Role: Senior Software Engineer, Tools Developer, and Lead VR Research Developer
During my time at IGT, I participated, and even led a wide variety of development and design efforts, ranging from Slot Game development, Tool Kit development, VR prototyping, and more. Zillion Gators, a popular land-based IGT slot game, is one of many games I helped bring to life with popping slot symbols in Unity.
Localization Toolkit
In addition to my work with games, I also designed and developed a localization automation toolkit for Localization Artists, which eliminated redundant, time-consuming labor, allowing the Artists to spend time on more creative tasks. The Localization Toolkit, which was comprised of three main parts:
- a plug-in for Adobe Flash/Animate for Localization Artists to
- a “pre-flight” desktop application to validate exported Flash content
- a centralized, internal server which would process bundled pre-flight data, and return a fully prepared document
This “fully-prepared document” could take hours for just one language, and games often were localized to over 10 languages.
VR Research and Development
IGT was also interested in the possibilities virtual-reality could bring to the casino floor. I designed a symmetrical obstacle course for two players to race simultaneously. Obstacles included climbable ladders, swinging pendulums, rolling blocks, and a helicopter-like menace which could dispense huge rolling balls. Objectives included reaching the goal, but also collecting as many gold coins and other treasures along the way.
The prototype also featured a Spectator system which allowed for a third display in addition to the two showing the contestants’ active views. The Spectator View could dynamically split the screen into panes, each focusing on different points of interest, with camera angles and view configurations relevant to the event being observed in each frame.
Below is a short demo run of Super Stunt Race VR.