I am
Daniele Di Modica

This is my final year academic project, designed and developed as part of my thesis, "Machine Learning In Video-games", in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of BSc Hons Computer Science (Games).
The following piece of writing is directly taken from the abstract of my thesis:

The system, a 2D platformer game, is a small collection of levels, made in Unity, that uses reinforcement learning to train an AI agent to play the game. The project’s objective is to demonstrate that machine learning can be a viable, automated debugging tool for level design testing...the results of training the AI to complete the game prove that the AI is capable of discovering bugs and glitches, albeit in a random manner, within the levels.

What does "in a random manner" mean?

Simply put, in its current state, the system does not implement a tool that detects whether a bug has occured or records and prints out useful debugging information. This has to be done manually (e.g. video-recording). The system is only a prototype, after all. However, it was extremely interesting to observe the AI playing through my game and even discovering different glitches that had escaped my eyes.

• Unity
• Unity ML-Agents Toolkit
• Anaconda
• TensorFlow
• GIMP

This is an academic assignment for the "3D Dynamic Modelling" module and one of the requirements for the degree of BSc Hons Computer Science (Games).

The main theme of this project is low-poly. I am simply in love with this style. Relatively easy to implement, yet extremely pleasing to the eye. The 3D enviroment is an isometric interior comprised of 3 rooms, one next to the other: an arcade room, a living-room and a bedroom. Furthermore, to cover the dynamic aspect of the assignment, the scene features a fully rigged and animated character. The animated scene is pretty simple and unfolds as follows: the character, currently in a sitting position, gets up off the bed, walks through the rooms and finally strikes an idle pose when he gets to the last room. Finally, the animated sequence implements 3 switchable cameras to bring more flavour to the scene.

• Blender

Let The Sun Shine is a 2D pixel-art platformer made with Unity for the GJL Game Parade 2020, a week-long game jam.

The game is rather simple and straightforward: reach the goal before the time runs out. The passing of time is represented by a day-night cycle where the sun goes down as the time rapidly decreases until it is completely overtaken by the moon.

• Unity
• GIMP

Initially developed for the GJL Game Parade Spring 2021, this project is a 2D platformer with strong environmental puzzle elements in which the player switches between up to 4 characters to overcome obstacles and complete the levels. That is how I envisioned the game, at least.

The game in its current state is but a prototype featuring 2 playable characters and one short level, hence the decision not to submit it for the aforementioned game jam. It is, nevertheless, a project I want to keep working on.

• Unity
• Clip Studio Paint

Escape Loop is a 3D puzzle game, submission to Ludum Dare 47.
You suddenly find yourself standing in a long, dark corridor at the end of which you can barely see a door. Everything is quiet...everything is engulfed by darkness and the only source of light is your flashlight. The moment you start placing your foot in front of the other, you hear the thumbing sound of your footsteps as you are now slowly approaching the door. You reach for the door handle and slowly push it down until you hear a clicking sound. You now find yourself in a pitch black room. You start looking around as you slowly walk your way through the darkness. After a short while, you finally spot a door on the other side of the room. Needless to say, it is the only door...and it is locked, obviously. There ought to be a way to open that door...

The game attempts to imitate the old PS1 graphics style in hope to give the player a sense of nostalgia.

• Blender
• GIMP

An android game available to play for free on Google Play. -IS- is an endless vertical-scroller, similar to Flappy Bird, where the player controls a ball instead of a bird. Unlike Flappy Bird, where you tap on the screen to guide the bird through metallics pipes, -IS- requires you to drag the ball around to avoid the gates and spikes on both sides of the screen. Additionally, -IS- features a gacha system where one can spend in-game currency, acquired by collecting light particles randomly appearing on the screen, to unlock a variety of balls in different colors and shapes.

• GIMP

Landfill is a 2D Point & Click game, submission to Ludum Dare 42. The game, as the title may suggest, is all about reycling. The game screen is split in half where on the left side you have the landfill, represented by a large, metallic pipe from which rubbish comes out periodically, and on the right side 4 color-coded recyling bins. Click, click and keep on clicking to your heart's content to get rid of the rubbish and put it in the bins. Do not forget to empty the bins every now and then or you will soon find yourself buried in...well, you know.

• GIMP

This very website designed and developed from scratch by yours truly. I had not done any HTML/CSS/JavaScript in a really long time when I first started to work on it, so to refresh my rusty mind, I watched a bunch of tutorials on how to make a responsive website. It really helped me kick things off as well as give me a general idea about what kind of design to go for.

The website makes use of Bootstrap framework to implement Modal content such as the ones seen in the "Projects" section, and Fancybox to create a responsive gallery (see "Artworks").