Work

EPA Games

I was the Game Designer and Project Lead for 4 EPA projects during my time at RTI: Slime City, VR Chemical and Radiation Sampler, Fluid Dynamics Simulator, and UV Radiation Simulator.

Slime City

  • Sampling Tools
  • Work Orders
  • Waste Management
  • Slime City’s Terrain

Slime City is a city simulation game for disaster cleanup management. The core gameplay loop is designed around sampling sites, neutralizing contamination, and safely disposing of all hazardous waste while managing a budget, executing work orders, and making sure the population remains happy.

I joined the project partway through development and redesigned the core gameplay and UI. Our client was unhappy with the progress made by the original team, and was close to pulling funding. I closely worked with our client to make a scientifically accurate game that was within our limitations, achieved their goals, and most importantly was fun for players.

I was the design lead and sometimes software engineer for audio and UI. Level Design was a collaboration between myself and an extremely talented contractor, Bill Freeling. I also have to give huge props to Greg Osofo, who laid a ton of the groundwork for complex equations and worker management, including shifts and their ability to go on strike.

VR Chemical and Radiation Sampler

Chemical and Radiation Sampler is a single player game for Quest 2 and PC. Players are part of an EPA cleanup crew, and need to correctly identify harmful chemicals and radiation pockets with the fastest time possible. Levels include a meth lab, the RDU Airport, and a city square after a nuclear incident.

I primarily handled Level Design, balancing, and QA. Most of my work involved placing and iterating contaminant sites, blocking, lighting, and pacing. Andrew Brook was the lead developer and he rocked this project.

Fluid Dynamics

The EPA originally required that Slime City utilize real-time particle based water simulations. Water in games are usually rendered by a planar based simulation because particle simulations are extremely performance intensive and can rapidly tank the frame rate.

I researched fluid simulations in Unity and Unreal in an attempt to model real-time particle based fluid dynamics. It wasn’t possible to render large fluid simulations and maintain a performant frame rate, so I explored what was doable within small-scale environments and with lower particle counts with stock assets and 3rd party plugins.

We ended up using and modifying ObiFluid to create 5 demo scenes that showcased velocity, fate & transport, mesh deformation, and surface viscosity.

UV Radiation Simulator

This simulator accurately models the spread of UV radiation in Unity based on the positioning of player-controlled lights. Running a simulation inside of a bus, office, or airplane colors game objects in the environment to resemble how much radiation is absorbed from the light sources. I was the designer and project manager and Greg Osefo was the lead developer.