remote Audio System mentioned above for another novel experiment in game audio.
I'm keen to expand my experience with audio in games including working with FMOD/Wwise, and I would also love to tackle in writing an original soundtrack for a game.
design
i'm passionate about UX and visual design.
i have an eye for making things look and feel great.
here are some projects i've been involved with.
this website
I wouldn't call myself a web developer, but I've created a number of sites for my own personal projects, including this one.
I'm experienced with HTML, CSS, and JS including JQuery. While my background is more in coding, I take a design-first approach and build the site's aesthetics in Photoshop (or similar) first and then approach the code from there.
I'm also somewhat familiar with using Electron for desktop web applications, and I've used ThreeJS to create 3D web art.
Branding
I've created original brand identities for many of my projects. I try to create contemporary designs that are unique, distinct and strongly recognisable.
contact me
email me at declancarveth at gmail.com.
or check out one of my profiles.