Alexa
Artist/Game Developer
About
Hello! I’m Alexa, a May 2024 graduate from the Rochester Institute of Technology, holding both a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in Game Design and Development. I'm a cat lover, hobby artist/animator, and a dedicated junior software developer who’s passionate about all things programming, especially creating videogames.I love learning new programming languages and tools, and I’ve had the chance to work with several through internships, jobs, and personal/school projects. Some of these amazing languages include: C#, C++, Python, HTML/CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and Java.I've also worked regularly with tools such as Visual Studio, Unity, Unreal Engine, SAP/CPQ, Adobe Suite, Microsoft Suite, GitHub, Trello/Jira, and Twine. These have helped me not only improve my programming skills but also in animation, storytelling, and staying organized. I’m a strong believer in teamwork and love collaborating to bring ideas to life while sharing what I've learned and helping others along the way. I try to go above and beyond to push myself to break my own comfort zones and try things new.
Plantasia
Various games/projects that have been done in a few languages and game engines.
about the game
Plantasia is a cozy, semi-idle, gardening game in a solarpunk universe that sits at the bottom of your screen while you work. Nurture seeds, combine species, create seed bundles, and customize your ship and unlock the over 500+ seed combinations!Plantasia is designed to encourage play during small breaks, without disrupting your regular workflow as you transition in and out of other tasks. The game rests on the very bottom of your screen, allowing you space to work and play at the same time. Plant your seeds and watch them grow into beautiful blooms. Then, harvest them for materials and extra seeds.
my involvement
I worked on Plantasia starting in May 2024, joining the team as a support programmer. However, the lead programmer stepped down for personal reasons and I stepped up to take over the lead programmer role. There was a lot of work to do, especially with creating structure and bringing on two new programmers to help once everything was organized. But, with this project it was super important to create a portfolio piece that not only were we proud of, but at any time we could jump back into the program and continue where we left off.
All the code in the game is organized, labeled, commented, and structured in a way that all the team members could work on each other's sections. We kept a very open dialogue as programmers, with weekly meetings, coding sessions where we worked together, and bouncing ideas constantly through Discord.
systems: one third screen space
One of the most challenging aspects of this game was getting it to live at the bottom of your screen. Our original Lead Developer spent a lot of his time trying to get this system right. He first started out full screen game, with transparent top portion and the bottom with the game itself. This caused problems clipping wise and didn't allow the game to snap windows ontop of it easily. Once I took over this part of the project, I also tried a variety of different methods and did research on how other game developers did this.
The method we settled on was a window that was the correct aspect ratio of the game, and would hide the top moving bar of the game to get a clean look and would snap the window to the bottom of the screen. On Mac, we did something similar where we created the size we wanted but due to Mac limitations we could not snap it to the bottom of the screen. We also got a donation from a fan for a 4k monitor, which allowed us to test the game and see if the game properly scaled. Getting this scaling correct for multiple screen sizes was a challenge, and it's definitely not perfect. But with all the other systems needing to be done in the game, as well as time constraits, what I was able to create I am super proud of.
systems: planter growth cycle
When I was originally brought on, my first task was to create the greenhouse plant flow. This consisted of dragging a seed from your inventory, placing it in a planter of the user's choice, having a vareity of cycles the plant can go through, different actions that the plant needs which would temporarily boost the growth speed, and harvest.
All of these systems worked together inside a collection of master classes, which were then used across the game as a baseline when we brought on new programmers.
systems: gene traits
Plants have random Gene Traits – traits that change many aspects of the seeds growth, output or needs. You can view all Gene Traits in the Seed Database. Cross-breeding plants will also take Gene Traits into account. Gene Traits are a high level mechanic, and intended for players who want to deeply customize their growing experience. Casual players do not need to interact with this system in order to achieve their goals.
However, for those who want the perfect plant, there is a few options to get genes. Each time a plant is planted, there is a chance per growth cycle to gain a new gene trait. On harvest, the player will be able to get seeds with the traits assigned to them. On the seed, the player can modify which seeds are trimmed for a chance at a better tier trait as well as lock the current gene trait so that any future seeds harvested from this seed will pass along that trait. This allows the user to keep traits they enjoy, such as getting more seeds or currency, at the tier they'd like while also trying to make their plant legendary. Combined with the hybrid merging which allows for locked traits to also transfer over to the child, making the most legendary plant is in your grasp!
systems: hybrid seeds
One of the core loops of Plantasia is our hybrid system. The player starts off with a handful of seeds; as they grow their plants and harvest them, they'll get more seeds than they started that have a variety of different traits that impact their growth. There are a few ways to get seeds, such as quests and planting as mentioned, but one of the most impactful ways is by creating hybrids.
Hybrid plants take in two seeds of any type along with their gene traits and creates a unique offspring that has a chance to pass along the traits of the parents down to the child. Plants have different parts to them, such as the bases and the bloom of the plant, that when combined can create a unique plant. There are other unique ways to create these plants including the color of the plant coming from either plant (or generating a super rare color mutated) as well as completely changing the plant's species based on the parents.
systems: seed shuffler
Plantasia has a currency system that can be gained in multiple ways. These coins can be spent to buy more seeds in the shop, but it can also be used to populate the seed shuffler to get random combinations of seeds you've unlocked. This system is mainly designed to allow the user to get new gene traits, which impact a variety of ways the plant interacts with the enviroment, inside it's planter, harvest and general needs.The seed shuffler is a scientific device that shuffles seed DNA to create new types of seeds. Use in game currency to power the device and if you are lucky you may unlock never before discovered seeds. The shuffler is also great for discovering new or improved Gene Traits.
One of the fun things about this system was determining the ratio of being able to roll for certain rarity for the traits on each seed, as well as calculating a system that will change the tier color of the picks based on the traits added together. Our designer did research on other games to figure out the tier system ratios and implementing them was a wonderful challenge! Getting the design right with the UI, where it still felt like a system that matched with the vibes of the game, was difficult for our UI/UX designer but also a challenge once it was created to implement it in ways that can be scaled depending on how many pulls the user wanted to run for x amount of currency.
Projects
Various games/projects that have been done in a few languages and game engines.
Indie Space
Plantasia
May 2024 - June 2025
Plantasia is a cozy, semi-idle, gardening game in a solarpunk universe that sits at the bottom of your screen while you work. Nurture seeds, combine species, create seed bundles, and customize your ship and unlock the over 500+ seed combinations!This game is the first game that I have worked on that has been published to the Steam Workshop!
GRADUATE
Cog and Key
(Fall 2023 - Spring 2024, Academic, C#)
Cog and Key is a 2d action platformer using a Studio Ghibli art style. The story is set in a dystopian steampunk world where industrialization has taken over. You play as Judith Frachel, a human augmented with a steampunk arm. Judith is fighting the odds against a hostile world filled with machines who see humanity as obsolete.
HACKB0X
(Summer & Fall of 2023, Paid / Academic, C#)
HACKB0X is an educational mobile (Android) game comprising a collection of microgames, creatively crafted to introduce low-income community members to the extensive career opportunities in cybersecurity. Working as the lead developer as well as design/story creator, it has been a wonderful experience balancing education with fun.
Chests of Mystery
November 2023 - C# Unity
A 2 week long project to test my skills in script organization, sound design, layout groups, coroutines and other fun game loop mechanics in Unity 2022. This project was a wonderful experience to create code that was not only organized but understandable with comments, headers, regions, etc.
Quack Attack
(Spring 2023, Academic, C#)
It's January 13th, National Rubber Ducky Day, and instead of taking the day off, here you are watching people code.After hours on end watching line after line of gosh-darn-awful and buggy code, you snap and decide to go rogue.For this project, besides a ton of creative work in various aspects, I worked on coding new features such as hidden level assets, UI/UX functionality, small bug fixes, and an unlockable manager for player customization.
Deep Sea Research Squad
(Fall 2022, Academic, C#)
Deep Sea Research Squad is a team project by Sour Piñatas for IGME 601. The game focuses on exploring the ocean as a vampire squid and learning about creatures by eating marine snow that comes off the creatures. Worked on card collection system, UI/UX, animating pre-made designs, and creating state machines and animation clips.
ALWAYS HOPE
(IGME 603)
(Spring 2023, Academic, C#)
Always Hope is a 3D voxel zen puzzle game about tidying up a bedroom after a wave of depression As the rooms get cleaner, the player’s perception increases, illustrating that small victories can improve your mentality.
PROJECT GRIM
(IGME 603)
(Spring 2023, Academic, C#)
Grim Reaper is doing his daily tasks of reaping souls to their final destination. But, there are people trying to stop you! Worked on Checkpoint Manager, in-game UI Manager, animation state machines, player scripts.
Culminating Reverie
(IGME 603)
(Spring 2023, Academic, C#)
Designed all tilesets, set up the titlescreen UI/UX including developing a UI Manager, developed level design floorplans, used Camera Regions tool to set up movable camera regions inside each level, took sketch renders of enemies/players and cleaned them up as well as animated them in Adobe Animate into sprite sheets with five different variants, and set up Unity Animator state machines.
CookieQuarry
(IGME 603)
(Spring 2023, Academic, C#)
Worked on all UI/UX except for oven with an indepth UI/UX Manager. Developed a quest manager for side and main questing, a custom alert system using layout groups with ability to scroll and custom icons/messages, managing cooking information using dictionaries, and keeping track of the player inventory by creating interactions between multiple dictionaries and the player’s information script.
Illumination
(Spring 2023, Personal, Godot)
Illumination was apart of RIT's Jam for Hope weekend long game jam; the event was a wish for a current RIT student living with cancer alongside the Dear Jack Foundation.The game's idea is that even though you're small, your light still has a huge impact on the world around you. Use your light to make plants grow and platform to the top. You can light many different things such as a spotlight, potted plant, brazier, and a candle inside of a lantern.For this project, I was the only artist. I created each level in 300 dpi and large scale resolutions to push myself to my artistic limit. I also worked on learning Godot's language based off Python; I worked on the lantern, cave transportation, and helped with some bug fixing.
UNDERGRADUATE
Pigeon Simulator
Pigeon Simulator is a game created in IGME Production Studio; it serves as an intriguing showcase of the capabilities of an IBT system. In this game, players assume the role of observers in a fully simulated pigeon society, wielding minimal influence over their lives. As you watch, these pigeons engage in a plethora of activities, from sleeping and purchasing stylish hats to undertaking various jobs and strolling through the city.It is an immersive experience that grants you a fascinating window into the intricate lives and routines of the pigeons in a way that showcases the power of an IBT system.
2022 - Level Design Classwork
IGME Level Design Classwork
2022 - Unreal Engine Level Concepts
Virtual Worlds Classwork
On Halloween Light
(2021, Academic, C#)
Navigate town helping to do various tasks before Halloween night! Use lanterns to clear the pumpkin patch of bats, light up the homes of the villagers who live in this spooky town, and at the end of the night light the giant pumpkin to commemorate the start of Halloween!Character and NPC artwork/animation (including Animator state machine) done by me. Quest system and other chunks of code around the whole project done by me.
Masked Zodiac
(2020, Personal C#)
MaskedZodiac is an on hold personal game about gathering all 12 zodiac masks. Each mask holds a certain power; The powers of which the cat tribe wishes to use to bring themselves as the 13th zodiac animal officially in the books. You are tasked by your tribe to infiltrate the other tribes and gather the masks that provide them with their powers.Programming and artwork/animations are created by me.
One Stop Pet
(JAVASCRIPT)
- IGME 330 Project 3 (Dec 2020)
- Uses Mapbox API and Petfinder API
- Fetches default zip location of Rochester and displays the all 50 dogs fetched from petfinder
- Uses Mapbox API to show a radius of the search from Petfinder as well as puts location pins where the dogs are all location.
- Pins that show up are clickable to see the dog name, description, and their petfinder link that you can click to adopt.
- All programming done by me. I do not own anything else.
K.K Slider Appreciation
(JAVASCRIPT)
- IGME 330 Project 2 (Oct 2020)
- Uses AudioContext (and regular canvas accessing using ctx) to play music and showcase it to a visualization of the audio in a circular graph.
- Three song options to choose from all with custom particle systems, album covers, and effects
- Customization option to use theme or customize your own theme color-wise, effect-wise, and more. Effects also include audio effects such as Highshelf and Lowshelf Filters
- All programming done by me. I do not own anything else.
In Pursuit of Soph (C#)
- 48 hour game jam project based on Arcana Cards! (October 2019)
- Made in Unity; Group project.
- Programmed boss AI using coroutines
- Coded player movement with collisions.
- Used Unity Animation to link all animations together.
- Worked with four teammates to coordinate the scope of project.
- All of the boss battle (state machine + health bar) and character movement (outside the arm movement) done by me.
Shiro (C#)
- Aug 2018 – May 2019; Rhythm-based RPG. Main screens (title, game over, ect) and all animation created by me.
- Built the tool used for building on-beat AI pathfinding.
- Parsed level files created by teammate to implement loading objects from text files to in game controls.
- Reduced frame latency by rewriting code inside all classes to be more efficient, and lowering processes usage.
- All artwork done by me. Chunks of code all around the project done by me and/or edited for better framerate.
Creative
From an early age, I've always had a passion for creating things! It all began with drawing using pencil and paper; this passion turned into animating using Adobe Flash Professional. As I continued learning, I was fortunate enough be able to teach animation using Toon Boom Harmony to teens as the Lead Animation Counselor at SummerTech camps.
2D Work/Animation
2D animation has been a constant presence throughout my life, serving as the foundation of my creative journey and the start of getting into all aspects of game design and development. It continues to play a vital role in both my personal and professional pursuits not only within the gaming industry but any other professional sense.The collection below highlights key moments from my animation journey skillfully — but, all of this started back in 2014 at SummerTech despite those animations being lost to a broken USB drive.
GRADUATE
2023 - HACKB0X
HACKB0X is an educational mobile (Android) game comprising a collection of microgames. With its enjoyable robotic characters leading the way, players are immersed in a series of engaging challenges that highlight different aspects of cybersecurity and showcase the diverse jobs available in the field, inspiring them to explore and pursue potential careers in cybersecurity.
2023 - Quack Attack
A fast-paced platform that I worked on an almost complete asset rehaul as well as made an intro cutscene using a storyboard and script.For this project, I am an animator for cutscenes, level designer, and general asset production.
Intro Cutscene
2023 - Culminating Reverie
(IGME 603)
A 3-week long project that worked on managing multiple players affecting the world.For this game I took finalized unanimated renders of enemies for our game. Using these renders, I cleaned them up and vectored each piece in Adobe Animate, animated multiple states, and exported 5 different color variants for our game and set up the animators in Unity.
final character walkcycle
2022 - When Push Comes to Shove
When Push Comes to Shove is a capstone project by the team TWOWOLVES, which is 4 player party game focusing on shoving your way through dungeons.
mass character concepts spread
light shove
player death
medium shove
shoving in action
heavy shove
player death ghost
2023 - Illumination
Weekend long game jam where I pushed myself as the only artist to make high-resolution maps with art reference to Ori and the Blind Forest style. Each asset has its own set of custom brushes to create textures to showcase the player's size.
2022 - Vampire Squid Game
Vampire Squid Game (Working Title) is a team project by Sour Piñatas for IGME 601. The game focuses on exploring the ocean as a vampire squid and learning about creatures by eating marine snow that comes off the creatures.
UNDERGRADUATE
2021 - On Halloween Light
On Halloween Light is a game about helping villagers (featured in the 2x2 image) as the pumpkin (pictured in the animated GIF) get their houses ready for Halloween Night. Each villager has a set task, such as scaring away crows in the farm or hanging lanterns on their house.
2020 - BLU's HILL
On Top of Blu's hill is an on-hold personal project about a sled dog named Blu that has to go rescue his owner after a snowstorm in the mountains. This project's artwork is all pixel art, unlike my other vector animations above, and is created in the program Aseprite using layers.
2019 - SHIRO
Shiro is a game about a cat lost in the big bad world. It was done in a group of 4, for class in a group: Spring 2019. I created the concept and completed animations for both the main cat character, as well as the final dog boss character shown.
3D WORK
Starting 3D modeling in 2018 with my Maya class, I have been truly invested in learning how to use Maya with Unity, as well as grow my skills in animating in 3D using the knowledge from what I know in 2D animation.
GRADUATE
Always Hope
March 2023 - All models made in MagicaVoxel! Always Hope is a 3D voxel zen puzzle game about tidying up a bedroom after a wave of depression. As the rooms get cleaner, the player’s perception increases, illustrating that even minor victories can improve your mentality.For this project, I created the models in 3D models as well as the level design with said assets.
UNDERGRADUATE
Pigeon Simulator
Pigeon Simulator is a game created in IGME Production Studio; it serves as an intriguing showcase of the capabilities of an IBT system. In this game, players assume the role of observers in a fully simulated pigeon society, wielding minimal influence over their lives. As you watch, these pigeons engage in a plethora of activities, from sleeping and purchasing stylish hats to undertaking various jobs and strolling through the city.It is an immersive experience that grants you a fascinating window into the intricate lives and routines of the pigeons in a way that showcases the power of an IBT system.
Deer model
2019 - 3D modeling final. Created in Maya.
Sword Model
2019 - Created in Maya.