Project Lead, Product Manager, C# Programmer
Project Management
After developing the various mechanics mentioned below, I stepped up to a Project Management role within the team while continuing my development work. This role was an auxiliary position that facilitated team meetings, developed proper project rituals and planned out work for the team.
Once I had spent a few months in that role, I became the Project Lead for Fruit Ninja VR 2. My duties as lead encompassed the work I was doing in my previous role, as well as more workload around team management, project vision holding and roadmap planning.
Tutorial System
I was responsible for creating the system that allowed our designers to implement and iterate on a tutorial for new players. This system was extremely robust, allowing designers to show messages, prompt/remind the player, display custom UI messages and wait for specific player input. The system also allowed for player choice within it, with two initial weapon paths the player could choose from (blade and bow.
Mission System
As the player explores the world of FNVR2, they are given various missions to complete for a variety of rewards. I was the main developer of this system which required robust completion conditions. This system also tied into achievement requirements on Steam and Meta Quest.
Rhythm Mode
One of the new game modes offered in Fruit Ninja VR 2 was the "Fruitar Hero" rhythm game mode. I was responsible for the 'combo' mechanic and all the scoring, effects and celebration that tied into it. This combo mechanic was a core driving factor for players to repeat each level to achieve better scores.
Immersive UI
A major challenge for maintaining immersion in VR is how the UI is presented to the player. In Fruit Ninja VR 2, we developed the concept of a "Ninja Scroll" that the player could pull out and interact with. This scroll contained all the menus and UI needed for players to update their customization, change settings and view their current missions.
I was responsible for implementing the UI and physical interactions for the scroll, as well as constantly iterating on performance improvements.
Smooth Locomotion
When Fruit Ninja VR 2 first released, it had only two movement modes. These were 'Slide' and 'Blink' and are very common movement mechanics for VR titles. However, it was still missing the third movement that is a staple for VR, continuous movement (smooth locomotion.)
Smooth locomotion enables a player to move around in VR as if they were controlling a regular first person character and is quite different to the first two modes. It required a brand new NavMesh layer covering the whole game world to enable the team to define actual walkable areas. This system also still needed to give players the ability to teleport short distances to hop across various rivers and games within the areas.
Shop System
As we were nearing the end of Cheeky Chooks' development cycle, I decided that the game was simply too lifeless without some atmospheric sound. I began on a simple 3D sound system before realizing I had forgotten something quite important. You see Cheeky Chooks uses an orthographic camera that is placed quite high above the actual farm. This caused major issues with 3D audio sources being placed on the actual chickens themselves.
Gameplay Level Systems
As we were nearing the end of Cheeky Chooks' development cycle, I decided that the game was simply too lifeless without some atmospheric sound. I began on a simple 3D sound system before realizing I had forgotten something quite important. You see Cheeky Chooks uses an orthographic camera that is placed quite high above the actual farm. This caused major issues with 3D audio sources being placed on the actual chickens themselves.
Physics Improvements
After developing the various mechanics mentioned below, I stepped up to a Project Management role within the team while continuing my development work. This role was an auxiliary position that facilitated team meetings, developed proper project rituals and planned out work for the team.