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Gameplay Programmer

Hello! I'm Joshua Pelkington, a gameplay programmer with 5+ years of game development and programming experience. I embrace the detail-oriented challenges of developing robust software, especially finding those pesky missing parentheses. And I don't just make games! I write the code supporting projects that serve users in many ways, from entertainment to enhancing everyday tasks.

Need my skills to help your team take an idea from concept to code? Please reach out. Let's make greatness happen! In the meantime, view the fantastic projects I had the honor of writing code for.

pelkingtonj@gmail.com
848-221-9952

Trouble in Tornado Town

  • Team of 9
  • Unity C#
  • 2 Years

Trouble in Tornado Town is an physics-based destruction game featuring a giant tornado! Trouble in Tornado Town was produced by a studio of 10 Drexel students outside of class time, to learn how to ship a game. I was the lead programmer and created the wacky gameplay systems that make it so fun to play! I also optimized the physics and rendering pipelines to work for the thousands of object we wanted on-screen. It is now fully released on Steam following 2 major post-launch updates.

  • Designed & programmed core gameplay loop
  • Complex tornado physics simulations
  • Optimized for 3000+ dynamic objects
  • Shipped on steam with multiple updates

Check out the Game

Code Samples

Terra Inferno

  • Team of 10
  • Unity C#
  • 1 Year

Terra Inferno is a turn-based tactics game featuring powerful world manipulation! As an alien planetary force, grow plant allies to collect resources. Use what you've collected to stop a threatening human invasion. Summon meteors, raise mountains, flood trenches, and more! As the lead programmer, I developed a dynamic hexagon grid and adaptive utility-based artificial intelligence which work together to create a memorable session every time. Terra Inferno is released now on Steam.

  • Dynamic and easy-to-use hexagon grid backend
  • Simulated world generation using climate and erosion
  • Adaptive utility AI system

Check out the Game

Match Free

  • Solo
  • Unity C#
  • Game Jam
  • ~36 Hours

Match Free is a turn-based puzzle game where you play as a creature trapped in a matching puzzle! Dodge the Puzzler's matches to stay alive and earn mana for powerful abilities. Match Free was created from a challenge to invert the roles of traditional games, and so this reverse puzzle game was born. I developed a typical match-3 architecture with a player controller on top of it. The Puzzler AI features a lookahead brute-force algorithm for challenging single-player gameplay.

  • Flexible match-3 architecture
  • Lookahead brute-force AI
  • End of game statistics

Play the Game

Code Samples

Desert Darts

  • Solo
  • Unity C#
  • ~2 Days

Desert Darts is an endless arcade game and my first mobile project. Using your phone's gyroscope, control a target with the goal of landing precice hits in rapid succession. Desert Darts features an adaptive difficulty system and complex dart pattern generation for engaging and replayable gameplay, and was created with an accessable, icon-only interface.

  • Adaptive difficulty
  • Procedural dart patterns
  • Android compatability
  • Accessible, icon-only interface

Play the Game

Code Samples

Krafts

  • Solo
  • Unity C#
  • Game Jam
  • ~3 Days

Krafts is an arts and crafts making experience made in 2 days for a game jam with the theme of "Joined Together". I was inspired by glue and wanted to make a therapeutic experience reminiscent of kindergarten arts and crafts. Arrange many different objects, glue them together, and even draw on them! After you finish, shake off any un-glued objects and save a screenshot of your creation to your device. During the jam I engaged with the community by collecting their favorite screenshots and put them on the front page.

  • Object grabbing and layering system
  • Pencil drawing shader
  • Glue!
  • Screenshot saving technology

Play the Game

Code Samples

Dropping Undead

  • Solo
  • Unity C#
  • ~5 Weeks

Dropping Undead is a third-person endless survival game featuring zombies and guns! Blast away unending hordes of increasing zombies with several gun types at your disposal. Dropping Undead is inspired by Call of Duty Zombies gameplay, but with a third-person twist. I chose a stylized art direction and sharp color palette to emphasize the core gameplay elements such as health and ammo. The endless round system and limited weapon pickups keep the game interesting over longer play sessions.

  • Stylized, unlit, functional graphics
  • Endless wave system
  • Third-person character and animation controllers

Play the Game

Code Samples