Hi, I'm Traveen W.

You may see me online as Sly Rocko

I am a Game Developer and Designer living in Melbourne, Australia. I have a flourishing passion in Systems Design and Storytelling.After studying Game Design for several years, I have come to learn all about my passions alongside important lessons on User Experience and Game Production. On top of that, I also gained some proficiency in Prototyping and Scripting.

Favourite Games: Xenoblade Chronicles, Team Fortress 2, Terraria
Favourite Shows: Mob Psycho 100, Samurai Champloo, Adventure Time
Favourite Manga: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Vinland Saga, Uzumaki
Favourite Music Genres: Hip Hop, Experimental, Prog Rock, Indie Rock

I am deeply passionate in learning about and participating in the Indie Game industry. Wonderful people have made beautiful games and stories, and I would like to create games and communities that reflect this appreciation.

Adept Skills:

  • User Experience

  • Critical Thinking

  • Systems and Mechanics

  • Prototyping and Playtesting

  • Problem Solving and Analysis

  • Quick Adaptablity and Learning

  • Communication and Documentation

Software Experience:

  • Game Engines (Godot, Unity)

  • Prototyping Software (Figma, Draw.io, Twine, Paint.NET)

  • Documentation Tools (Google Suite, Microsoft Office, Notion)

  • Scheduling/Agile tools (HackNPlan, CoDecks)

  • Programming Languages (C#, Python)

Team Projects:

Spearloom

Producer / Systems Designer / UI Scripting

Genre: Precision Platformer
Engine: Godot 4.3
Project Type: Game Release

Spearloom is a 2D platformer where players must traverse and swing through levels with the use of a grapple spear.

In a team of 5, this game was created over the span of 18 weeks.

Helevator

Designer / Game Logic Scripting

Genre: VR Horror
Engine: Unity 2021
Project Type: Game Prototype

Short VR horror experience focusing on micromanagement to escape a haunted hotel. The player must repair the elevator while repelling incoming monsters to get to the ground floor.

In a team of 2 designers, 4 artists and 1 programmer, this prototype was created within a single month.

Project Fragarach

Designer / Programmer

Genre: Arcade Fighter
Engine: Godot 4.2.2
Project Type: Game Prototype

Side Scrolling Beat ‘Em Up game where you prepare attacks using a series of card combos. Players must build a deck and tactically play cards quickly in the midst of battle, which influence the attacks they deal to enemies.

In a 2 person team, this prototype was created within a single month.

Hooped Up

Project Lead / Systems Designer / Programmer

Genre: Arcade
Engine: Unity 2021
Project Type: Game Prototype

Side-On Arcade game inspired by the Trampoline Time minigame from Super Mario DS. Carry basketballs to the hoop and score as high as you can before losing all your lives.

In a team of 3 designers, I was the only programmer in this 1 month long project.

Solo Works:

Abstract Defender

Genre: Arcade Shooter
Engine: Unity 2021
Project Type: Game Prototype

Top-Down Arcade Shooter where the player has to last as long as possible from oncoming enemies. The player can choose between a rapid firing bow, a slow firing piercing crossbow, or a shotgun spread.

Developed solo over a month as a student assignment. The documentation details the technical setup and functionality of the game's aspects.

Time Streamers

Genre: Strategy RPG
Project Type: Game Design Document

A mobile strategy RPG exploring many time periods and collecting artifacts to fix the timestream. The combat combines strategy RPG systems with an Active Time battle system.
Most gameplay content would be free to start grinding, with payment options for cosmetics or relieving the grind.

Developed a Game Design Document for this as a student assignment, with it detailing almost all major aspects of the game with a Pre-Production scope.

Heaven Has Fallen

Genre: Hack-N-Slash
Project Type: Game Design Document

Hack-N-Slash game about a fallen angel in a post-apocalyptic abandoned realm, with dreams of climbing to the top of the universe's food chain and creating a new heaven.
The two blades they wield are all they need to achieve this dream. One blade can cut reality into pieces. The other blade can host an entire arsenal of powers based on the powerful beasts the angel defeats.

Developed a Game Design Document for this as a student assignment, with it detailing almost all major aspects of the game with a Pre-Production scope.

Contacts:

Feel free to reach out any time. I'll try to reply as soon as possible!

Spearloom

Genre: Precision Platformer
Engine: Godot 4.3
Project Type: Game Release

Spearloom is a 2D platformer where players must traverse and swing through levels with the use of a grapple spear.

In a team of 5, this game was created over the span of 18 weeks.

Systems Designer

When initially creating the project, we were given the task of creating a 2D platformer with a unique twist. The game and its unique gimmick would need to focus on:

  • Achieving smooth flowing player controls

  • Levels that encourage player expression through mechanical challenges or exploration

  • Recognize and reward players who have achieved something successful

Before all of that was trying to identify potential platformer mechanics to explore while still accounting for the team's capabilities.To assist in the exploration, I brought in sticky notes and a couple pens for the whole team to organise ideas. It heavily sped up the idea mapping process to nail down on what we can and cannot do.

Game Pillars

Our team consists of 3 designers (including myself) and 2 programmers. In this team, one of the designers and one of the programmers have experience with pixel art, but they'll need to take time out of their primary disciplines.
As this was also meant to be a student assignment for all of us in our respective disciplines, this was a genuine concern.These game pillars I've worked on had focused the project towards gameplay over general aesthetics. This covers the core mechanics, the levels around them and the polish within the arts and sounds.
The focus in design over artistic taste would absolve any concerns of hyperfocus over the art, so that the people involved can focus on their core jobs at hand.

Player Feel and Game Flow

It's extremely important to get the feel of the game right for the player. We not only needed a good control system, but also enough customisability on the player to allow what I want to happen.As an initial bit of research on general gameplay feel, I looked into Steve Swink's book on Game Feel. This helped me understand the right thinking and terminology to explain the right systems and apply th eright values.One of the programmers came in already with a highly customisable player controller with many variables to tweak already. Combined with the features that Godot already had, the ease of use to tweak the basic movement was incredible.However, even with all of the theory and the customisability, it still took 3-4 sweeps of the controller before it finally felt good enough.

Producer

The scope of the game was limited based on these aspects:

  • Small team size of 5

  • Some of the team members needing time to do art on top of their primary work

  • 20 hours (2.5 days) of work time per person per week

Despite the small team size, they have demonstrated the skills to work independantly with their previous projects. As a result, the approach for producing this game was a lot lighter than I expected.To start, an additional pillar was created, not for the game but instead the team. It exists as a reminder to keep communications open and to treat people with respect.Time and task tracking was primarily done on the project management site HackNPlan.
The project was split up into 2 week sprints, where I created concise user stories for each job within the sprint. Each team member would then generate tasks within the sprint to achieve that overall user story.These methods combined together to give people the most agency and independence while pointing them in the right direction.