Gage Johnson
Technical UX Designer in my fourth year at UCI.
Enkore
Enkore is a 3v3 multiplayer ability shooter with characters based on musical genres made in Unreal Engine 5.
Type: 10-Week Game Project
Time: January 2023 - March 2023
Team: 10
Role: UX Designer, UI Engineer
Skills/Tools: Unreal, Perforce, Figma, Jira, Blueprints, C++.
Focus: Using a comprehensive UX process and implementing all UI in Unreal.
Gathered feedback from 20 playtests to rapidly iterate on designs.
Worked closely with a visual designer to go from Lo-Fi wireframes to a complete experience.
Designed and implemented all UI in Unreal including menus, character selection, and HUD.
The Summoner
First person adventure game in which you slay monsters and summon spirits.
Type: Capstone Game Project
Time: January 2023 - March 2023
Team: 18
Role: Technical UI/UX Designer, UI Engineer
Skills/Tools: Unreal, Perforce, Figma, Jira, C++.
Focus: Joining a team halfway through development and doing a full UI design process from problem discovery to design, iteration, and implementation.
Worked closely with UI artists, game designers, audio, programmers, and leadership to craft the UI and overall user experience.
Advocated for accessibility by working with level design and audio to make the game more accessible by design, and to add options that could assist HoH and visually impaired gamers.
Implemented all UI in Unreal. Translating designs into blueprints, assets, and code.
ICS Project Expo - First Place
Sling & Fling
A 2.5D top-down minimalist action game in which you use a magnetic gun to attract and repel both enemies and yourself through a fast paced gauntlet!
Type: Video Game Development Club Quarter Project
Time: October 2022 - December 2022
Team: 13
Role: Team Lead, UX/UI Lead, Technical Game Design
Skills/Tools: Unity(VFX Graph, Shader Graph, DoTween), C#, Inkscape, Figma, Trello, Git.
Focus: My first time leading a large team, I focused on supporting others, mentoring, and communicating to create a great team experience, as well as a great game experience!
Scheduled and lead full team standups, as well as both the Art and UI/UX meetings each week.
Lead with a "Servant Leader" style, where I act as a resource for the team, and help wherever I am needed to best support their work.
Coordinated busy college schedules, and kept team members motivated and engaged for 7 weeks.
Mentored and guided 3 new UI/UX Designers, teaching them Unity, Figma, and more.
Prototyped mechanics so we could playtest, iterate, and explore before programming finalized and solidified systems.
Learned alot about how to communicate effectively, and what tools and techniques help alot with communication across many disciplines.
The Void
Minimalist casual strategy game where you defend a base against an everpressing void.
Type: Solo Project
Time: November 2021 - Present
Role: Full Game Development
Skills/Tools: Unity(VFX Graph, Shader Graph, DoTween), C#, Blender, Inkscape, Figma, Trello, Git.
Focus: Through trial and error, constant iteration, and challenging myself I have learned alot about programming, design, and UX/UI through this project.
Programming complex systems such as pathfinding, worker job allocation, and varied buildable structures(farms, defenses, etc).
Creating a clear visual style with UX first that it is easily comprehensible to a casual player.
Designing elegant mechanics and systems that are strategically deep akin to games like BTD, Rymdkapsel, and Mini Metro.
I am dedicated to keeping a high bar of quality with all features to create a game worthy of a broad consumer market.
Please, click More Info to the right to see more!
Barrage
Defend your core from oppressive bombardments of debris in this fast base-building strategy game!
Type: Ludum Dare Game Jam
Time: October 2022
Team: 3
Roles: UX Design, Game Design, Programming
Skills/Tools: Unity, C#, Inkscape
Focus: Creating a highly polished, high action strategy game, with a focus on clear communication and feedback so that the player is never confused and can keep up with the pace of the game.
I programmed all core systems: building placement, barrage waves, win/loss, UI.
I led design with a focus on creating a fast paced experience that didn't overwhelm players while also ensuring they are always engaged in flow.
Designed and Implemented all UI: Circular flashing timer, buttons that respond with clear feedback based on conditions, stylized health bar that responds with reactive fade to damage, radial warning that flashes to show the player where the storm is coming so they can be ready for the storm even amidst the chaos.
Ran playtests and balanced the game accounting for a wide range of player skill level by implementing an adaptive difficulty system.
Created an adaptive tutorial that pop-ups based on ingame conditions to best assist the player when they need it the most. (i.e. if a lot of scrap can be picked up will pop up telling them how to collect scrap and why to do it.)
Collaborated closely with team, responding to feedback, and coming up with creative compromises.
Placed 3rd overall and 3rd in fun out of over 1700 gamess.
Entropy
A poetic adventure through beautiful chaos.
Type: Ludum Dare Game Jam
Time: October 2021
Team: 3
Roles: UX Design, Game Design, Production
Skills/Tools: Unity, C#, Trello
Focus: Creating a powerful experience beyond just a fun game, with theme first design and gameplay.
I took a step back from programming due to health complications and became a dedicated designer and producer.
I guided our team towards key pillars that made the game fun and impactful. I kept the team focused on our goals and kept us moving quickly under the short jam deadline.
A comment that pushes me every day: "This was a fantastic game and I’m extremely impressed. Not many games evoke emotion for me, and certainly not one without a story. Throughout my 15-some LDs I don’t think I’ve ever given out 5 stars across the board, so this might be the first one." - peachtreeoath
Out on Steam! 6000+ players and 98% positive reviews!
Please, click More Info to the right to see more!
"Disorder is inevitable, but we choose to fly, towards beautiful possibilities."
Reaver
REAVER is a fast paced magical FPS where you fight hordes of mysterious beings that detonate if you get too close! Harvest their souls to level up, and survive against the onslaught for as long as you can!
Type: Ludum Dare Game Jam
Time: April 2022
Team: 4
Roles: Game Design, Programming
Skills/Tools: Unreal 5.0, Perforce
Focus: Creating a game in Unreal for the first time!
Programmed the entire game using blueprints.
Designed and implemented the UI, HUD and menus.
Had a blast rapidly learning a new engine, as well as a new method of source control with Perforce.
Those Along The Way
A short walking simulator/visual novel game that encourages players to look back on their lives and reflect on the people and events that have shaped who they are today.
Type: Ludum Dare Game Jam
Time: April 2022
Team: 6
Roles: UX Design, Game Design, Programming
Skills/Tools: Unity(Cinemachine, VFX Graph), C#, Trello.
Focus: Creating a cinematic narrative experience.
Programmed the cubes that fly to form the player, working to capture the essence of forming a person from those in the past.
Communicated with multidisciplinary team effectively, in a fast pace agile adjacent environment.
Structured the pacing of the game and the camera direction, in order to best present our story in an engaging and seamless way. Focusing on crafting an emotional experience.
Project Reaper
A top-down 2D local co-op hack-and-slash about incarnations of death from cultures across the globe fighting the undead.
Type: 10 Week Club Project
Time: January-March 2022
Team: 9
Roles: Lead Programming
Skills/Tools: Unity(DoTween, Input System), C#, Trello
For This club game project I worked in my first large team. I learned alot about how to compromise and cooperate with a diverse group of people. Adapting to what the team needs.
While, my core task on the team was programming, I found myself as a bit of a scrum master. I assigned tasks and kept motivation up as we tackled each feature one week at a time.
Motivated and directed others scheduling times where we could meet up and work.
Mentored a newer programmer through their first large game. This was really rewarding, and also helped me learn C# better and communication of code.
Programmed and helped design many features (three different enemies, edge screen indicators, core wave structure, player abilities, split screen.)
Dopamine
A short game that messes with the players perception of randomness and luck, through a rigged and erie experience.
Type: GMTK Jam 2022
Time: July 2022
Team : 3
Roles: Game Design, Programming, UX Design
Skills/Tools: Unity(DoTween), C#, Trello, Google Sheets
Focus: I focused on creating a narrative experience. Through balancing the
loaded dice rolls of the dealer, programming the dice rolls so they feel
satisfying, and customizing how the coins fall and pile to make the player care about their wealth.Each part of the game I designed and programmed was focused on the core experience and message our team wanted to deliver. I love creating a cohesive experience where every aspect of the game is purposeful and adds to a single driving theme.
Programmed all core features of the game, from the players dice rolling and being detected, to the loaded dice rolls of the dealer set from a spreadsheet.
Hex Pattern Generator
Elegant artistic generator of patterns using cellular automata and pathfinding algorithms. Type: Solo Experiment
Time: Fall 2021
Role: Creator
Skills/Tools: Unity, C#, voice programming
Focus: Exploring interesting programming concepts and a hexagonal grid system beautifully.
I am amazed by the beauty that can arise from simple components and rules. So I created the most interesting patterns possible with just color, size, and basic rules.
Programmed almost entirely by voice do to past RSI Issues.
My creative process always starts with something interesting and strange. I experiment and iterate to find what is beautiful and fun, and then hone in on designing and creating an experience around that.
"Great game designers don't have a perfect vision of a game and then simply translate it into reality. They dig around in the spaces of possibility, watching for hints of value, and seize them when they appear." - Tynan Sylvester, Designing Games.
This project was the starting point for my ongoing project "The Void."
Polyscape
Abstract city-builder strategy game with randomly generated polygonal maps.
Type: Solo Project
Time: 2019-2021
Role: Full Game Development
Skills/Tools: Unity, C#, Trello, Inkscape
Iterative design, testing, and balancing guided my work.
Focus: Learning Unity and exploring a complexly designed and programmed game with deep gameplay.
5 levels introduce a total of 10 buildings each with unique interactions that can combo with or harm other buildings, creating an intricate web of elegant mechanics that create complex emergent strategies and decisions.
Has over an hour of gameplay.
Glide
An arcade game where you glide across a canvas and cover it with paint as you loop symbols and rack up points.
Type: Ludum Dare Game Jam
Time: October 2020
Team: 3
Roles: Programmer and Co-Designer.
Skills/Tools: Unity, C#, Trello, Google Sheets
Focus: Creating a juicy game with an arcade feel. Centered design decisions and balance around generating a strong sense of flow.
Designed and implemented an algorithm for loop detection, an online global leaderboard, the movement of the ribbon(player), and systems for dynamic music and paint splatter that changes as the player progresses.
Rated in the top 3% for both overall and innovation categories in the Ludum Dare Game Jam.
Beam Slinger
Sling yourself across an asteroid field, keeping your momentum alive and staying warm in a cold universe!
Type: Ludum Dare Game Jam
Time: April 2020
Team: 3
Roles: Sole-Programmer and Co-Designer.
Skills/Tools: Unity, C#, Trello,
Focus: Programmed and tuned movement to be satisfying and give the player maximum control and agency.
Designed edge of screen indicators for asteroids, that give the player an awareness beyond the screen. This made gameplay more fun and generated a flow state loop of action, reaction, and anticipation.
Rated in the top 3% of the fun category for the Ludum Dare Game Jam.
Neon Void
You play as a shining beacon of hope in a world of unforgiving darkness. Dodge around malicious shades who are intent on shattering your spirit. Collect and use seven bright power ups that have been scattered throughout the world and bring light back to the universe!
Type: Ludum Dare Game Jam, Dreamhack Jungle Jam
Time: 2019-2020
Team: 3
Roles: Sole-Programmer and Co-Designer.
Skills/Tools: Unity, C#, Trello,
Focus: A full experience with gameplay that starts easy to learn but gains complexity and offers great skill expression.
Programmed and helped design 7 diverse power ups(dash, invisibility, repulse, force grab) that change how the game is played throughout its concise 10 minute play time.
Programmed and designed the rising tiles and enemies gravitational movement which define the environment and mood of the game.
Rated in the top 3% for both mood and overall categories in the Ludum Dare Game Jam.
6 More Jam Games
For each Jam I formed the teams and I guided everyone towards something we were all passionate about, while keeping constraints and limitations in mind.
I have made a lot of games, and with each I have learned more and more. The phrase "Fail Faster" is something I take to heart.
This is why all games finished on time, including polishing and testing during the high stress, short deadline game-jam environment.
And why all games have ratings in the Top 10% of the 2000+ submissions.
