Baby Steps
(2024)Roles: Game Designer, Games Programmer, and Graphics Programmer
"Baby Steps" is a VR game where players care for a baby by fulfilling its needs such as being held, fed, and entertained over a 4.5-minute session. The game was created as part of a final project for IMDM290 by a six-person team. It focuses on multitasking gameplay inspired by titles like "Overcooked" and "Tattletail." The game features a cartoon-style shader, various animations, and a fully modeled in-game environment.
What I Did
- Wrote the cel-shading shader in HLSL and implemented the reverse hull technique for outlines.
- Painted and detailed the terrain for the in-game environment.
- Coded the baby AI, managing its various states such as Idle, Roaming, and Hungry.
- Programmed about half of the interactable objects, enhancing gameplay interaction.
Baby Steps - Screenshots
.png)
.png)
Project Documentation
Below are links to the project's documentation:
Highlight of the Project
Working on Baby Steps was an incredible learning experience for me, especially in terms of becoming more hyper-focused on specific aspects of game development. One of the most rewarding parts was demystifying the render pipeline. By hooking into it and injecting custom render information, I gained a deeper understanding of how rendering works and how to manipulate it to achieve the desired visual effects.
Another highlight was having the opportunity to hone in on the baby as an entity. Crafting the AI and behaviors to make the baby feel alive and fun was a challenge I thoroughly enjoyed. Seeing players pick up the baby as soon as the game started and hearing their laughter was incredibly satisfying. It was a wonderful reminder of why I love game development—creating moments of joy and engagement for players.
Team Credits
I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to work with a talented and dedicated team. Special thanks to:
- Andrei Davydov - Modeling and Rigging
- Astrid Da Costa - Concept and Design
- Daniel Nolan - Sound Design
- Erin Alsop - Animation and UI Design
- Lois Kim - Environment Design and Testing