Michael H

Solo Indie Developer: Tooth & Nail

N/A • Trabajador autónomo

Feb 2026 - Present • 4 mos

Tooth & Nail is a multiplayer martial arts arena fighter built around directional combat — think For Honor, but faster and grounded in real martial arts disciplines like Muay Thai and wrestling. I am the sole designer and developer: every system you see in this game, from the combat architecture to the design documentation, is my work. Combat Systems The core of T&N is a guard-direction system where attacks, blocks, parries, and dodges all operate on matched directional inputs. Under the hood this runs through a server-authoritative pipeline — input, validation, replication, UI update — keeping combat synchronized and cheat-resistant in a multiplayer environment. The posture and stamina systems layer on top to reward patient, reads-based play over button mashing. Design Depth Every mechanic in this game has a written design rationale behind it — advantage states, unblockable attack types, escape conditions, resource pacing. I wrote the full TDD before touching a line of code, which means implementation decisions are intentional, not reactive. Why This Matters for Your Project Building T&N means owning the full loop: design a system, document it, implement it, test it, and balance it. If you hire me, you are getting a developer who thinks about why a feature should work a certain way before writing a single node.

Student Projects

University • Tiempo parcial

Dec 2023 - Present • 2 yrs 6 mos

These projects represent work done outside of professional obligations — built from curiosity, experimentation, and a desire to understand systems by building them from scratch. AI-Driven NPC Dialogue Plugin Developed a UE5 plugin integrating OpenAI's GPT API for real-time, personality-driven NPC dialogue. NPC behavior was defined through a structured data asset — description, traits, edge cases, and defaults — which was packaged into a formatted prompt and streamed back as in-world dialogue. Implemented memory-based conversation context so NPCs maintained consistency across exchanges. The architecture was designed to be developer-friendly: drop in the component, configure the data asset, and the NPC talks. Stay A While — Group Project Lead Led a cross-disciplinary team through a complete project cycle on a first-person horror game. Set up and taught Perforce version control for the team, ran scrum-style standups and retros, and handled the bulk of gameplay engineering. Built a full NPC with spline-based patrol, perception-driven aggro, last-known-location search behavior, a jump scare camera effect, and an animation state machine — all tied together in a Behavior Tree. Slash & CyberSekiro Two solo combat prototypes reverse-engineering mechanics from Dark Souls and Sekiro — parry systems, lock-on targeting, hit detection, and animation blending built entirely in C++. Across all of these projects, the through line is the same: understanding a system well enough to rebuild it, then making it extensible enough to build on.

Associate Gameplay Programmer

Distinct Possibility Studios • Tiempo completo

Apr 2024 - Dec 2025 • 1 yr 8 mos

Reaper Actual is a first-person MMO extraction shooter built for 200+ player lobbies. I owned and evolved the game's AI behavior systems, working from high-level design through native C++ implementation. AI & Behavior Systems Designed and shipped NPC behaviors including patrol routes, guard positions, cover-seeking, peek-and-fire logic, and specialized archetypes (sniper, shotgunner). Built spline-driven Smart Objects configurable by designers without engineering support, with built-in debug tooling and null-safety. Developed and maintained Behavior Trees, EQS queries, and native C++ BT tasks and decorators. NPC Ticketing Subsystem Architected a server-side coordination system allowing NPCs to register and gate behaviors via a tag-based ticket model. Handled async ticket expiration, death cleanup, and Behavior Tree integration — enabling organized group combat at scale. Auto Turret Built a fully replicated turret with passive sweep, active tracking, and destroyed states. Drove rotation through quaternions and lerp-based server-to-client replication for smooth multiplayer tracking. Integrated Wwise SFX and established a base class for future turret variants. Code Quality & Performance Migrated Blueprint behavior logic to native C++. Optimized cover reservation by replacing collision overlap tests with squared distance checks. Resolved replication, aiming, and firing accuracy defects including wall penetration and lateral movement compensation.