Craig Thomas

About

Hello!

I am a game developer based out of Christchurch who has been working in the industry since 2013. I am currently working at CerebralFix as a programmer, working on mobile games, VR & AR projects, and other interactive applications. Creating games is a passion of mine; making something and having other people experience it and enjoy it is an incredible feeling that I never get tired of. Working with a team makes this experience even more wonderful to me - seeing all the pieces come together into something greater than the sum of its parts is extremely satisfying. As an avid player of games, I enjoy having some say in the design of the games I work on, and debating the merits of various design approaches as they relate to those projects.

Looking to get in touch? Use the contact links above or send me an email at contact (at) craigthomas.info

Portfolio Resume

Recent Work

Release: Late 2017 - Present
Role: Lead Programmer / Programmer

Most of my recent work is unfortunately under strict NDAs, but has been largely focused on supporting live mobile games made in Unity with large user bases, and more recently working on an installation experience made in Unreal.

Ace Academy VR

Release: Late 2017
Role: Lead Programmer
What I Learned: VR best practices, Motion control processing

Beginning as a VR port of Ace Academy: Black Flight, this game is an experiment in VR design using the HTC Vive. Some of my responsibilites included: implementing an intuitive UI/UX in VR, implementing intuitive and responsive motion controls using the Vive Controllers, and mitigating motion sickness from doing loops in a WWI plane tens of thousands of feet in the air. This project is currently expected to be released later this year.

Ace Academy - Skies of Fury

Release: April 2017
Play Store Link: Skies of Fury Android
App Store Link: Skies of Fury iOS
Role: Programmer
What I Learned: AI behaviour, Input processing, Mobile App Optimization

Designed as a sequel to Ace Academy: Black Flight, Skies of Fury called for many of the same mechanics and logic as the older game. Unfortunately, the existing code proved too difficult to refactor, and so was scrapped in favour of a ground-up rewrite. Working as one of two programmers on this project, I was responsible for helping design more elegant, robust versions of the systems that were created for the original game. My personal responsibilities included processing player input, the plane flight model, AI behaviours, and mobile optimization.

Bee Odyssey

Release: March 2017
Play Store Link: Bee Odyssey Android
App Store Link: Bee Odyssey iOS
Role: Programmer
What I Learned: Localization, Analytics

Bee Odyssey is a 2D side-scrolling adventure game, where players attempt to navigate their bees safely through a series of levels, collecting pollen and attempting to find their missing hive. While I only assisted development near the end of this game's production cycle, I was responsible for implementing the localization system (English and French), the analytics system, and for helping implement some of the UI. For the localization system, I developed a simple tool that implemented with a web interface to allow our (out of house) translators to easily review and update the localization data, and for us to easily sync that data with both the engine and with deployed versions of the game.

Space Frontiers: Dawn of Mars

Release: October 2016
Play Store Link: Dawn of Mars Android
App Store Link: Dawn of Mars iOS
Web Site: Dawn of Mars Site
Role: Lead Programmer
What I Learned: UI-heavy design, Persistent systems

Dawn of Mars is a base-building game set in the near future on Mars, where players attempt to establish humanity's first self-sufficient colony on the red planet. I was the lead programmer on this project, and also the sole programmer for the vast majority of development. I was responsible for the overall design of the game logic structure, which included the persistent systems, rover pathfinding AI, UI / localization, and design and balancing tools.

Tim Hortons AR Hockey Cards Experience

Release: September 2016
Play Store Link: Tim Hortons Android
App Store Link: AR Hockey Cards iOS
Role: Programmer
What I Learned: AR best practices

Our company was contracted by Tim Hortons to create an AR experience to accompany their annual hockey cards promotion and their World Cup of Hockey 2016 promotion. We created a mobile application that provided two experiences. The first was triggered when a user scanned a limited edition World Cup of Hockey coffee cup; a short animation played of a rink building around the cup, and showing support for Team Canada. The second experience was triggered by scanning any of the 100+ hockey cards available in restaurant - a short animation of that player would display on top of the card. My responsibilites for this project were to implement the UI and localization logic, and to help fix bugs while the app went through QA.

Ace Academy: Black Flight

Release: December 2015
Play Store Link: Black Flight Android
App Store Link: Black Flight iOS
Web Site: Black Flight Site
Role: Programmer
What I Learned: What it takes to release a game

Ace Academy: Black Flight is a WWI air combat game, featuring historically accurate planes and locations. It was also the first fully-realized game the studio as a whole created and, for the vast majority of the team, the first game they released. I supported the lead developer throughout most of the development, contributing small improvements here and there, and was transitioned onto the project full-time for the final 5 months leading up to release. During this time, I helped fix bugs, implement social features, IAP, and analytics, and ease UI/UX pain points.