Grant Benson's Computer Science Portfolio
"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great"
Zig Ziglar
Six Floors Under
The 54th Ludum Dare game jam's theme was limited space. Based on the theme, I came up with the idea to be an assassins in an elevator. This project took a team of six around a week to complete, with an alpha version submitted for the game jam being made in two days. This was the first game jam where the project my team and I created that got ranked in the top 100 (34th in audio) globally; I would attribute this to the polishing efforts like syncing the characters with the thematic music, which I hadn't done for any games prior to this. This was also the first time I dabbled in art; All my other projects have been almost exclusively systems and/or UI implementation.
HellSpawner
This 2024 Ludum Dare jam's theme of summoning led our team to create HellSpawner. This boss rush game is unique in the way that the player gains abilities from defeated bosses. Play on medium to recover health between bosses or test your skills with hard or HellSpawner. As one of three programmers I focused on user interface programming, enemy AI, and game managing logic.
Galaxian3D
Pilot a spaceship against swarms of alien ships inspired by Galaxian (1979). I am particularly proud of the proof-of-concept genetic enemies in this game, which use Unreal Engine's behavior trees combined with a genetic algorithm from the field of artificial intelligence. These enemies evolve over rounds based on their success in dealing damage to the player. In a team of four, I was responsible for implementing the genetic enemies, creating the skybox, and designing the UI elements. We completed this project in less than a week
Duo Protocal
Duo Protocol is for when the world's military force has been diminished to two individuals: a foot solider and a commander. This co-op game puts a twist on classical first person shooters by having the commander supply information, weapons, ammo, artillery, and defenses to the soldier. I did the commander's user interface, the soldier's compass, the base turrets, and design of the canyon map, and other miscellaneous tasks. This project gave me further exposure to UI design and landscaping tools available in the Unreal Engine.
Sumo Slapshot
Sumo Slapshot is an addictive couch co-op where you play as an air hockey paddle and sumo wrestler to control the flow and positioning. I was the lead programmer on a team of four and received help from one of the 3D modelers. This project was for the week long 2025 Triangle Game Jam, which I helped plan and organize.
Around Us
Stranded in an immersive environment surrounded by familiar enemies, your objective in this game is merely to survive the onslaught of your attackers. This first person shooter shooter was made in Unity, specifically for the Cyma Rubin Visualization Gallery. This fps was made with one other developer in about a three day window using the gyroscopic controls from Phillips Albright.
Skyrates (images to be added)
This is an prototype for an sky pirate kobold themed open world adventure game. While on islands, you can parkour to collect procedurally generated loot, upgrade your ship, and set sail. While sailing the sky, you can engage in combat with enemy ships and find new islands. I was the lead developer and did the enemy ship behavior trees and player ship programming, helped with the procedural generation system for chests, created UI using Common UI plugin for controller support, and created miscellaneous assets.
Golden Wasteland
You are a small robot traversing what is referred to as "the golden wasteland". Your objective during the day is to collect resources in order to upgrade the interior of the food store (Golden Dragon) you operate at night. I did the programming for the restaurant and communication between scenes. Upgrading the appliances in the Golden Dragon increases your capabilities in the arid wasteland.
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10th Life Of Mittens
This zombie cat themed tower defense game is unlike traditional tower defenses in the sense that the player loses the ability the move different towers in response to losing lives. The player, Mittens the cat, can lose nine lives before turning into a zombie themself. I developed this game with a group of students from VGDC at the Red Storm Entertainment game jam (~2 day period). This was my first game jam and I loved every part of it. I designed and implemented the tower mechanics and some of the lighting changes. This experience inspired me delve deeper into video game development.
DusteD
This clicker + idle game was a compo project, meaning everything needs to be made by one person, that I made in roughly 36 hours. The programming only took me a few hours and the art, because I specialize in programming, took me like half a day. This was the first and only game I created every piece of code and art for, which gave me a greater appreciation for artists and solo developers.
Swim Sim
Swim sim is an independently made virtual reality game for the 2024 Global Game Jam in around 20 hours. Using XR/VR development space, the meta quest developer hub, and the flexibility of Unity has inspired me to continue working in the extended and virtual reality realms. The theme for this jam was "make me laugh" so that partially contributed to the idea of seeing someone swimming with a VR headset on. I plan on using this movement system as a prototype in a VR underwater horror game.
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Dig Deep
What would you do if you were a root? Well digging deep seems like an obvious choice. This game was developed with two other teammates in around two days for the 2023 global game jam. This game's infinite field generation and rhythmic movement make for a peaceful and unique playthrough every time.