Sean Kennedy

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Featured Work

Floor Plan 2: Backside Story

A major free expansion to the VR comedy-puzzle game Floor Plan 2.

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Headmaster: The Lost Lessons

The first DLC level pack for the hit PSVR title Headmaster.

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Varises

VR training tool for the Conformis knee replacement surgery.

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Eden and OVR Vignettes

VR projects for OVR Technologies. Smell your surroundings in VR!

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Pet Rock: Weapon of Mass Destruction

Destroy everything! 1st place winner at RPI GameFest 2017.

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Other Projects

One Medical

• Oculus Quest training simulator for One Medical made at Frame Interactive

• Teaches medical providers best practices through dialogue and agenda creation with a virtual patient at a physical exam

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Varises

*Above clip does not show final product

Frame Interactive was contracted by Varises to create a virtual reality surgical training and practice/reference tool. The project was designed to be a proof of concept for a larger platform, using the Conformis custom knee replacement procedure as an example. In the simulation, a virtual avatar of Dr. Bryan Huber, a real life expert on this procedure, guides you through an interactive knee replacement from start to finish, teaching you about the steps, tools, and important details.The final product takes the user through a section of the surgery, where they are placing jigs on the knee, drilling holes, resecting bone, and more. For many of the steps, the user has the option watch Dr. Huber provide additional explanations, and they also sometimes have an option to watch a video about the current step. At the end of the procedure, there is a scored assessment mode (not featured in the video on this page), which tests the user's retention by asking them to identify jigs and answer multiple choice quiz questions.

I designed and implemented most of the systems and logic in the simulation, including the assessment mode, UI, interactions, and more. I spent the most time on the overall game flow architecture and content, that being the systems which control the progression of surgical steps, the data assigned to said steps, and the movement of tools and jigs. For a surgical simulator like this, accuracy is extremely important. I had to create multiple Unity engine tools to facilitate quick and easy adjustment of object animations and positions. Each "Step" in the surgery is a scriptable object data structure which contains information like tool positions, UI text, virtual avatar animations and audio, and much more. The engine tools that I worked on throughout development were vital for me to be able to quickly flip to and tweak different sections of the procedure. I also had to meticulously study real life videos and documentation of a complex surgical procedure and make sure the steps, information and visuals in the procedure were 100% accurate, as this simulation was designed to train real surgeons to operate on real patients!The Varises project also marks the first of several times I have directed a real life actor to capture animations and voice in VR. Doing this required a whole different set of engine tools to facilitate the recording process, with features like displaying scripts to the actor while they are in VR, the ability to watch playback past takes to the actor without having to remove the headset, and lots more. Working with an actor who had no knowledge of game development and directing them while they were in VR was a really cool and unique experience, and I'm really proud of the way this project turned out!

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Eden

Eden was a project contracted by OVR Technologies while I was working at the Champlain EMC. OVR was had developed their first prototype for a device that could attach to a VR headset and receive signals to disperse scents, so that a person in VR could smell their surroundings. They needed a simulation to showcase their device, and Eden was born. The game was demoed with the scent device prototype at several events around Vermont.I developed Eden with a small team over a single summer while I was in college. For most of us, it was our first real VR project. Our goal was to create a casual experience with minimalistic gameplay and high-fidelity environment art and audio. We wanted to create a super immersive experience which used environmental storytelling and became even more immersive and profound when scents were added into the mix.In Eden, the player arrives at a bar in the middle of night and is drawn in by a mysterious voice. The player explores four unique types of environments, each with their own different scent. There are also certain objects in the game that are smellable with narrative significance.

OVR Vignettes

Several years later, while working at Frame Interactive, OVR contracted our studio to create a new experience to demo their updated scent device. The new device was compatible with the Oculus Quest, had updated scent dispersal features, and communicated over WiFi.OVR wanted a more compact, streamlined experience to show off their new device. Collaborating with OVR, we created a simulation which takes the player through three short interactive "vignettes," guided by a talking virtual avatar. Each of the vignettes featured different types of scents. The experience also collected user analytics and feedback in the form of mood ratings and audio testimonials.

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Pet Rock: Weapon of Mass Destruction

Pet Rock: Weapon of Mass Destruction is a project I was lead designer on during my junior year at college, developed over a single semester. Our team started with just myself, an artist, and a programmer, and added a few more members later after passing through to the next stage.In the game, you control a pet rock in a 3D child's room, and your goal is to cause as much mayhem as possible while also earning stickers for completing challenges. Pet Rock is a casual, open-ended physics-driven experience. Certain players will simply enjoy causing destruction and creating emergent situations, while completionists will try to discover and complete every challenge.At the end of the semester, we brought Pet Rock: Weapon of Mass Destruction to RPI's GameFest, where the game won 1st place in a competition judged by developers from Vicarious Visions and Velan Studios, beating out over 20 other games from colleges across the Northeast.

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Headmaster: The Lost Lessons

Headmaster: The Lost Lessons is the first DLC for the hit PSVR launch title Headmaster, by Frame Interactive. In Headmaster, you must escape from prison by heading virtual soccer balls (and other things) with your actual head! This DLC adds 10 new single player levels with brand new mechanics, a new party mode level to play with friends, and a look inside Carl's Workshop.For this DLC, I designed and implemented 5 of the 10 new single player levels (Trampolines I, Trampolines II, Color Mixing I, Color Mixing II, and Garage Sale). It was a blast creating levels that lived up to the quality of the original game while also adding new creativity and challenge.

In addition to creating those levels, I also worked on the new party mode level, performed extensive QA and bug fixes to update the game to a modern version of Unity, and carried out many marketing and publishing requirements to ensure the game had a successful, multi-platform launch.

If you are curious to see more about the levels in the DLC, check out these videos created by fans of the game:

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Floor Plan 2:
Backside Story

Floor Plan: Backside Story is a huge free update to the popular VR puzzle game Floor Plan 2, by Turbo Button. In Floor Plan 2, you play as an employee trying to save your company by traveling to crazy different worlds via elevator, where you must gather items and interact with strange characters to solve a series of interconnected escape room-like puzzles.The Backside Story expansion adds a brand new elevator with 3 floors to explore, and a special twist on the standard floor plan gameplay where you can travel to alternate versions of each floor by entering the "backside." In this side adventure, you must discover 3 artifacts to help Puzzscout Buster get his last scout badge.I came onto this project at a very early stage when there was only a rough written outline for the experience on paper. A lot ended up changing as we iterated on designs. At first I was responsible for fleshing out and exploring certain puzzle and gameplay ideas in more detail, through the creation of written and visual proposals and diagrams. Once we started to hone in on ideas that seemed worth proving, I moved on to building potential room layouts in Probuilder and scripting simple puzzle sequences so we could try things hands on. It was a lengthy and careful preproduction cycle with lots of feedback and iteration.

^ Examples of using character reactions to reinforce puzzle messaging ^

During actual production I was responsible for coding and implementing many different items, interactions, and sequences. One specific area I gained experience in working on Backside Story was Unity Animator logic and programming. The world of Floor Plan is known for it's complex and dynamic characters. In an immersive VR game, we wanted characters to feel very lifelike and react to just about anything the player can think to do with them, even if it has nothing to do with a puzzle solution. Pulling this off required collaborating closely with our animator and delicately crafting some intricate animator controllers with scripting behavior support.Testing and polishing Backside Story was a lengthy process. Crafting a complex immersive puzzle game like Floor Plan means constantly tweaking designs to make sure there aren't too many red herrings to puzzle solutions. Sometimes in testing a player would try a certain solution to a puzzle that would make perfect sense, but we had never thought of it. As a result we would then have to either find a way to discourage or prevent that situation, or better yet, add positive feedback that rewards the player in a different way for trying some out of the box thinking! In addition to these gameplay QA cycles, Backside Story also went through rigorous bug and performance testing rounds involving lots of testing and diagnosing on multiple devices to ensure the game had a nearly bug free launch.If you are interested in seeing more of Backside Story, check out these videos created by fans of the game:

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About Me

Hi! My name is Sean and I am a Game Designer and Programmer with experience in Unity development, virtual reality, and much more. Being a proficient designer and programmer means that I can take features all the way from the conception stage, to prototyping and proving, all the way through to iteration and polish. Throughout my work history I have gained a wealth of design experience in specialties such as puzzle design, level design, and interaction design. I also love tackling any kind of programming challenges, whether it be crafting flexible and dependable systems, architecture, and tools using coding patterns, or be it leveraging scripting and Unity tools/external plugins to rapidly iterate and prototype ideas.Through my 10+ year game development journey, I’ve gained a wealth of experience working in small teams and collaborating with people of all disciplines in game development to solve problems. I value clear, consistent communication and feedback when working with others, and positive reinforcement. I have worked on and shipped many different kinds of projects, ranging from traditional indie games for entertainment to virtual reality medical simulator apps developed for clients in the health industry. I love projects that seem intriguing or unusual and explore new territories.I am currently exploring any kind of new opportunities, so feel free to reach out!

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Contact Me

Shoot me an email if you want to talk!Feel free to check out my LinkedIn if you'd like to see more of my history.