Robert Jones Portfolio
Hi, I’m Robert, a former intern at Insomniac Games where I worked with the performance and tools teams on their in-house engine.
Following the Spring 2023 semester, I earned my Master’s in Computer Science (Game Development) at the University of Southern California as well as my Bachelor’s in Computer Engineering cum laude at Florida Atlantic University In May 2021.
Although I am interested in game development as a whole, my main interests lie in AI development and engine development (including but not limited to physics, performance, and tooling). You can find me at mail@rjones.games as well as at my socials linked above.
Featured
Core Intern, Summer 2023
Insomniac Games
➤ What I did: Worked as part of the Core Performance Team at Insomniac Games. During my internship, I created a purpose-built editor and asset for the emergent dialog used in our games. This includes designing, implementing, and testing the editor to fit the dialog team’s needs as well as defining and building the asset type to be used in editor and at runtime.
➤ Manager: Elan Ruskin
Grandma Green, 2023
Casual mobile gardening game
➤ Link: Website
➤ Link: App Store
➤ What I did: Led the QA team for a 30 person studio. Identified, tracked, diagnosed, and fixed bugs throughout the development of the game using a custom bug tracking solution in addition to developing and maintaining test suites. Engineered a custom random number generator based on an xorshift architecture.
➤ Target platforms: Android and iOS
➤ Project length: 1 year
➤ Engine and tools: Unity, Perforce, Notion, Trello
Current Projects
Mercy, Feb 2024 – Present
Personal game engine
➤ Link: GitHub Repo
➤ What I’m doing: I am writing my own game engine from scratch in C++. Currently, I am working on implementing a renderer for the engine using OpenGL and Glad. The next modules I plan to work on and add will be a GameObject/Component system and a built-in physics engine.
➤ Target platform: Windows
➤ Language and tools: C++, Dear ImGui, OpenGL, Glad
Navmesh builder, Feb 2024 – Present
Dynamic navmesh creation tool
➤ Link: Github Repo
➤ What I’m doing: This is serving as my secondary project and is not updated as frequently. This tool will load in the level geometry (currently designated as objects with a collider) and create a mesh on demand that an agent with specified characteristics can navigate around. This will be done through voxelizing the level geometry before culling invalid surfaces and constructing a mesh using this data.
➤ Engine: Unity, Unreal in future
Previous Projects
Upword, Summer 2022
Spell words like your life depends on it | Platformer, Word Game
➤ Link: Play here
➤ Link: Design Document
➤ What I did: Led team of 12 through the design and development of a platformer crossed with word game. Created a smart letter generation system, tutorial system, and difficulty progression. Introduced an analytics collection system to be used in future classes.
➤ Project length: 3 months
➤ Engine and tools: Unity, Github, Google Sheets and Docs
Game Engine Development, Spring 2022
Expanding a proprietary engine
➤ Link: Read more and view code
➤ What I did: Add new functionality to an engine owned by USC. Engineered a navigation mesh using A* for pathfinding through cells and Simple Stupid Funnel Algorithm to find optimal path. Implemented frustum culling, collisions and gravity, and a wind shader with attenuation.
➤ Project length: 4 months
➤Engine and tools: Prime Engine (C++)
Bazooka Caverns, 2022 (Game Jam)
Launch bombs, destroy blocks, kill the nest | Puzzle, Health Management
➤ Link: Play here
➤ What I did: Worked on a two-person team to create a game with a theme of “Depths” and a limitation of “Health as a Tool”. Led the design of the game, developed different enemies with some movement AI, created the levels for the game, and implemented the UI including some custom art assets.
➤ Reception: 9th enjoyment / 16th overall (151 entries)
➤ Project length: 3 days
➤ Engine and tools: Unity, Github, FireAlpaca, Google Docs
Par-a-dice, 2022 (Game Jam)
Be precise with the dice – roll to the hole! | Top-down, Dice Golf
➤ Link: Play here
➤ What I did: Worked as part of a three-man team to develop a game around the theme of “Roll of the Dice”. Led the design and creation of the dice roll behavior to ensure and smooth and consistent experience, aided in the creation of levels, and implemented the UI and scoring system.
➤ Reception: Top 20% enjoyment / Top 30% overall (6,110 entries)
➤ Project length: 2 days
➤ Engine and tools: Unity, Github, FireAlpaca, Google Docs
The Ascension Trials
Solve puzzles, beat the boss, ascend | Third-person action
➤ Link: Play here
➤ What I did: Led a three-man team through the design and implementation of a third-person action game. Implemented melee combat, designed enemy behavior and implemented patrolling/targeting logic, created modular wave summoning system, built level and puzzles, and gathered and edited the models and animations.
➤ Project length: 5 months
➤ Engine and tools: Unity, Perforce, Google Sheets and Docs
Esports
Conquest, 2021
SDSU LAN, 2021
SDSU LAN, 2021
USF Spring Invitational, 2021
Robert Jones - Game Developer Portfolio 