Hello !
Resume :
My name is Robert Biaulet. I am a passioned Gameplay and Tools programmer which always seeks new game development changellenges. I've recently finished a contract with Leikir Studio and I previously worked at Shiro Games and BetaDwarf.
My studies at Rubika SupinfoGame in Programmation and Game Design, ontop of an interest for Game Art allow me to better tackle subjects that can arise during a video game production.
I am now seeking new opportunities to better myself and help bring a project to fruition alongside teammates witch which I can feel at home.
Experience
Here is a selection of my professional contributions:
Shiro Games : Creation of new Factions, Levels and Tools from A to Z
Clan of the Stoat
Clan of the Owl
Clan of the Pack
With Shiro Games, I was able to create new content for the gameplay of Northgard as well as work directly with the game designers of the team to quickly prototype iterations of new Clans. Once the gameplay was deemed OK, I was in charge of polish and visual implementation in collaboration with the Artists.
Creation of new "Battle Conquests", each changing core aspects of the regular gameplay.
I was also able to develop new Tools. As an example, I helped the team have a better visibility on the balance (E.g: Analytics) of the game and made testing (Especially multiplayer setups with build automation) quicker to get into.
Debug Tool to quicly setup fights with various upgrades to accurately check total damage dealt and from where.
Betadwarf : Presentation System
Version 01:
For the associated game, the gameplay layer was dissociated from Unity and was implemented with an ECS framework. We needed the ability to filter a subset of entities and link them to regular Unity Prefabs (Units, Spells, Buffs, Etc...).
The solution was to introduce entities dedicated to visualization into ECS which we could then easily fetch due to their unique archetype.
Each entity had a unique unique ID which mapped one to one to a Unity Prefab which would be instantiated and kept alive as long as the entity was present.
Version 02:
The one to one mapping was too restrective in the case of redundant visuals (E.g: AoE on the ground).
The mapping was changed to included Decorators which would for a given ID check the entity's content and return a more specific prefab.
With this an ID could be kept generic on call-sites but the result can still differ based on the context.
Version 03:
The decorators were declared inside a single Scriptable-Object and hence were written in a signel file. this created merge conflicts and prevented us from implementing selective loading of assets.
To fix this each group of decorator (Path in the tree) was declared as a separate Scriptable-Object.
This fixed the issues and we just then had to reassemble the tree at Runtime.
Localization tool to edit, import & export text entries.
Runtime GUI extended with layouting to easily implement cheats in order to make testing faster.
Player ability to be able to charge and lock / free inputs.
Prototyping of mini-boss with different abilities.
Creation of a new allied NPC with various interactions.
Projects
Multiplayer game demo : Learning exercise
Project aiming at exploring the challenges met when creating an online game with a barebone framework.
I picked DarkRift 2 as a framework for this. It only handles sending and receiving messages.
Then, two apps were needed, a client and a server. A shared common library was used to avoid redundant code.
A focus was also put with the creation of an MVVM framework withDataBindings editable from the inspector.
The deployment of the game was done via Docker & Playfab. The flow was automated with Powershell scripts and running background processes.
The next step would have been to integrate all of this in a single pipeline using Asuzre DevOps.
Example scripts:
Chrome Overcoat : 4 months / Lead & Vision owner
An FPS project based on the concept of modular weapon and responsive A.I in the likes of FEAR. The entirety of the demo was made in Unity with a custom Behaviour Tree solution allowing easy development of A.Is and modular weapons.
: Pitch (only in French)
The project was selected to be a last year full time graduation project at Rubika but I decided instead to join BetaDwarf.
Medium Article : Following a workshop by Unity
After spending half of my summer looking at DOTS and as part of a workshop, I decided to publish this article about the benefits of the ECS programming paradigm.
The Jolly Drum : 4.5 months / Lead Programmer
A sidescroller adventure where a musician frog gathers a band during his journey through the forest. Every encounter is a musical and sensory dialogue where the player must carefully choose the note he plays in his partition. This project features a ScriptableObject and Event-driven architecture. It also has shape recognition with the gamepad's joystick.
Prototype with placeholder dialogues
WarioWare : 3 months / Technical director & Programmer
An arcade game encapsulating micro-games made by all the Game Design students from my 3rd year at Rubika. I was, with a little group of programmers, tasked to come up with the framework which would allow the import and support of every game, no matter their specificities. Scene management and Play-testing features were critical for this project.
Peek at the full game
3 months before the beginning of the production, we had to document the ideas for micro-games. This would allow other students to be able to develop ideas which were not their own. Each student made 2 documents specifying as precisely as possible the design and possible technical approaches.
Documents :
The micro game i personally developed
Colorencia : 6 months / Game Designer & Programmer
A 2.5D online coop zelda-like. The two players each possess a primary color and can only interact with elements of the same color. By working together and using their brushes to create new colors, both players can advance through the game.
The 2.5D nature of the game combined with its pixel art style required the development of a custom level editor to not be stuck on the level creation. The other programmer on the team and I coded this feature entirely, from basic Unity Editor functionalities, to what you can see on this preview.
: Pitch Document
Far Away Cage : 3 months /Alt-Ctrl GDC - Canceled / Designer & Programmer
Teaser sent to the GDC
Footage of one of the team's member playing the game
In the context of a student project and for the 2020 GDC, my group was selected for our Alternative Controller pitch. Sadly, the convention was cancelled due to the pandemic, and we discontinued the project. The prototyping phase was over, and we were ready to build a final version to showcase.
Jams & Workshops & More :
W.I.P - Wii tanks recreation with Heaps.io
Exercise about the disruption of focused attention
Recreaction exercise : Bomberman-Like
GoogleSheet runtime parsing
C++ Game from the ground up with SFML
Personal work to train on Level Design
Group work on Solo Level Design
Arcade 4Player Versus Boardgame.