WHITE RABBIT

Trailer

Project Details

My Role

As Founder, Lead Programmer, and Game Designer, I led the game’s vision while building core systems and shaping gameplay. I led 6 programmers and collaborated across level design, art, and marketing within a 20+ person team to deliver a playable proof of concept.

Founder

• Founded the project and shaped its vision, direction, and production goals from concept through development.
• Pitched White Rabbit to publishers including Soft Source and Kwalee — covering identity, timeline, scope, and market potential.
• Defined key deliverables, production targets, and overall project direction across development.
• Supported a 2-year development plan with a proof of concept delivered in 4 months (~$380K core cost; ~$15.5K monthly burn).

Lead Programmer

• Led 6 programmers with a shared subsystem ownership map (audio, save data, combat, inventory) tracked in Trello/Git.
• Built runtime architecture in UE5 using Blueprints + C++ modules: player pawn, interaction interfaces, and event-driven managers.
• Designed a zone-based audio graph with zone managers, crossfades, bus routing, and priority ducks for layered horror beds.
• Implemented save/load via a serialized SaveGame object graph — preserving progress flags, inventory, gun/player stats, and key interactables.
• Authored Character Movement configs, pickup/inventory containers, and animation timing tables iterated through structured playtests.
• Modeled weapon stat pipelines (damage, spread, recoil curves, mod sockets) as data-driven structs rather than hard-coded combat branches.
• Cut PoC footprint 14 GB → 3 GB with soft references, packed levels, light baking, and reduced per-frame casting/tick work.

Game Designer

• Defined the core loop around sanity systems, moddable combat, interaction verbs, and gated progression.
• Connected narrative branches, player choice, and gameplay systems into one design spine for the PoC slice.
• Contributed level design — spatial pacing, encounter telemetry goals, altar puzzle sequencing, and boss approach vectors.
• Shaped story structure with beat charts / act ladders; tied corporate dystopia and trauma beats into mechanical beats.

Tools & Technologies

• Unreal Engine 5.4 — Blueprints/C++, SaveGame serialization, audio zone managers
• Data-driven combat — weapon structs, mod sockets, recoil/spread curves
• Blender — environment blockouts and asset integration
• Git — version control across a 6-programmer technical split
• Confluence / Notion / Trello / Discord — specs, tickets, and production sync
• Figma / Illustrator / Photoshop — UI and texture iteration

References

1. Jenkins, H. Game Design as Narrative Architecture — environmental storytelling and spatial narrative sequencing.
2. Perron, B. (ed.) Horror Video Games — tension design, vulnerability framing, and audiovisual fear cues.
3. Epic Games — Unreal Engine Soft Object References / Asset Manager guidance for streamed content and build size.
4. Nystrom, R. Game Programming Patterns — event queues and decoupling for manager-driven audio/inventory systems.
5. Schell, J. The Art of Game Design — lenses for feedback, fairness, and playtest-driven iteration on horror puzzles.

Workflow Summary

• Pre-Production

  Defined game vision, core mechanics, narrative direction, and technical structure.

• Systems Development

  Built and tested audio zones, save/load, player mechanics, puzzle interactions, and weapon stats.

• Level Design & Narrative

  Contributed to level flow, gameplay pacing, mission structure, and narrative progression.

• Testing & Iteration

  Refined systems through playtesting, debugging, balancing, and continuous iteration.

• Final Build

  Optimized performance, reduced build size, fixed issues, and prepared the playable demo.