Killer Journalist


Description

Play as a raccoon journalist gathering evidence for the Raccoon Times. Uncover the secrets held within a crime scene, discovering what was left behind. Carefully frame your shots to capture the story YOU want exposed. There is more lurking behind this scene than meets the eye.

Project Info

Role: Gameplay, System, and Physics Programmer
Team size: 7
Engine: Unreal Engine 5
Tools: Perforce, Blender, Maya
Duration: 48 hours
Date: October 2025
Awards: 1st Place Winner & Best Art MGD Game Jam 2025
Theme: Mask

Personal Notes

  • I was the main systems programmer, developing item detection within the players frame when they took a picture. I also used a plugin in order to save screenshots to be used later during runtime.
  • I learned that just because it works doesnt mean its good. Even though it was a game jam, I put a lot of focus into optimizing. Our first iteration of the game felt clunky and had jarring lag spikes due to the size of the screenshots and the amount of line traces I was doing when checking the full screen.
  • I was in a 40-hour sleepless crunch during the 46 hour game jam in order to assure what I output was higher quality.