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Suraj Karthikeyan
Software Engineer - Game Developer
Pizzakai is a 2D action platformer in which the player assumes the role of a pizza mobster shooting his way through a corrupt pizza-based world.
Roles: Producer, Lead Systems Engineer, SFX Designer, VFX Artist
Genre: 2D Action Platformer
Development Time: 4 Months
Team Size: 9
Engine: Unity
Responsibilities:
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Collaborated on a team of 9 from September to December 2023
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Lead the Programming, Art, VFX and SFX team across a four month long development cycle
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Designed and implemented the Shotgun Smash backend physics, sound and visual effect
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Developed key weapon systems and interactions
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Integrated weapons mechanics with movement systems
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Engineered effective animation event systems for frame specific system calls for visual and sound effects
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Designed and integrated over 20 unique SFX
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Used shader graphs to create unique emissions for every enemy, weapon, boss, and enviorment sprite sheet​
Shotgun Slam System
The Shotgun Slam, the shotgun alternative fire, was developed and designed to be a melee option in a game rich with shooting. I assisted in designing the system and was responsible for the code implementation, VFX and SFX seen. A key design principle was the satisfaction and feedback of the action.
Shotgun Slam Gameplay
Using emission maps and a shader graph, I was able to create the above seen VFX, enunciating the movement and satisfaction of the movement. Following this, I implemented the SFX for the weapon, embodying the strength and speed of the animation
Shotgun Slam Emisson Map
Shotgun Slam Showcase
Audio Dictionary System
The audio and animation event system in place uses a combination of Unity's existing animation events in conjunction with an audio system I developed. I specifically designed it in such way that new SFX could easily be added with minimal additional code
Ceaser's Downfall Gameplay
Audio Dictionary Code Showcase
The system employs a custom made dictionary that showcases values in the inspector, making it easier for designers to add, change and remove sounds stored in the singleton-based data structure. Due to this flexibility, an AudioClip can be recieved and played on a remote object or on the local object with a single line of code.
Shader Graphs and VFX
Regarding the VFX, I used a shader graph that multiplied the emission map I made with a HDR glow texture. This allowed for the alpha values from the emission map to factor into the intensity of the color chosen in the HDR value. Following this, it was added to the original sprite sheet, creating the desired output as seen.
Deep Dish Shader Graph
Deep Dish Death Sprite Sheet
Deep Dish Death Emisson Map
Deep Dish Death Sprite with Emission
In this example, I created the emission sheet(left) for the Deep Dish Don's death animation. Given a non-zero HDR texture, the product of this and the emission sheet is summed to the orginal sprite sheet (middle), yeilding an output(right) that solidifies the death animation, focusing on the enemy dying in a pool of molten cheese!
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