Hi, I'm Sam Beckmann!
Producer/Gameplay Programmer
A 5th year BS/MS Game Design and Development student and emerging Game Developer looking to create games that give people the same joy that I get when I play!I primarily am a Producer who loves to work with teams of all sizes, as I love to see the gears turn in my teams head as we work iteratively towards our common goal of providing a positive experience for consumers! Aside from my work as a Producer, I primarily work as a gameplay programmer who loves bringing ideas crafted by our teams to existence!
Eternal Machination
Producer
3D 3rd Person Dark-Fantasy Action game built in UE5 and C++ where I lead our team totaling of 20 members. In which I hold weekly meetings for each of the sub teams (animation, audio, and core). On top of this I also facilitate communications between our faculty and external advisors. Alongside this I run and facilitate sprint debriefs after each sprint to ensure we are iteratively improving our process alongside our product. I am also researching how to leverage processes to enable intentional changes!
Gameplay Programmer
On top of leading our team of 20, my primary development work was on the character controller, the combat, and overall optimization. One highlight I had was when I utilized C++ to optimize the game to run 60 FPS faster (60 -> 120 fps) through the conversion of visual scripting towards C++ code for our Combat Focus Feature. On top of this, I was responsible for the overall implementation of all animations for both the player and our enemies.
Changeling VR
Production Manager
I was responsible for creating all of the builds for the project and doing the recordings for symposium submissions. On top of this, I personally organized 10 playtests, and as a team organized 34 playtests to get consumer feedback on the changes made to the game and the overall state of it. I also organized and ran daily stand-ups for the development team and bi-weekly meetings for the art, audio, and web teams.Alongside this, I also organized weekly 1:1 meetings with every member of the project to get a sense of their progress, personally and professionally in the sense of the project.
Lead Developer
VR Narrative Mystery game built in Unreal 4.27. On top of organizing playtests and running multiple teams adding up to 13 members, I was responsible for creating and implementing an eye tracking feature to monitor engagement in the game.On top of this, I represented the project at a symposium specializing in VR/AR development in addition to supporting other members of the team to help fix what they are stuck on.
Resilience Games - Jack Voltaic
Primary Game Developer
In a joint project with The Army Cyber Institute (ACI) at West Point and Rochester Institute of Technology, worked on a serious war game simulation to test U.S. city’s cyber and disaster relief plans and readiness.On this project, I was the primary developer in charge of the development of the game. The project is currently being made in Unity 2021.3.15f1. Some of my main contributions to the project were restructuring the data to a SoA (Structure of Arrays) format alongside an ECS (Entity Component System) format for the cards to allow for better performance upon networking, creation of a csv reader to input cards and scenarios, and building the map based upon a user-entered number of facilities adhering to common infrastructure patterns.
Finger Guns
Lead and Character Control Designer
A VR First Person Shooter made in UE5 and C++. As the lead of the team, it was my responsibility to establish the processes with our team to ensure that our development cycle was optimized for our team structure.I primarily worked on the PC controller to accommodate those who get motion sick easily or don't have a headset. Also worked on the combat of the game alongside the primary AI developer to ensure that we were able to provide an experience akin to comic book heroes and make believe we had as a kid!
Eternal Machination
Team Size: 20
Duration: 10 Months
Engine: UE5
Producer: Responsibilities
We ran this team based around the standard sprint velocity structure, with a specific allocation of roughly 20% of the average sprint velocity towards playtest feedback to allow for a flexible and iterative pipeline. This decision was made to ensure that we are not only meeting the goals and expectations we set for ourselves, but also making sure to take the time to listen to our advisors and consumers!
Held weekly meetings for each of the sub teams (animation, audio, and core).
Facilitated communications between our faculty and external advisors through the use of direct and objective language to mitigate confusion of expectations, progress, and results.
Ran and facilitated sprint debriefs and retrospectives after each sprint to ensure we are iteratively improving our process alongside our product. This was done through the use of the starfish retrospective method.
As the producer of the team, it is my responsibility to be the pillar of our team.
Provided support to enable and reinforce a positive and healthy work environment.
Worked with our team to help our Agile processes informed by Scrum that not only work for our internal team and our external team, but also our faculty advisors as well!
With this, I am also researching how we can leverage processes to enable intentional changes! I decided to research this, as there are many changes that are needed to be made throughout the entire production cycle, thus it is vital that, as the producer, I am enabling my team to do this effectively.
Our Jira Board Style
Starfish Retrospectives
High-level overview of our Roadmap, Roadblocks, and team!
Gameplay Programmer: Responsibilities
On top of leading our team of 20, my primary development work was on the character controller, the combat, and overall optimization. To accomplish this, I had to not only design the combat itself, but complete research prior to development to ensure that we are creating a satisfying combat system. It was my job and role on the team to implement the gameplay mechanics to allow our players to interact with our world exactly as they would expect to. One highlight I had was when I utilized C++ to optimize the game to run 60 FPS faster (60 -> 120 fps) through the conversion of visual scripting towards C++ code for our Combat Focus Feature.On top of this, I was responsible for the overall implementation of all animations for both the player and our enemies. I was responsible for not only incorporating the animations, but also setting up our animation flag and notify system to allow for the animations to behave exactly how they are expected to.
Brief Overview of the optimization highlight for the Combat Focus Feature.
© Sam Beckmann. All right reserved.
Changeling VR
Team Size: 14
Duration: 3 Months
Engine: UE4
Production Manager: Responsibilities
We ran this team based around the standard sprint velocity structure, with a specific allocation of roughly 20% of the average sprint velocity towards playtest feedback to allow for a flexible and iterative pipeline. This decision was made to ensure that we are not only meeting the goals and expectations we set for ourselves, but also making sure to take the time to listen to our advisors and consumers!
Held weekly meetings for each of the sub teams (animation, audio, and core).
Facilitated communications between our creative director and members of the team through the use of direct and objective language to mitigate confusion of expectations, progress, and results.
Ran and facilitated sprint debriefs and retrospectives after each sprint to ensure we are iteratively improving our process alongside our product. This was done through the use of the starfish retrospective method.
Ran Daily Standups (Scrum meetings)
Provided individual/team feedback,
Setup and ran a symposium,
Set up a system for my team and I to collect 33 playtests,
1:1 meetings,
As the producer of the team, it is my responsibility to be the pillar of our team.
Provided support to enable and reinforce a positive and healthy work environment.
Worked with our team to help our Agile processes informed by Scrum that not only work for our internal team and our external team, but also our faculty advisors as well!
With this, I am also researching how we can leverage processes to enable intentional changes! I decided to research this, as there are many changes that are needed to be made throughout the entire production cycle, thus it is vital that, as the producer, I am enabling my team to do this effectively.
Our Jira Board Style
Starfish Retrospectives
High-level overview of our Roadmap, Roadblocks, and team!
Lead Developer: Responsibilities
On top of leading our team of 20, my primary development work was on the character controller, the combat, and overall optimization. To accomplish this, I had to not only design the combat itself, but complete research prior to development to ensure that we are creating a satisfying combat system. It was my job and role on the team to implement the gameplay mechanics to allow our players to interact with our world exactly as they would expect to. One highlight I had was when I utilized C++ to optimize the game to run 60 FPS faster (60 -> 120 fps) through the conversion of visual scripting towards C++ code for our Combat Focus Feature.On top of this, I was responsible for the overall implementation of all animations for both the player and our enemies. I was responsible for not only incorporating the animations, but also setting up our animation flag and notify system to allow for the animations to behave exactly how they are expected to.
Brief Overview of tbe optimization highlight for the Combat Focus Feature.
© Sam Beckmann. All right reserved.
Resilience Games - Jack Voltaic v4
Team Size: 6
Duration: 11 Months
Engine: Unity
Primary Game Developer: Responsibilities
We ran this team based around the standard sprint velocity structure, with a specific allocation of roughly 20% of the average sprint velocity towards playtest feedback to allow for a flexible and iterative pipeline. This decision was made to ensure that we are not only meeting the goals and expectations we set for ourselves, but also making sure to take the time to listen to our advisors and consumers!
Held weekly meetings for each of the sub teams (animation, audio, and core).
Facilitated communications between our faculty and external advisors through the use of direct and objective language to mitigate confusion of expectations, progress, and results.
Ran and facilitated sprint debriefs and retrospectives after each sprint to ensure we are iteratively improving our process alongside our product. This was done through the use of the starfish retrospective method.
As the producer of the team, it is my responsibility to be the pillar of our team.
Provided support to enable and reinforce a positive and healthy work environment.
Worked with our team to help our Agile processes informed by Scrum that not only work for our internal team and our external team, but also our faculty advisors as well!
With this, I am also researching how we can leverage processes to enable intentional changes! I decided to research this, as there are many changes that are needed to be made throughout the entire production cycle, thus it is vital that, as the producer, I am enabling my team to do this effectively.
Our Jira Board Style
Starfish Retrospectives
High-level overview of our Roadmap, Roadblocks, and team!
© Sam Beckmann. All right reserved.