Iron Testament

Role(s): Audio Lead, AI Programmer
Technologies Used: C#, Unity 3D, Wwise, Ableton Live
Developed for: Independent Group
Apr. 2024 - Feb. 2025
Website

Responsibilities:

Enemy State Machine: Conceptualized and deployed a 5-state enemy AI state machine in Unity, with overrides for unique enemy types, creating a balanced gameplay challenge
Sound Design: Designed 10+ sound assets and oversaw the development of 30+ sound effects and 4 music tracks by a team of 5 sound designers
Adaptive Music: Developed a vertical music system in Wwise that responds to player combat states, elevating urgency and engagement during critical gameplay moments

Music-Synced Gameplay: Implemented synchronization of player actions in Unity to the music's grid using Wwise callbacks and C# scripting, resulting in less clash between music and sound effects
Cross-functional Collaboration: Collaborated with a cross-functional team of 20+ engineers, designers, and artists to offer feedback and creative input in team meetings, resulting in an 80% improvement in scope

Iron Testament is an upcoming turn-based strategy game that takes place in a post-apocolyptic future. You play as the last human left on Earth after a robot uprising, and leading a fringe sect of life-worshiping robots, you must take back the planet for the Children of Flesh.

Enemy AI

I began by creating a FigJam board to design the state machine and iterate before implementing. In a Neutral state, enemies won't do anything. In a Confused state, enemies will target each other. If there is a player unit nearby, enemies will enter the Offense state to attack the player. If an enemy is at low health, it will enter the SeekAssistance state to flee to an ally. Likewise, if a nearby ally needs assistance or is on the offense, an enemy will enter the Assist state to join them.

For implementation, I used nested coroutines to execute each enemy's actions in sequence. Each turn, an enemy will use as many Action Points (currency for actions and movement) as possible to achieve its goal. First, an enemy will check it's surroundings and update its state and target appropriately. Then, while the enemy can make actions, it will attempt to move closer to its target and execute an action.