Hello, I’m Tex. I make games, mainly focusing on Design/Programming, though I often work solo. Over the past few years I have developed a decent collection of games, with a few displayed below.
A full collection of my released work can be found here
Featured Work:
Key Fairy
A hand-drawn, pacifist, folkloric bullet-hell.
Grapple and dance around monsters to collect their shattered stars, weave your way through twisting paths, encounter strange folk, uncover ancient magic, and evade forgotten gods in a frenetic 2D action-adventure.
Developed with support from Screen Queensland and Screen Australia.
Roles: Design, Code, VFX, Writing
Tools: Unity
Collaborators: Art & World Design by Niosis
Awards: Best Emerging Game & People’s Choice at the Queensland Games Festival 2024
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Key… Features:
Pacifist Protagonist:
A non-violent protagonist re-orients the gameplay to focus on movement, dodging around enemies as you attempt to collect stars without getting hit. It also provides opportunities for unique stories, with monsters becoming permanent characters in the world, who grow and change.
Hand-Drawn Art:
The art for the game is almost exclusively hand-drawn and scanned, with little digital editing. Additional art is made using photo-editing and shader effects to provide a strange, mixed-media, collage experience. This results in an eclectic, story book quality to the world.
Whimsy & Exploration:
The forest is sprawling, filled with strange folk and forgotten gods. Characters speak in riddles and rhyme, and it is easy to lose track of the path. But its a sort of lost that feels exciting and adventurous. It’s just a game about being a small fairy, going on a little adventure.
Some More Games:
I thought You would write
A lonely moment by the sea.
Wander the beach, taking photos and writing messages for the future. Made for PLAY//SPACE 002.
Roles: Design, Code, Art, VFX
Tools: Unity
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Play//Space is an experimental games showcase in Brisbane, modelled around music gigs, with each game being played on every machine in the venue for a 30 minute period, before switching over. For the previous Play//Space I made “Untitled” Community Garden, which provided a lot of the context for this game.
Similar to Community Gardens I wanted to make a game where players were creating art, and essentially building the space for subsequent players. For Community Gardens I did this through having an unchanging space, with players painting on the world one after the other.
For this game I instead made the world constantly shifting, with objects and terrain placed randomly and constantly moving, different screen space shaders applied after each photo is taken, and with the world being reset after 6 minutes. Instead of a persistent world, players can instead capture photos, and then drag text around the image to create poetry and messages, before folding them into planes and throwing them out to sea.
These messages then return for subsequent players, providing a strange one-way communication system. Unlike in Community Gardens, the messages that users created is saved on the devices, which has provided a treasure trove of weird and wonderful images from the event (with some being shown here).
I was worried about this game. It’s more complex than Community Gardens, and less directly analogous to a real world action (like painting). It also relies on screen-space effects, and random generation (which comes with it’s own risks). But I really think it worked! More so than with painting, audiences and players would constantly be talking and suggesting words to each other, and it created exactly the collaborative environment I was aiming for.
Being in the space, watching players go through the process of creating art, or react to their own work coming back on screen, was an amazing experience. I’ve really enjoyed making more abstract and experimental games, and I want to keep making works that explore the nature of players as artists.
This was made as a solo project.
“Untitled” Community Garden
An exploration on art and space.
Walk through a gallery, painting art and curating others work. Made for PLAY//SPACE.
Roles: Design, Code, Art
Tools: Unity
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I was asked to participate in a short experimental game showcase. The format of the event was modelled around music gigs, with the same game being played on multiple computers for around 30 minutes, before another game was switched in. As such, each game was expected to be played for around 5 minutes by each player, and needed to provide some unique experience to new players who had previously been watching.
I decided to make a game which evolved as each player went through, with players exploring a large gallery of empty canvases, and painting portraits as they go. Subsequent players will then be exploring the same space, with art being maintained through each play.
Many of the canvases have plaques, with a title and details about the work, which, along with different environments and sculptures, are intended to provide a theme for each work, which players can follow or ignore as they like.
Each time you enter the gallery you start in a random location, and are only given a short time to explore and paint, before it was another players turn. As such, players would always be finding different secrets and rooms, and coming across each others work randomly. During the showcase, this system worked as intended, and it was interesting to see each station showing unique locations and artwork.
This was made as a solo project.
Hooked!
A VR fishing adventure.
Travel around a bright ocean, catching fish, collecting treasures and taking photographs.
Roles: Design, Some Code
Tools: Unity, Meta Quest VR
Collaborators: Art by Jasmine Perry, Programming by Mars Bleach
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Hooked was an opportunity to make a project in VR, working primarily with the Meta Quest 1 headset.
Focus was placed on providing fun mechanics and a sense of immersion, with the aim to provide a low pressure, entry level experience for casual or new VR users. As such much of my work on this project went into designing and implementing realistic and fun interactions, as well as designing spaces to provide freedom without requiring significant movement.
This was made as part of a team with art by Jasmine Perry and lead programming by Mars Bleach.
Primary Contributions:
- Play-Space Layout Design
- Map-Based Travel System
- Polaroid Camera System
- Fish Collection System
Delivery Run
A construction vehicle driving game.
Made for the not-for-profit organisation Awesome Women in Construction (AWIC)
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AWIC are an advocacy group who wanted us to make a game which could help get young women more interested in pursuing a career in the construction industry. We opted to focus the design around a simple but engaging driving mechanic, which funnels the player into interactions with a variety of different aspects of the industry.
My work in this project was largely split between gameplay and level design. Due to the simplicity of the primary mechanic it was important that it felt juicy and fluid. The level design worked to test the players skill in the game, to introduce them to different characters and areas of the industry, as well as to encourage creative problem solving and show how it could relate to a role in construction.
This was made as part of a team, with art by Jasmine Perry and lead programming by Kyle Lim.
Primary Contributions:
- Level Design
- Dialogue System
- UI & Objective System
Spiralizer
A first person minimalist abstract platformer.
Run and jump your way through an infinite twisting tunnel whilst pursued by a persistent monster.
Roles: Design, Code, Art
Tools: Unity
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This is a spinoff of a game I made for a game jam. The initial jam game was focused on shooting enemies who were only visible when you were firing. I designed the original game to have fast, Quake-style movement, but found that players were largely standing in single locations and sniping. As such, when I made this game I instead put the focus on movement as the primary mechanic.
I basically stripped the game down to its bones, removing the ability to shoot, getting rid of my pre-made map, and removing the system of beacons and enemies. Instead I added one large enemy to follow the player, a generative tunnel, and a leader-board to measure distance travelled.
This was made solo, as a personal project in my spare time.
Highlights:
- Procedural Level Generation
- VFX
- 3D modelling
POGO POGO
A monochrome single-screen pogo platformer.
Rotate to bounce in different directions, as you traverse tight single-screen rooms.
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Pogo Pogo is an attempt to take an extremely simple concept to the practical limit. With only 3 means of interaction (left, right and crouch), a small screen, and one tileset (by the amazing Kenney), I am trying to make as many different and varied levels as possible.
The aim of this project has been to produce a game one chapter at a time, with each chapter having 25-40 levels, aiming for mobile and PC release. The simplicity of the mechanics and design is intended to keep that goal in scope, with each level averaging around 1-2 hours to make.
This is a solo project I am making in my spare time.
Flocking
A chill tiny sheep herding game.
A relaxed experience, aiming to lean into the aesthetics of miniature model making.
Roles: Design, Code, VFX
Tools: Unreal Engine 5
Attributions: Assets sourced royalty free, largely from Quixel Bridge
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The intention with this project was to gain more experience in Unreal. I developed a boids AI that worked with the Unreal navigation system in an attempt to learn blueprints. I benefited a lot from having made a boids system before, for a game jam project. Though that game was 2d, it helped me avoid some pitfalls that come with these sorts of systems, especially when attempting to make them into a game.
The world is made using the landscape and foliage tools, with an aim to produce something natural-ish, but condensed in scale. I wanted to gain a greater experience in developing more relaxed projects, so this project has a greater focus on exploration, and doesn’t have elements such as win or lose states.
The art for this project is based around a high depth of field camera system, which aims to provide a unique visual identity (inspired by model trainsets), whilst allowing me to use pre-existing art packs rather than making the art from scratch.
This was a solo project.
Highlights:
- Complex boids AI
- Relaxed Vibes
- Exploration Focused World Design
Sortico
A player-driven file sorting game.
Sort a constant stream of variously named objects into peculiarly named folders.
Roles: Design, Code, Art
Tools: Godot, Aseprite
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Each folder can only hold up to 3 different types of objects, but can hold any object the player wants, so the game becomes a memory game of coming up with semi-rational filing systems and then trying to remember whether you placed “Fear” in the “Mind” or “Food” folder.
The core of this idea is an interest in encouraging player agency in less “game-y” ways. A major difficulty in this project was allowing player freedom, while preventing game-breaking strategies.
This was made solo, as a personal project in my spare time.
Highlights:
- Gameplay Design & Programming
- Pixel Art
- UI
Midnight Ceiling
A fishing-based, one-way social media.
A paired down fishing game where players can reel in messages left by other players.
Roles: Design, Code, VFX
Tools: Godot, Aseprite
Attributions: Models sourced from the unity asset store.
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Players are given the opportunity to respond, however their responses simply become new messages in the void. I was interested in the sort of messages people would leave in such a system.
The aesthetic for this game went through several iterations before I settled on the final look. I used largely found assets, with the aim being to tie them together both with the theme of a flooded city, and with a duotone shader effect.
This was made solo, as a personal project in my spare time.
Highlights:
- Gameplay Design
- Fishing System
- VFX
Reed-Doo
An absurdist plant hairdressing game.
Use a variety of hair/gardening tools to try and deliver the haircuts these pot plants desire.
Roles: Design, Code, Art
Tools: Godot, Sketchbook
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Who Do New Hair Doo To Bamboo? You Do!
This game was made largely over a game dev weekend, at a house in the hills with no internet. The art was drawn on a tablet, with an aim to go for a fast and janky aesthetic to account for time.
The core loop of the game is in 3 parts. First, the empty pot arrives, giving a line of dialogue about the type of haircut they would like. Next, the player can use their mouse to operate various tools to: Grow, Cut and Brush the bamboo-hair into different arrangements. When the player considers their work complete, they can click done, and the plant-customer will again have dialogue about how their feelings about the haircut.
The dialogue, both at the beginning and end, is randomized. Part of my intention was to explore the nature of gamer motivation, and whether the appearance of player-feedback is enough for players to feel engaged.
I think it really worked, especially in the context of being played with an audience post-jam, the game is funny in-part due to the non-gamey nature of it. Players often felt like there was a relationship between their haircut and the plant response, but that feeling came only from them. In the absence of a clear metric for success, players needed to, essentially, role-play.
Obviously not all games benefit from this approach, but I am continuing to explore these ideas in games like “Untitled” Community Garden, where players are let loose in an art gallery, with written prompts they are free to follow or ignore.
This was made as a solo project.
Note: All music and sounds have been sourced royalty free from third parties.
48hr Jam Games
Note: All music and sounds have been sourced royalty free from third parties, unless otherwise credited.
Tex Barnes 