“Watching somebody playtest your level is the best feeling. Not only do you get to see them having fun, but you also see parts they aren’t. Those parts are the ones I want to fix.”

My name is Shane Rooney originally from Northern Ireland. I have a huge interest in game design and all the various aspects which go into making a game. My two most favourite and most knowledgeable roles within developments of games are Level Design and UI / UX.

I want to collaborate with other people who are super enthusiastic about video games like I am. I want to get along well and create amazing experiences which can be enjoyed by everybody! I also want to be pushed out of my comfort zone further and learn more about different areas within development.

I am extremely hardworking and willing to learn as I have been balancing my studies, part-time work and personal life whilst constantly striving to improve my skills at level design. I like to take on any challenge which will help improve my skills more. Even if that challenge is extremely difficult and I fail, I will take what I had learned from it and try and improve further from my failure so I can succeed in the future.

I approach each task with a clear set out and organized goals to effectively manage my time. I work well with others and whenever a problem arises, I like to seek out solutions for this problem and communicate with team members about the problem I encountered and viable solutions for fixing it.

I studied many games growing up trying to figure out what exactly I liked about them. I liked learning each games unique quirks and breaking them.

I often found myself exploring all corners of levels and trying to escape the boundaries of them. This in combination with creating my own custom maps on games such as Halo 3, Far Cry 2, Source Games, and more lead me down my own game development journey.

 

Qualifications, Experience and More

  • Abertay University

    • BA (Hons) Game Design and Production
      1st Class Honours (4.25GPA)
      [Sep 2020 - May 2024]

    Southern Regional College

    • Games, Animation & VFX Skills (Level 3 Extended Diploma) [Sep 2018 - May 2020] [High Merit]

    • Information Technology Level 3 National Diploma [Sep 2016 - May 2018] [High Merit]

  • Project TATS (Contract Work)
    July 2024 - August 2024

    I was tasked with being the project lead and worked with two other programmers to create basic game mechanics and balancing. Additionally, I had to create two separate levels for different game modes (FFA & Bomb Defusal) within a fast and iterative environment. Lastly, I also created the UI/UX interfaces for both gameplay, functionality and menus.

    Rags & Richie - Dare Academy Finalist
    July 2023 - October 2023

    Rags & Richie was a game i had worked on for Dare Academy competition in 2023. We reached the final and were able to develop our game further and present it at EGX 2023. I gained a lot of experience and knowledge as a UI/UX designer and was mentored by Industry members from Rebellion, Fuse Games, Unity, Cloud Emporuim and more.

    Abertesters

    December 2021, November 2023

    Abertesters was a program run by Abertay University in which students such as myself are given the oppurtunity to be Quality Assurance Testers for games. I gained much QA experience knowledge which i was able to incoroprate into testing and fixing my own projects. (All projects under NDA.)

    After Graduation, I was hired to work with Abertay University to create an a currently unannounced project, which will be used to help & train teach future students the development pipeline process for Design, Programming and Art in game development.

    • Autodesk Maya

    • Unreal Engine 4 & 5

    • Unity

    • Adobe Photoshop

    • Adobe XD

    • Level Design (spatial design theory, player psychology etc.)

    • Game Design / Production

    • UI / UX Design

    • Abertay Dare Finalist 2023

    • Exhibitor EGX 2023

    • nDreams Best Level Design Award (ADGS 2024)