Game Development
One of my favorite hobbies is making games! I love the process of taking an idea and turning it into something playable. I also love the challenge of learning new skills and tools to make those ideas come to life. I have a background in computer science, so I have a good understanding of programming and algorithms. The cross section of technical and creative is a sweet spot for me. There are a lot of lessons to learn about building good software that game design teaches you.
These are a few games I’ve made that I’m most proud of. Each game on this list was built during a game jam, which is a short period of time (usually 48 hours all the way up to a month) where you build a game from scratch. I would often work with a small team of folks who would provide music and sound and art assets to help bring the game to life.
You can check out the rest of my games on my itch.io page.
Nowhere National Park
https://briancain.itch.io/nowhere-national-park
In early 2021, I was learning how to build larger 3D environments and landscaping using Unity. I was also excited about making some kind of camera game to take inspiration from Pokemon Snap on the N64. What resulted was a game about exploring a haunted national park, using your camera to identify spooky things that you see along your hike.
This game was made for the June 2021 PIGSquad Summer Slow Jams over the course of about a month. It includes 11 endings and 1 perfect ending! Each play through takes about 6 minutes.
Belmonts Tower
https://briancain.itch.io/belmonts-tower
I believe that one of the best ways to learn something is to try to rebuild it yourself. I’ve always been a huge Zelda fan my whole life, and wanted to try to build a micro version of a 2D Zelda adventure. This game is what I made while doing just that! I primarily used Links Awakening sprites from the GameBoy Color.
This game was built for the PIGSquad Finish Your Game Jam. It was made in about 2 weeks, although I had some of the pieces together prior to starting the jam (thus the “finish your game” jam theme!).
D:\Frag
https://briancain.itch.io/dfrag
When coming up with this game idea, I was inspired by the memories I had watching the old family Windows 98 computer defrag hard drives. I remember seeing the interface for it as a kid and always wondered what it could be doing. I ended up using that interface to create a button-sequence game. You have to press the correct arrow keys at the right time to properly defrag the disk. If you miss, you could risk corrupting the data on the disk!
This game was made in 48 hours for Global Game Jam 2020!
The Apartment
https://briancain.itch.io/theapartment
Maybe it’s best to be vague on this game, huh? This was one of my first games using 3D environments. This was made during peak 2020 pandemic, and I know I wasn’t the only person making horror games about the apartments and houses that we were all stuck in.
This game was made in 2 weeks for the PIGSquad Summer Slow Jams Horror theme 2020.
