Cody K.

I have been interested in creating interactive experiences from an early age, making my first game in GameMaker at 11 and publishing my first website at 14. During my teenage years, I built various websites & hosted many game servers, through these experiences I was introduced to programming, databases and the process of turning an idea into something other people could interact with and enjoy.

Today, my focus is primarily on game development in Unity and C#, where I have worked on projects ranging from small game jam experiments to larger, long-term projects. Along the way I've gained experience across gameplay programming, UI/UX, 3D modelling, worldbuilding, audio, some music production, level design, technical art and project planning.

I am currently developing my skills as I pursue game development more seriously, with a particular interest in building polished, engaging interactive experiences.

**2016–2018**
A section of a family tree, created for an extensive alternate-history worldbuilding project during my teens.

**2015**
At 13, I experimented with game texturing by creating and publishing weapon finishes to the *Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Steam Workshop.*
Weapon model by Valve.

**2013**
A screenshot from my first game, built in GameMaker Studio.

View the Submission on itch.io

Who is Count Backward? was created for GMTK Game Jam 2026 and completed within the jam's 96-hour time limit. I spent the first day planning the foundations of the narrative and making design decisions that would guide the rest of development. I used a game design document to record ideas and decisions while keeping the project within a manageable scope.

I then created a basic mobile phone interface in Unity with accompanying scripts to begin allowing me to present the story to the player in an intuitive and engaging way. I thought about what many modern mobile phone interfaces look like, and how I could use these to present the story in a way that felt familiar to the player, with the unfamiliarity of the story itself bringing a twist to an ordinary interface.

The story was developed over the following two days, with a significant portion of the project spent writing and refining the narrative. I created a "truth timeline" to track what had actually happened, when each event occurred and what each character knew, helping me keep the story internally consistent while writing conversations and timed events.

This project has taught me to better work within time constraints, and where to focus my efforts to create a polished experience, there are things in which I would have liked to have added or polished, but I am proud of what I was able to put togethor and it was a fantastic learning experience.

Quadrival is an arcade rally game built in Unity, inspired by several earlier racing prototypes. I have focused primarily on gameplay systems, game design, UI and technical implementation building the project incrementally around stage progression, vehicle recovery, service areas, tyre management, pacenotes, team progression & customisation. Licensed third-party assets are used for areas such as vehicles, environments, weather, and the underlying vehicle controller, which I integrate and adapt to suit the wider game.

My development process is iterative, using a dedicated testing scene, a modified Kanban board, MoSCoW prioritisation and a living design document to evaluate ideas before expanding or removing them.

Generative AI is used as a programming and documentation assistant, while I remain responsible for system design, integration, testing and final implementation decisions.

Quadrival has primarily taught me how to manage interconnected systems, control scope and apply existing Unity knowledge at a larger scale.

Creative Process

Drawing on lessons from web development and previous programming courses, I apply principles from agile development throughout Quadrival. Rather than following a fixed design from the beginning, I work iteratively. New systems & vehicle behaviours are experimented with in a dedicated testing scene within Unity, I then begin with a simple implementation of the idea within the existing game loop, and then expand, revise or remove the feature.

Although the design remains flexible, I like to use tools such as Notion and Google Docs to keep development structured and documented. A modified Kanban board, which I use in all of my projects, allows me to write down ideas as they occur to me, and then track that idea throughout its eventual development or removal. I use MoSCoW prioritisation as soon as I 'Approve' an idea, this helps me distinguish how essential the feature is, compared to lower-priority ideas - this is my favourite tool to help prevent scope creep. I also like to maintain a living Game Design Document, which records the game's direction while allowing systems to evolve as they are tested.

This process means that ideas are rarely treated as final when first implemented. Features are evaluated according to how they affect the wider rally experience, and I am willing to simplify, redesign or remove systems when their added complexity does not justify their impact on the game.

Lessons from Quadrival

At the time of writing, Quadrival remains an unfinished project in active development, so its lessons are still ongoing. Unlike some of my earlier projects and prototypes, Quadrival has been less about learning Unity from the ground up and more about applying my existing knowledge at a larger scale. Its main lessons have come from managing increasingly interconnected systems, integrating third-party technologies, using AI-assisted development effectively and ethically, and controlling the scope of an ongoing project.

As the project has grown, I have become more conscious of the cost that every new feature introduces elsewhere within the game. This has reinforced the importance of prioritisation, documentation and being willing to simplify ideas rather than allowing technical complexity to grow without a clear benefit to the player.

Key third-party assets used in project

Original Car Models
Designersoup

Visual Road Creation Tool
EasyRoads3D Pro v3 by AndaSoft

Visual Weather System
UniStorm - Volumetric Clouds, Sky, Modular Weather, and Cloud Shadows by Black Horizon Studios

Vehicle Audio System
Realistic Engine Sounds 2 - Pro Edition by Skril Studio

Underlying Vehicle Controller
Multiversal Vehicle Controller Pro by BxB Studio

Vegetation
Meadow Environment - Stylized Pack by ANGRY MESH

Additional third-party assets will be credited as development continues.

Quadrival gameplay footage

Quadrival after artwork — **Quadrival prototype / current build**

Quadrival before artwork — **Quadrival prototype / current build**

Quadrival Menu UI Current — **Menu UI** Plan in Figma / Current Menu UI

Quadrival Menu UI Plan — **Menu UI** Plan in Figma / Current Menu UI

*Designersoup*'s 'Manta Max' before / Modified Model used in quadrival

**A Collection of UI Assets created in Affinity Designer for Quadrival** includes used & unused assets created for the project

**An In-Editor view of Quadrival:** showing the bespoke tool 'StageSpine'.

**An In-Editor view of Quadrival:** showing the pacenotes builder.

**An In-Editor view of Quadrival:** showing the testing scene.

**A Screenshot from 2023:** An earlier related prototype project.

**A Modified Kanban Board** used for planning and tracking Quadrival development.

Misfire began as a Unity project based on Brackeys' How to make a Tower Defense Game tutorial, but gradually expanded far beyond the guided material into a much broader independant learning project. I replaced and extended many of its original systems while creating the project's primary 3D models myself in Blender, alongside UI, levels, audio, music, animations and visual effects.

Development was highly experimental and often driven by areas in which I wanted to improve my skills. When I encountered something unfamiliar. I would research it, build an initial solution and refine it through testing in Unity.

Generative AI was introduced later in development as a debugging and programming learning assistant as the complexity of the codebase developed, but was not used for the project's artwork, audio or visual design.

Although Misfire ultimately outgrew the tutorial it was initally based upon and is now inactive, it became my most important learning project, helping me transition from guided tutorials towards independant game development.

Misfire gameplay footage - May 2025 Build

**A collection of used and unused 3D models created for Misfire**

**Misfire's turret progression** - 4 3D models displaying the upgrade path of a turret.

**An example of Misfire's use of ShaderGraph** - A heat distortion shader.

Original soundtrack 'At The Gates'

At The Gates — an original song composed and produced for Misfire, used in the Main Menu.

7-minute timelapse of Misfire TD development - April 2025