HeadStart45
A Portfolio for Liam McDonald-Lurch aka HeadStart45 aka HeadStart Game Development.
The games featured here were produced by me and various other team members (team sizes outlined below)
I'm a regular game jam participant, and some of the games I produced for game jams can be found at the bottom of this list.
I typically work with the other members of our small collective:
You can play the games using the gallery on the right, however my role and technical details on each game are outlined below:
Normal Man
Engine: Unity
Production Time: 1 year
Team Size: 6
Game Details: Normal Man is an ultra-violent 3D Isometric beat-em-up set in a whacky alien world, think Rick and Morty meets Midnight Fight Express.
I worked on most of the major systems in the game including:
- Enemy and AI - I created a Hierarchical Finite State Machine with groups controlled by an AI Director.
- The overarching game scaffold, Level Loading, Saving: I wrote a custom saving and loading system, and a data loading system using resource loading and scriptable objects for most of the data in the game.
- Upgrades, Unlocks and Meta Progression
- Stats and user insights - I wrote a user data collection system which stores user stats about game play for later insights.
Rodent Rumble
Engine: Unity
Production Time: 3 Months
Team Size: 5
Details: This game is a couch co-op arena battler in the style of Crash Bash. Players take control of various rodents in plastic balls, rolling around the arena with the goal of smashing their opponents off the side and gaining victory.
I worked on:
- Couch Co-op Multi-player and Input
- Level Loading Structure and Mode Selection
- Lobby Features and Functionality
Soul Trader
Engine: Unity
Production Time: 2 Months
Team Size: 5
Soul Trader is a 2D turn-based rogue-lite strategy game. You play as an apprentice to Death, transporting the souls of the damned down the river Styx, to their final reward. The river is plagued with dangers and you must do everything you can to protect your precious cargo from the hideous sea monsters.
I worked on:
- Turn structure and grid damage - I wrote the majority of the entity base classes on which individual enemies and the main character were built.
- Main character features including special attacks, upgrades and abilities.
Game Jams
Slime Wizard
Game Jam: Pirate Software Game Jam 2024
Theme: Shadow Alchemy
Engine: Unity
Production Time: 2 Weeks
Team Size: 2
Slime wizard is a 2D pixel art rogue-lite auto battler, similar in visual style to Pokemon Red for the GameBoy Color. The plays like a mixture of Slay the Spire and Team Fight Tactics (TFT), the player uses combinations of runes to summon various slimes to fight waves of enemies.
With only two people we both worked on pretty much every aspect of the game, but I specifically worked on:
- Game Design, World Design and Writing
- Main character movement and interaction controls
- Game structure and rogue-lite in between rooms.
Bard Jam
Game Jam: GMTK Game Jam 2024
Theme: Built to Scale
Engine: Unreal Engine 5
Production Time: 96 Hours
Team Size: 5
Bard Jam is a rhythm shooter made in Unreal blueprints and C++. You play Fabio the Bard, and you must play in time to the song to shoot arrows at incoming waves of enemies in order to protect your precious crystal. Killing special enemies gives you access to placeable fences to help keep the enemies at bay.
I worked on:
- Main character movement and Rhythm shooting
- Placeable fences
- UI