CJ Axisa

Botany Manor

Botany Manor is a puzzle-adventure game all about a retired botanist exploring a stately 19th century home to figure out how to bloom some forgotten flora. I was in charge of porting this title to Xbox Series X | S, Xbox One, Windows Store, and Nintendo Switch. This involved working directly with the developer to rework certain mechanics and gameplay sections to fit better on console, addressing visual concerns, and assisting in the optimization of the game. I also worked with platform partners and internal marketing team to get featured placement of Botany Manor in the Xbox Store.

Lake: Season's Greeting

Season's Greetings is a Christmas-themed prequel DLC to 2021's Lake was released simultaneously on Xbox Series X | S, Xbox One, Microsoft Store, Steam, Playstation 4 & 5. This multi-platform launch was completed by a team of 3 porters, with me being responsible for the Xbox Series X | S, Xbox One, and Microsoft Store releases of the game. Due to the holiday theme, it was pivotal release this title on time without issue. This project taught me how to manage multiple workflows and environments and how to work with larger, older codebases.

The Forest Cathedral

This IGF award finalist environmental thriller was made in Unity and originally released for Xbox Series X | S and steam in March of 2023. I began porting the project to Playstation 5 in May of that year. The project had many difficulties; adapting shaders and visual effects to work on Playstation 5, implementing the Activities & Trophy systems, and fixing a game-breaking bug that had emerged.

Kana Quest

This language learning puzzle game was made in Unity and originally released on Steam. In January I began porting the game to Nintendo Switch. I implemented all required Nintendo Switch features and guidelines for this project in addition to fixing bugs and optimizing code from the game's original release.

Evan's Remains

This puzzle platformer game was originally made using Game Maker Studio 2 and released in March of 2020. In October of 2022, I began porting the game to the GX Games store. This is a web-game storefront created by Opera to tie-in with their Opera GX browser. This port was done in-tandem with the Princess Farmer port for a simultaneous release on the platform. This was quite a challenge as the platform had limited documentation at the time of development. I had to compress the game's audio and optimize the code of certain sections to get the game to run properly on the platform.

Princess Farmer

This puzzle-visual novel was originally made using Game Maker Studio 2 and released in March of 2022. In October of 2022, I began porting the game to the GX Games store. This is a web-game storefront created by Opera to tie-in with their Opera GX browser. This port was done in-tandem with the Evan's Remains port for a simultaneous release on the platform.

Loche's Walk

This 2D platformer tells the story of Loche, a magician using his words to meet new friends and defeat enemies. Players speak into their microphone to activate different abilities. This game was developed by a team of Whitethorn employees over the course of a week as a part of the Whitethorn Winter Jam of 2023. There was 1 writer, 1 designer, 1 artist, sound designer and 2 engineers (including myself). The jam's theme was 'Communication' so we interpreted that as a way the player communicates with the game itself, complimented by a story about a character desperate to communicate with others and make new friends. Getting the game's speech recognition to work somewhat consistently was a huge challenge, that I'm happy to have gone through and learned from

PunchDown VR

Punchdown is a VR parkour game in which the player punches the ground and walls to launch themselves and traverse through levels. For this project I work as a programmer, a level designer, and a 3D modeler. This game started as a game jam entry for the 2018's Global Game Jam. From there, myself and two other RIT students decided to continue development on our project and with the guidance of our professor, Elouise Oyzon. She guided us to help complete the project, linking our group up with a 4th member of the team, our composer and sound designer while also helping us to make the game more accessible. When we released the project to the public, our team was recognized for our efforts by our college, receiving the Excellence in Innovation award. "We felt that PunchDown best exemplified the spirit of the innovation category — games that go a bit off the edge of the conceptual map and then build an experience around it.” - Ian Schreiber, Assistant Professor at RIT and co-founder of the Global Game Jam.

Seal Slide

This game was developed over the course of a week as a part of the One Button Game Jam by myself and Monica Phadnis. This jam challenged us to make a game playable with just one button. We created a game that was equal parts pinball and infinite runner. The game stars a seal named Joe who finds himself rolling down a steep hill. Players use one button to control flippers to hit Joe out of the way of obstacles!

Dark Days Ahead

This game was developed over the course of 6 weeks as a project for a Game Design & Development II class. Dark Days Ahead is what we described as a bullet-hell horror game drenched with existential terror. The player plays as a ball of light attempting to survive in a world of darkness. The world is procedurally generated. The player has a dash/dodge move that consumes some of their health. The core gameplay is trying to avoid enemies while maintaining as much health as possible. Throughout their struggle, the player is shown bleak messages of the horror that exists for them.

Porting Engineer

• Collaborated directly with developers to port several PC games to consoles, including Nintendo Switch, Xbox One & Series X | S, PlayStation 4 & 5
• Fixed bugs, optimized and integrated platform requirements for titles like Lake, Botany Manor, Kana Quest and more.
• Worked with Platform Partner and internal marketing team to get featured placement of Botany Manor in the Xbox Store.
• Provided support for PC releases on platforms like Microsoft Store, Epic Games Store, Steam and GX.games.

Engineer

• Programmed for Unity WebGL game, Gameshot, built from the codebase of two previous projects of the company’s.
• Expanded the project’s customization engine to allow players to further customize their games.
• Worked directly with the designer to upgrade and update the existing mechanics and systems.
• Created and maintained servers and database to host player creations and review on another’s creations.
• Worked directly with an artist to implement and animate new UI Art assets.

Volunteer Programmer

• Programmed for a prototype of a video game aimed at helping 4th -8th grade children struggling learn how to read.
• As one of two programmers, created a prototype in Unity that won 2nd place in TechRise Chicago’s pitch competition, granting $10,000 for the project.
• Worked directly with designers, artists, and educators to tweak the prototype based on their feedback.