Changeling

Unpaid Internship - Unreal Engine 4

Changeling is a VR narrative mystery game created by RIT students from the School of Interactive Games and Media and the College of Art and Design. The narrative follows a private investigator named Aurelia Walker, who possesses a supernatural power allowing her to see another person's thoughts after touching them. She receives a phone call from a concerned mother inquiring about changes she noticed in her infant, Tobi. She pleads with Aurelia to find out what's causing her baby to act unusual. Aurelia soon finds out that she herself is not so usual either, and must confront her true identity as she uncovers the evil force responsible for her troubles.

Most students at RIT are required to complete two co-op/internship blocks to become elligible for graduation, this allows students to explore the various aspects of their chosen field in a worry-free environment. I began my first co-op block as a general developer and began working on a more intuitive control scheme for rotating the player's field of view. After a couple weeks of struggling, I approached our supervisor Elouise Oyzon, and asked if I could switch to an audio development role. This way I could get exposed to an area of game development that would have been much more difficult to explore in a proffesional setting with my skill set and academic background. I enjoyed the role immensely, I began by implementing various sound effects for the Mother's level and Father's level. I realized the current system for controlling the background music of each level was overly complicated and time consuming to implement. I decided to rebuild the music system from the ground up in order to facilitate the creation of more dynamic and interactive background music, while simplifying the blueprint structure to ensure efficient future development. Additionally, I set up new trigger boxes that would add or remove layers of background music depending on where the player was standing in the level, offering future composers the ability to give each level a dynamic feeling.

During my second internship block working with the Changeling team, there were two other audio developers and a composer who joined the project, and I decided to take on the role of Lead Audio Developer. My primary responsibilities this semester were to expand and update the documentation relating to the interactive music system and our general audio implementation practices, utilizing the project management software ClickUp and leading weekly scrum meetings. My development tasks transitioned to implementing sound effects and music created by the other audio team members. I feel extremely lucky that I was offered the opportunity to contribute to the ChangelingVR project, it gave me the confidence to explore a new aspect of game development and allowed me to gain valuable experience a team lead role in an Agile development framework.

Game files:

Documentation:

Rock Climbing Gym

Solo Project - Blade & Sorcery Mod

Blade & Sorcery is a VR fantasy sword fighting game developed by Warp Frog. One of the core gameplay features is the ability to climb any static object with a collider component. I noticed there weren't many maps that primarily focused on the climbing aspect of the game, so I put together a small map with many different things to climb.
The highlight of the map is an aircraft hangar outfitted with rock climbing walls and an indoor ropes course. Outside the hangar are a few areas with props I thought would be fun to climb on, such as shipping containers, broadcast towers, concrete tubes, and a couple other industrial-themed props.

Players can download the map from nexusmods.com and install it using the Vortex mod manager. Listed below are all 3d models and Unity packages utilized in the making of this map.

Documentation:

Sketchfab models:

Unity packages:

UE4 Cinematic Level

Solo Project - Unreal Engine 4

in-game screenshot of UE4 Level

This is a project I created for one of my level design classes called Virtual Worlds. The purpose of making this level was to create a short, interactive experience similar to games like Dear Esther and The Stanley Parable. Some of the core aspects I focused on throughout the making of the level were music and SFX, lighting, and some basic animation. I composed all of the background music using Ableton Live and the BBC Symphony Orchestra Spitfire VST plugin.

In my level, the player starts in an old, run-down apartment located in a satellite state of the Soviet Union. After viewing a live broadcast on TV, the player learns the Berlin Wall has fallen and the Soviet Union is beginning to break apart. After exploring the apartment, a note can be found at the door from the player's friend Anton, inviting them to explore a nearby military installation that was recently abandonded by the consolidating Soviet armed forces. Once the player arrives, an automated missile launch system activates. The player must find a way to interrupt the launch sequence before the missile fires.

Listed first are two video play-throughs of the level. The first video is a full play-through that shows how to get the intended, "good ending" while the second video shows what happens if you get the "bad ending". I've included all the project files as well as a PDF which contains general documentation as well as highlighting the core functionality in the UE4 level blueprint. Lastly, I included all the music files I composed along with sheet music for the track that plays during the launch sequence.

Video play-throughs:

Documentation:

About Me

Hey there! My name is Dominic Russo. I grew up in the sleepy, New England town of Wallingford, CT. At an early age, I would spend most of my time building lego sets and playing around on the family computer, a practice my parents begrudgingly accepted. My father would spark my interest in science, introducing me to the wonders of astronomy, physics, and chemistry just as I was getting a handle on the English language. The observatory behind me in the photo above was built by my dad in July of the year 2000 and houses a 12" Meade LX 200 Schmidt–Cassegrain telescope which we used to hunt for asteroids and other near-earth objects.

While attending grade school, I began taking karate lessons to learn basic self-defense and would eventually help teach newer students at lower belt levels. When I entered high school, I found excitement in both practical and creative activities outside of class. I was a member of the programming club, robotics team, and drama club all throughout my four years in high school, serving as Lighting Director for the stage crew in my senior year. I also developed a passion for esports that began when I co-founded the esports club and played main support for my high school's Overwatch team. In my freshman year I became the manager for RIT's Division 2 Overwatch team in my freshman year and then moved on to work with the Intramural Esports program for the remainder of my time on campus.

When it came time to choose which path I would pursue in college, I knew I wanted to make games. Ever since my parents introduced me to the family PC, I was enamored with the depth and diversity of the different virtual worlds people had created. I first began experimenting with Minecraft mods in early high school and soon would find my way to the Unity and Unreal Engines, where I spend most of my free time today modding my favorite games, such as the VR title Blade and Sorcery.

Contact info: dar5212@rit.edu

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