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Ashton Sanders

Technical Game Designer

A Technical Game Designer with a passion for making fun, engaging, and player-focused games. 

Heroic Game Day

A life-skills-based MMORPG for 3rd-5th graders. Designed to run on Chromebooks and marketed to schools

Networked Objectives UI

I was tasked with implementing a networked objectives UI for Heroic Game Day. 

Specs: 

  • The Objectives List should support up to six items at a time
  • The List allows the designer to easily change text and icon values 
  • The List saves completion data when an objective is marked complete
  • The List is easy to implement and edit in any scene
  • No programming is needed in the list or data saving scripts (only calls to specified functions)
  • The List items can be removed by the programmer using a simple function call
View Objective List Script
View Save to Server Script

Halloween Event - Game Design Pitch

Pitch document and design breakdown for Halloween themed holiday event map.

FrankEinstein's Pig
Click Here to View the Document

Halloween Event - Gameplay

A video walkthrough of the gameplay designed and programmed for the Haunted Manor. 

Improving Scripts for Heroic Game Day

Recently, I was tasked with updating interactions in a level so that they use a unique visual effect and give a reward to the player OnInteract. I noticed that several of the scripts in the scene were redundant, with only two different lines of code across 9 scripts, and I decided to improve the code in the level as well as implement the item rewards. Below, I have listed script examples and a video showcasing the in-game differences between the two scripts. By utilizing 1 public variable, I was able to implement 1 script to control the behavior for 9 different interactions. 

By implementing my changes to this level, I: 

  • Reduced the number of scripts in the level by 9 (8 interaction scripts removed; 2 scripts merged into 1)
  • Implemented 1 script to control the behavior for 9 different interactions. 
  • Improved editing speed by having only 1 script to edit instead of 9 unique scripts
  • Allowed the new script to apply to any new interaction by utilizing a public variable
  • Future-proofed the interact script by allowing it to apply to any new interaction (with minimal edits)

Scripts in Level Before Edits

List of Scripts in a level before my edits

script_list_in_scene_v2

Scripts in Level After Edits

List of scripts in a level after my edits

script_list_in_scene_after_edits

Script Examples

Links to before and after scripts

See the Original Script Here (example)
See the Modified Script Here

Heroic Game Day 2023 Recap

These events and interactions were built for Heroic Game Day using Lua and Unity. I created the ideas for the interactions, and I built the scripts for all of them, including an enemy spawner, lava with damage over time, and many more, all displayed in the video below. 

Game Design Example

My event quest for our seasonal Halloween Map. From idea to execution.

  • Created with the help of an Environmental Artist and LUA Programmer
  • Focus on Deductive Reasoning skills for 3-5 grade students

Event Playthrough Video

Level Design Example

Level built for the Mission Design team with Heroic Game Day. The image below was sent to me by a level designer, and the video is a walkthrough of the level I created for the design.

Screenshot 2023-06-09 135920

Storyboard for Blimp Dungeon

Puzzle Examples