My name is Dylan Appleton. I’m a programmer, game designer, and writer. I have a passion for immersive worldbuilding, clever game mechanics, and anime fight scenes.
As of December 2021, I have graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science (Games).
Background
I am a gameplay programmer, game designer, and narrative designer with a love of games and worldbuilding. I am currently based in Ozark, MO, but I am willing to relocate as necessary. In December, I graduated with my Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science (Games). I've worked on several projects in a number of different roles, and I'm eager to offer new, creative ideas to a project.
I have seven years of coding experience, and as an engineer, I pride myself on my communication skills. No matter what role I’m in, I would like to be able to bridge to communication gap between engineers and the other disciplines.
I am very interested in game design and when I am not busy with work, I can frequently be found working on one personal project or another. Aside from video games, I also have a deep love for Tabletop games, and a current passion project of mine is an RPG based on shounen anime.
Narrative is also a big interest of mine. I have been writing for as long as I can remember. Even as a child, my dream job was to be an author. I would love to help tell interesting, incredible stories!
Currently I am working for Upriver Productions as a database engineer where I have developed and maintain a database of video footage. I have been working for Upriver Profuctions since March 2022.
Skills
Gameplay Programming
Engine Programming
Narrative Design
Game Design
UI Design
Database Development
Creative Thinking
Communication
Programming Languages
C++
C#
Java
LUA
HTML/CSS
Javascript
SQL
Python
Development Tools
Unity Engine
Unreal Engine
DirectX
Visual Studio
Perforce
Adobe CS Suite
Jira
MongoDB
Portfolio
Sweeping the Ruins
Sweeping the Ruins is a co-op action game where two young Ruin Sweepers are tasked with defeating a vicious monster that has appeared in the ruins in the center of their town. I worked as the lead (and only) Narrative Designer for this project. As such, I was tasked with crafting a cohesive world and an interesting, emergent narrative that meshed with game mechanics. This was my senior capstone project, and is available on Steam now!
Crypt of En
Crypt of En is half idle game and half gacha game. I was a gameplay engineer on the project. You traverse through a dungeon and defeat enemies by tapping on them. You can also unlock companions who will automatically fight the monsters in the dungeon for you. This was a game that was made for the USC Global Game Jam.
CatFight!
CatFight is a 2D fighting party game. I worked with one other person on the game, and I served as the engineer and helped with design. CatFight! was a fun, semester-long project for USC’s Intermediate Game Design Class. An interesting, unique challenge posed by the game was trying to really make the player feel like they were floating around in space.
Poppin’ Robots
Poppin’ Robots is a Top-Down Shooter. On this project, I worked as the lead gameplay engineer. The interesting thing about this project is that it is networked. Included in the build is a server, on which you can host scores that will appear on a leaderboard. You also have to have an account to be able to put your score on the leaderboard. This was a semester-long project for the class CSCI 201
My Friends Are My Strength
My Friends Are My Strength is a Powered By The Apocalypse tabletop RPG based on shounen anime. It is a personal project of mine, and I have served as the lead designer and writer for the project. Right now the game is still very much in its infancy, but I plan to continue working on it. Ideally, once the game is more polished, I would like to put it on Kickstarter and give it a full release. Right now the biggest challenge is really just making it ooze anime. I want every mechanic, every rule to evoke the feeling of watching shounen anime. I’m a big anime fan and an equally big TTRPG nerd, so this project is really taking two big loves in my life and pushing them together. I also felt the need to work on this project because there really is a distinct lack of anime inspired RPGs, especially PBTA ones.
Untitled Gambling Game
This is footage from a personal project that I was working on but had to put to the side while I’m in school. I’ve pitched the game as “Salty Bet meets Blaseball.” Essentially the premise of the game is that you will bet on fights between established anime tropes and gain more coins as you win. Everything in the fights are randomly determined, and I plan for there to be a number of random events that can occur and for there to be several random maps for each fight.
Bigger Number Better Person
Bigger Number Better Person is an idle RPG where you fight monsters to make money to become stronger so you can fight more monsters. It’s the kind of game that you’ll open up to play a few minutes of, and before you know it, you’ve been playing for days and have become stronger than god. I was the sole developer on the game, using only asset store assets and things I could make myself. The game was made over the span of about three days, and was an interesting exercise in UI design as well as a way to keep my coding skills sharp.
What I’m Currently Working On
This is footage from my current personal project that I am working on. The game is a first person platformer with several different movement options. It’s very early on in development, and I have more ideas I’d like to implement. I’d like to implement a throwing knife that you can swap places with. I don’t really know what I’m planning on doing with the game once I’m done with it, I’ll probably just throw it up on itch. It’s really just an exercise in keeping my coding skills sharp.
Contact Me.
peizur@gmail.com
(417) 214 89462
Ozark, MO 65721