Ryan J Smith
Gameplay Programmer
Game Programming
Perception is an award-winning narrative thriller that follows a blind woman’s harrowing journey to uncover the truth behind the mansion from her nightmares—before she becomes its next victim.
Relying on sound as her vision, Cassie navigates the eerie halls of the Estate at Echo Bluff, determined to piece together its dark past. But she’s not alone. A relentless entity known as The Presence stalks her every move. While sound is essential for her to see, every noise she makes risks drawing The Presence closer. She must carefully balance exploration and stealth to uncover the mansion’s secrets—and find a way to escape its grasp.
Key contributions include refactoring the player controller and pawn with a unique whistling mechanic, modifying the AI enemy state machine, implementing the game state saving system, developing and integrating the Steam achievement system, designing the options menu, refactoring the inventory system, adding and updating interactable objects, incorporating in-game cinematics via level blueprints, enhancing particle effects, conducting playtesting, and identifying and fixing bugs.
Developed by Deep End Games using Unreal Engine
Art Heist is a third-person action-adventure game blending stealth, exploration, and puzzle-solving. Players take on the role of Artie Thompson, a misunderstood teenage girl on a mission to steal priceless works of art and redistribute them to the poor.
The game’s environments—museums and mansions—are designed as intricate mazes filled with guards, drones, dogs, and traps that Artie must outmaneuver. As she progresses, she unlocks upgradable abilities essential for navigating increasingly complex challenges and aiding the less fortunate characters she encounters.
Contributions: Designed and developed key gameplay systems, including the main game loop, project creation and management, player controller and pawn mechanics, game state, game mode, stealth system, UI/UX, animation blueprints, level design, cover system, AI fine-tuning, menus, items, inventory, interactive objects, core stealing mechanics, as well as various 3D models and particle effects.
Co-developed with Greg St. Angelo and Josue Magallanes using Unreal Engine
Step into the crispy boots of Bacon Man and battle through the food groups to confront those who have condemned you. It’s up to you to clear your name and reclaim your rightful place on the Meat Throne!
Bacon Man features brutal, precision-based platforming—whether on foot or in the air—powered by the patented Bacon Control System™. Experience 2-player couch co-op, 25 challenging levels, four unique playable characters, versatile combat mechanics, unlockable outfits, Steam achievements, and a satire-rich storyline. Ascend as the true ruler of the four food group kingdoms!
As an intern at Skymap Games, I managed the bug database using the Mantis bug tracking system. My contributions also included playtesting, hosting Skymap events, engaging in fundraisers, designing object blueprints, and contributing to level design. Additionally, I actively studied and learned from programmer Jon Vazquez, reviewed Bacon Man’s code, and provided suggestions for improvements where applicable.
Developed by Skymap Games
Upsilon Circuit is a one-of-a-kind fantasy dungeon-crawler where players get only one chance—if they die, they can never play again. The game uniquely intertwines two experiences: The Contestants explore the overworld and procedurally generated dungeons, battling monsters, avoiding traps, and competing for Dream Tech Crystals, while The Audience watches live, influencing the game by providing aid or creating obstacles.
At Robot Loves Kitty, I took on multiple roles, contributing as a programmer, level designer, server administrator, playtester, bug tracker, publisher liaison, and IT technician. I set up and managed a Mantis Bug-Tracking database, synchronized servers and applications for live playtest events with the publisher, and built six PCs for the development team. Additionally, I maintained daily communication with the publisher, tracked bugs, designed level sections, and developed a Python script plugin for Mantis that integrated directly with Slack.
Developed by Robot Loves Kitty
