Author: Jamie Flack

Address:

1 Pan Peninsula Square
Flat 3011
Canary Wharf
London
E14 9HL

Contact Details:

Email: jackiflame@outlook.com
Phone number: 07964988755

The Idea

For my second year at university, we were able to decide our own project to work on for one module. This was that project. The design concept of Hybrid Hands stemmed from the idea that the one core way the player is represented in VR is with hands, and as such, can hands themselves become the core mechanic of a game?

Development Process

Hybrid Hands was supposed to be primarily a system and not a full VR game experience. The core concept was the player would be able to build their hands out of certain pieces, and depending on how they were built, they would gain access to different functions. I had 3 different hands I wished to develop – a basic hand for pushing and pulling objects, a sword for slicing them up, and claws for climbing walls. From there, I created 3 different obstacles that could only be solved with certain hand types, and presto! I had the workings of a game system.

What I Took From It

I wanted to push myself with Hybrid Hands to get better at coding. Creating a gameplay system from the ground up was an engaging challenge, especially when I began the process of linking all the systems together to form the idea I had in my head. I learned about object-slicing systems, socket usage, and boolean registration to create a pseudo z\state machine of sorts for the hands. I can safely say I am much more confident coding in C# thanks to this project, and am looking forward to developing this system possibly into a full fledge game at some point.

Profile:

Adaptive 3D artist with relevant knowledge using programs such as Blender, Unity, and Autodesk Maya. BA(Hons) Virtual Reality graduate with understanding of the development and implementation of VR technology. Avid writer, with popular online published works.

Employment History:

Intern – Tin Horse Design Ltd (March 2017)

Learned design processes alongside two other interns and co-operated with them in brainstorming, designing, and creating a product based on a given brief.

Public Relations & Social Media Manager/VR Supervisor – Omescape (November 2021 – July 2023)

Instruct and supervise customers on the fundamental handling of VR experiences and equipment, as well as troubleshoot any possible technical issues throughout their experiences. I also handled multiple social media accounts for the business, creating engaging content as well as responding the queries and reviews of our business.

VR Specialist & Supervisor – DNAVR (July 2023 – Present)

Education:

Upper Second Class Honours (BAHons Virtual Reality) – University of the Arts, London 2023

Relevant Skillsets:

Experience programming in C# in Unity for virtual reality development and animation

Experience in app development for augmented reality applications

Experience using and altering motion capture data for animations

Prior work in team-based projects, including experience working alongside an international team

Experience using Autodesk Maya and Blender for animation and 3D modeling

Projects:

Previous:

(Unity C#) Developed a VR music video experience

(Autodesk Maya) Collaborated with individuals based worldwide to create a VR based holiday experience in the ‘Global Campus Studio’

(Unity C#) Focus! A VR Game About Writer’s Block

(Unity C#) Hybrid Hands – Development of a hand based VR system for adaptive and creative gameplay

(Autodesk Maya) Developing and animating a character using Mocap, Various modeling projects

(Unity C#) Llama Drama – A tower defense/puzzler VR game with robots, office jobs, and llamas being designed and made alongside a team of my peers

(Blender) Worked on multiple commissions based pieces for customers based off specific briefs. Discussed alterations and revisions in the ultimate goal of delivering a high quality product

The Idea

As a module for my studies, we were asked to create a serious VR experience based on something we have personal experience with. While I did make the argument during the module that ANY topic can be made serious if shown in a certain light (see the comparison between Plants Vs Zombies and The Last of Us for zombies) I eventually decided on using my experience writing in my own time to create a game about the struggles of writer’s block.

Development Process

The core gameplay idea was the player would be sat at a computer, and their objective would be to type up as much as possible until their ‘Focus’ bar ran out. While this bar normally drained slowly, it would drain much faster in the presence of certain ‘distractions’. These varied from your phone ringing flies in the room, or your character becoming too hot or too cold.

What I Took From It

For my first time coding,  modelling, and developing a VR experience from the ground up with no prior knowledge on how, this project turned out well. It taught me a lot of the fundamentals of designing for VR in Unity, with this being my first time coding systems in C#. It was thoroughly enjoyable to watch as my idea slowly got better and better.

Early into my time at UAL, we were taught a lot about the usage of Autodesk Maya given that it is the industry standard for most pipelines in the industry. As such, we had many projects that involved its usage, which I will show alongside the personal projects I created in my spare time.

Neon Lights & Modeling Commisions

As an avid fan of neon and cyberpunk aesthetics, one of the first things I learnt in Maya in my own time was how to create neon signs. To start, I used images from my favourite games, anime, and more, to create neon versions in Maya. Outside of artwork, I also did a lot of casual modeling of fantasy weapons, stemming from my love of a show called ‘RWBY’. I spent some time modeling weapon designs I saw online, communicating with the initial designers in the process to get their weapons as accurate as possible. It was an enjoyable experience and let me strengthen my fundamentals in Maya and my skills at communicating with clients.

Holiday Destination Project

Apart from garnering decent attention online, my usage of the neon light process eventually aided in the development of a university project for one module in my course. We were tasked with designing a ‘dream holiday destination’, which I decided to model after my experiences in Bangkok, having lived in Thailand during my childhood and gone there many a time throughout my life.

Mocap Character Animation

A more recent project in my second year. We were tasked with modeling a character and then using animation data to create a simple clip. Having access to Mocap data drastically helped my experience, as my skills with animation in Maya had been limited up until then. However, I was able to gain some experience animating in the software, using and tweaking the mocap data to create a well-modeled and animated clip.