Hi 👋 I’m Nick Dupker, a Senior Programmer with over 11 years experience of making computer games. I have worked on a variety of platforms including Consoles, PC, Mobile and VR. I have worked with a number of engines including Unity and Unreal.
I am a generalist programmer and I both enjoy, and am happy to tackle, any challenges that come my way. That said, some areas I have spent reasonable chunks of time looking at include: networking, animation, tools and physics.
Taking animation as an example, on one project, I was provided a series of animations by an animator. I then built a dynamic layered animation system to bring the characters to life.
While my main focus has been engineering, I am very much a design focused engineer. Intertwined with my years of programming, I have enjoyed significant bursts of working in a more design orientated role. This included designing and documenting core gameplay systems, balancing, and helping to find the fun.
Also, on one project, I created design tools for sequencing NPC interactions and events to allow for gameplay and narrative branching based on player actions.
I have spent my career continually learning and improving, I won’t be stopping any time soon.
Released Games
Border Bots VR
What is it?
Border Bots VR is a heavily narrative based VR Puzzle game with a full voice cast, developed by vTime Games, and published by Team17, for release in 2024. It sees the player managing a border point for many strange and funny Robots. The player has to process the robots with the various gadgets at their disposal. It was heavily inspired by the game Papers Please, Border Bots has a more light hearted approach but aims to still have a large impact on the player.
What was my part?
A demo of Border Bots had been originally been made by Paw Print Games in 2018 , my part on it back then was mainly a multiplayer vs mode that was later scrapped when full development was started 3+ years later by vTime Games. After that I was part of the core team from early prototyping to fixing submission issues leading up to release.
Bloody Zombies
What is it?
Bloody Zombies is a Brawler hailing to the classics like streets of rage, developed by Paw Print Games, and published by nDreams for release in 2017. It can be played in VR which gives a unique diorama style perspective.
What was my part?
For the early parts of the project I was the only programmer. In these stages I developed the level loading systems, controls, combat system, and the various player abilities and attacks. I liaised with animators to set up the characters and 3D artists to set up the levels. In the latter stages I was tasked with setting up the multiplayer systems for syncing the characters, items, effects and other game systems. I set up the Lobby system, scoring system and UI working with the designers. I also set worked on many platform specific systems for controls and TRC requirements on PS4 and later the Nintendo Switch release.
Esper (ported to PSVR)
What is it?
Esper is a VR physics puzzle game originally made by CoatSink. It has a narrator to guide you through the levels. The player has telekinesis abilities that can move or launch items from a distance.
What was my part?
I did 90% of the programming and setup for Porting Esper to PSVR on the PS4. The porting involved achievements, setting up controls with the PSMove controllers.
The biggest roadblock was there were performance issues with the levels being made up of colliders that animated coming in to make up the levels, so I created a system to have them be static instead.
Unreleased Games
‘Well established Team 17 IP’ Project
What was my part?
I created a 2D physics system to be deterministic and use a fixed point maths library, It supported features like dynamic terrain destruction, and collision layer masking. The physics update used Unity burst compilation and the jobs system for optimisation purposes.
I made a system, and tools, for creating weapons by combining components.
I also created documentation for technical systems, weapons, features and levels in pre-production.
Patisserie
What is it?
Patisserie is a cosy cooking and customer interaction game. We made a vertical slice in VR with some narrative, farming, food preparation cooking and even some recipe experimentation.
We also created a ‘flat screen’ version of the basic game movement and a dough rolling mini-game.
What was my part?
I created the gameplay and mechanics for the dough rolling, mixing in a bowl, cooking on a stove, chopping, and the dynamic recipe system. I also created the system for customers selecting recipes and the player serving them. I integrated the animation systems with pathfinding and player interactions.
Other Projects
Sweeper
What is it?
Sweeper is a personal project I made as I have always had a passion for mine sweeper games, but was always frustrated with randomly generated levels often requiring guessing to be solved. I created a 2D version first with a phone build, and later created a 3D version that I also made work in VR. The Image shows the 3D version in play.
