Thomas (T.J.) Helm has been developing projects for over 8 years.
The examples listed above are a collection of the best representation of his skills.
Most of the projects on itch.io were created during week or month long game jams.
The resume below elaborates on his past experience, skills, and accomplishments.
You can also check out his various social media accounts. Links are in the footer of this page including email contact.
Drython is an interpreted language developed in Rust as a systems language.
The main purpose of Drython is to act as a game scripting language with player build compiling.
This involves using the drython parser during game editor usage, then converting that parsed
content to a rust (rs) file to be compiled when the developer builds their game. This speeds
up the developers workflow in editor, and speeds up the resulting game for players to enjoy!
Currently the parser is complete and can be viewed on the github. (Link below.)
It has it's flaws, but the drython parser is my first language, so all these algorithms are very new and interesting to me.
The name is a play on of python, (which it shares a similar syntax) but reveals that the language is quite bland in that it's
quite simple and very dynamic.
The Scriptable Object Organizer (SOO) is a tool for both Unity programmers and Developers.
It enables quick and simple access to scriptable objects without the need to dive
through multiple folders.
SOO features its very own window where you can chose between multiple tabs.
The organizer allows for managing objects through a list format using optional filters.
It also allows programmers to quickly alter the backend script of a scriptable object
to add small fields or even whole functions.
You can check out the link to the unity asset store below!
Tynted Engine
Tynted Engine is a game engine created originally to test the concept of the Entity Component
System pattern. To showcase this, the engine has multiple features that are important to the
pattern. Tynted Engine was created in C# using the SFML C# binding.
Features:
Entity Component System
Observer Pattern Custom Events
Scene (Level) File Loading
Coroutines
Engine Extensions
You can check out the github page for the code base, a documentation wiki, and engine releases.
The wiki has the API, a reference to the ECS theory, and a reference to each core part of the
engine. It also has a short tutorial for creating a developer's first application in the engine.
Murder Bunnies is a small game intended to showcase a more complete publishable game. The core aspects are
based on a 4 player system. Created in Unity C# and published to Itch.io. Much could be improved to make
the game more exciting for fewer players, but the mechanics are implemented. Based off the old arcade game "Joust."
Features:
Controller Support
Couch Multiplayer
Diverse Character Movement
Exciting Gameplay
Murder Bunnies is hosted on itch.io found at the link below.
AI Dungeon
AI dungeon is the conglomeration of a couple of projects previously worked on. It can be
classified as a simulation.
The simulation offers 3 unique types of AI; procedural dungeon generation, path node
generation, and character state machines.
There is a build for Android VR, see below for details.
Dungeon Generation
The dungeon generation works in 6 steps which are:
Building the critical path
Building rooms
Expanding rooms
Creating doors
Joining rooms
Building the dungeon
Each of these steps
are laid out in the AIDungeonDiagram.jpg file on the github source page.
Path Nodes
Path Node Generation works by first placing path nodes on each dungeon floor tile. The generator
then creates connections based on one node next to another. Connections that would connect if
there was no door in between the two create a closed door connection. This connection is
then paired with the door to allow for it to open and close. Each connection can be traveled
across by the AI characters. This system has no connection to the state machine, but the state
machine accesses it.
State Machine
The state machine for this project is fairly basic, but it demonstrates the important aspect
of having a character respond to external stimuli. The player flees whenever encountering an
enemy. The enemies give chase when they encounter a player. When the characters are not fleeing
or following, they chose a random pathnode and attempt to travel to it. The state machine
implementation uses the A star algorithm to navigate the path nodes.
You can find a build of the project in the releases section of the github source page.
If you have an Android device with a VR headset or google cardboard, there is an APK build
that supports it also under the releases page.
Deep Boom
Deep Boom was the first project released by Thomas Helm. This game features a small ship at
sea with the intent of capturing islands and dominating the map. The game was released on
the Google Play Store.
The source code has been made available on GitHub (link below) to show how it works. The main
purpose of this project is to showcase procedural level loading and demonstrate a mobile
google play store release.
