Samuel Kennedy
Programmer, Level Designer, and Game Developer
Creative Portfolio and Demonstration
About Me
My name is Samuel Kennedy. I am a fourth-year University of Canterbury student studying under the Bachelor of Digital Screen, majoring in Game Development and minoring in Game Arts. I have been making and developing games in Unity for six years, starting in 2020 during year 11 in high school, and in Unreal Engine for two years, starting during my second year of university. I have a great passion for games and game development, and I enjoy creating immersive digital environments in which to communicate and present my ideas. I am very interested in the prospect of Virtual Reality Game Development with its unique experiences and the increased level of immersion it can bring. Having made several VR projects myself, I have become well-versed in the medium and look forward to its evolution. My current goals are to continue working towards graduating with a degree in Game Development, and one day aspire to create games professionally.
Game Design Education
2023 - Present
Bachelor of Digital Screen
- Major in Game Development
- Minor in Game Arts
University of Canterbury
Since starting my studies at the University of Canterbury, I have taken the following game development courses: The Game Development Process, Game Design in Context, and Immersive Game Design, Computation for Games, Game Development in Unreal and C++, Gaming Project Studio One, Interactive Computer Graphics and Animation, and Game Engines and Artificial Intelligence. I have also taken other digital art-based courses, and several full programming courses. I look forward to continuing my experience and expanding into the Unreal game engine.
2020 - 2022
Burnside High School
I started using Unity in year 11 while studying at Burnside High School. During this time, I developed four major games: two first-person shooters, one top-down shooter, and one VR fitness game.
Skillset and Knowledge
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Working in the field of game development for 5 years now, I have a great in-depth knowledge of the systems in the Unity game engine and have been able to bring many unique concepts to life both by myself and in a team
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I have gained excellent cooperation skills from my time in the game design field, working with groups small little as two and as large as five to create a fully functional project
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In addition to working cooperatively, I have been able to create many of my games entirely on my own, giving me a great sense of independence, responsibility, and determination to finish my solo projects.
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I have largely been a programmer for the entirety of my game development career, and as such have a wide range of experiences in the C# programming languages, as well as Python and Java through required courses as part of my degree.
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I have experience working in the Unity engine using C# as well as in Unreal Engine using both blueprints and C++.
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In addition to my responsibilities as a programmer, I also often take on roles in level design, designing the environments and spaces in which my games will take place. As an extension of this, I occasionally am involved in environmental design and creating lore for the games I work on.
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I am very skilled in using VR technology, largely thanks to my experience in year 13 and during my second year of university. I own an Oculus Quest 2, which allows me to undertake VR development in my own home, and gives me a great range of freedom in development and access to other VR experiences
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While primarily working on the back end for games, I also sometimes create 2D artwork, concept sketches, and 3D models. Examples of these are shown below.
Featured Game Trailers:
Featured Art:
