Software/Video Game Development

I began developing games two years ago and am entirely self-taught. 

While not traditionally considered "Aerospace Engineering", I believe the work I've done in game development represents a solid understanding of software and systems engineering experience. When designing tools for myself, I emphasize modular design, abstraction, robustness, and long-term maintainability. These are all skills that translate directly to engineering problem-solving across disciplines. A brief example of this core design philosophy can be seen in the event/trigger architecture I designed and implemented to generalize interactions across gameplay systems:

Event Trigger System (Simplified Overview):

• Trigger:

  • A node that, through the means of its attached method(s), sends a "triggered" signal.

    • Examples: A Pressure Plate, A Lever, A Button, etc.

• Method:

  • A fundamental detection that a trigger can leverage to know when to emit it's "triggered" signal.

    • Examples: Area Was Entered, Player Interacted, Health Changed, etc.

• Event:

  • A node that does some sort of event when it receives the "triggered" signal from any of its attached triggers

    • Examples: A Door Opening, A Particle/Sound Effect Playing, A Platform Moving, etc.

Example: 

Consider a button that should be pressed whenever the player:

• Interacts with it (presses the interact key while looking at it)

• Damages it (with some sort of weapon) 

Let's also say we want this button to toggle (open/close) a door whenever it's pressed. Using this system:

• A button trigger would be created with internal logic defining its response to a received activation.

• The two methods of interest ("Player Interacted" and "Health Changed") would then be attached to the button, defining the button's activation conditions.

• This button would then be added as a reference to the list of triggers inside the door to control.

• Now, whenever either of the method conditions are met, they will cause the button to emit its "triggered" signal, and the door state will toggle (open or closed).

Conclusion:

More examples of systems I have work designing and implementing are as follows:

• Subtitles/Localization

• UI Screen Navigation and Design (Mouse vs Controller)

• Character Movement/Input State Machines

• Rigid Body Interaction and Collision Layering Standards

• Inventory Management Systems

• Project File Structure Standards

• Scene Progression and ID Systems

• Scene State Inheritance and JSON File Saving

• Documentation of all Systems

Most (if not all) of my development has been done using the Godot Game Engine.

Course Work

Throughout my time in grad school, I have developed a few code bases while taking relevant courses. I primarily do my work in Python, but have some experience in MATLAB and C/C++. Right now, up on my GitHub, I have made my work for two relevant courses public:

• ASEN 6080 - Statistical Orbit Determination

  • This code primarily consists of numerical Kalman Filtering techniques and filters, both Linearized and Non-Linear.

• ASEN 5090 - Intro to GNSS

  • This code primarily consists of performing GPS Signal Acquisition and Position Solutions using raw data files (RINEX, etc.)

Here is a link to my GitHub.