Hi there, I’m Zachary, or Ascendancy, and I own NonLocality Software. I’ve got two games in development at my company, and have been using UE4 since 4.1. I’m familiar with nearly every area of the engine, and have built frameworks for multiple genres of games with great stability and extensibility.(Shooters, RPG’s, Platformers, MMO’s, Top Down Mobile games)
Things I have worked on as a freelancer:
-Save Systems for RPGs
-Quest systems+ Dynamic Quest Modules with custom behaviors based on Quest/Task Status; entire quests can be set up by artists without programmer help
-Character state machines: Determine available moves and actions for melee and shooter combat based on character, movement, and gun/combat state machines.
-Animation blueprints: Able to blend between entire sets of animations fluidly, combined with State machine allows for tight control with little to no action/animation bleeding
-Master Material/Shader set up, project optimization
-Modular sandbox set up, able to create artist-friendly kits for buildings, environmental pieces, platforming objects, player interfaces, etc. Artists can set up new levels from scratch within hours.
-Complex and nested UI, modify game variables, game objects, game mode settings, etc using menus in-game. Switch between Menus using state machines.
-Created complex AI behavior: Idle, patrol, search, investigate, hold position, advance, retreat, cover.
-VFX: decently versed in UE4’s cascade system for creating particle FX, explosions, persistent ambience, lasers, electricity
-Character movement: vaulting, climbing, dashing, grappling
-Landscape creation and modification+optimisation and material painting/blending.
-Mobile Development: Created an entire mobile game from scratch in 8 weeks, start to finish, with advertisement and monetization implemented and incorporated in Google Play.
-Game Framework: Created framework for several games, RPG, Shooter, Platformer, and Top-Down, created game modes, linked to Gameinstance, save system, and menus
-Network replication, made sure games were secure and replicated over networked games (P2P), shooter and RPG State machines were network compatible
Bonus:
Moderate experience with landscaping and VFX in Houdini, and moderate skill with Maya LT.
I’ve managed several contracted projects from Pre-Production to Alpha, directing concept and 3D artists, animators, and programmers on best practices and asset pipelines.
Contact me via email at: [EMAIL=“Zachary@NonLocalitysoftware.com”]Zachary@NonLocalitysoftware.com
Visible work:
War on Zombies Trailer
Unannounced internal project, first person shooter:
This is a project that has just begun, and is only in the prototyping/preproduction phase. This video showcases roughly two weeks of coding, but features several robust features, such as: advanced movement system (Sprinting, crouching, dodging, climbing, vaulting, air strafing, and bunnyhopping), advanced weapon system(2 slots, fully custom gun variables, weapon switching and swapping, accurate bloom, hitscan, impact force, melee, and holstering), advanced AI(Patrol, attack, hold, retreat, search, advance)
Super Cubiform(In development, Currently Alpha)
This video shows off the socket feature, which allows the player to manipulate the environment directly, as well as the lasers in the game that auto-adjust length. (There is a framerate bug here that is NOT present in the actual build, causing the interaction to move faster than it actually would)
This video shows the context-sensitive nature of the game, requiring the player to adopt the correct color to interact with certain objects, such as the socket and physics surfaces, which are modifiable on the fly and in-game.
This video shows off a Blueprint portal system, with both portal rendering and physics. This Blueprint is very extensible; it can allow for theoretically any number of pairs of portals, without any hiccup in in rendering or pairing. The portals simply need to be added to the same channel and will work from there
This video shows off some physics assets in the game, particularly the accurate nature of the reflective surface, as it only bounces you at the height you fell from.
This video shows off the various surfaces in the game that modify the players behavior, including a gravity surface. These surfaces also operate on a context-sensitive basis, requiring the player to have the same color.
3d character, 1 week work in progress
