I am Shaun Norton, a programmer specialising in VR gameplay. I have 1 complete game, 4 short demos, and several other projects (details below).
I have posted over 100 development videos on my YouTube channel.
I am looking for job opportunities – please email shaun@shaunnorton.com
Game studio experience:
Junior Developer, Hipster Whale
Working at Hipster Whale. Unity/C#/JS/Multiplatform.
Junior Developer, Toast VR
Worked at Toast VR on Richie’s Plank Experience, and an unannounced VR game. Unity/C#/VR.
Solo-developed titles:
Unstung (Oculus Quest, 2021)
Project Overview:
- Command a swarm of cute bees as they grow & defend flowers against an army of hungry bugs.
- Platform: Oculus Quest (mobile virtual reality)
- Created by Shaun Norton (studio/alias “Neomajika“)
- Unique VR-only control & gameplay mechanics
- Pikmin-meets-Tower Defense in full 3D.
Scope Overview:
- 1 player character with 3 abilities
- 3 ally unit types (max 300 units)
- 2 enemy types
- 1 boss
- 4 levels with 3 stages each
- Play time 30 minutes – 2 hours (approx), some replay value.
Milestones:
- Started November 2020
- Demo December 2020
- Submitted February 2021
- Published April 2021
Skills & features I worked on
Code
- Unity & C#
- Prototyping
- Player controls & abilities
- Combat systems
- 3D mathematics
- AI (custom Finite State Machine)
- Physics & movement
- Enemy design & spawn tool
- Level design & tools
- Level testing & balancing
- Dialog system
- Procedural animation
- Coroutines
- Object pooling
- Scene management
- VR/PC input abstraction
- UI Canvas/menu
- Particle/sound/haptic systems
- Scriptable Objects
- Prefabs & Variants
- Event/message architecture
- Performance optimisation
- Composition/SOLID
- Continuous QA
- Trailer/camera tools
Art/Design
- Concept art & character design
- Design document
- Modelling
- Animation & rigging (incl. procedural)
- Sound design
- Music commissioning
- Narrative & tutorial writing
- Marketing & brand assets
- Trailer
Project-Level
- Project file management
- Project configuration
- Task management
- Version control
- Alpha & beta tests
- Video updates
- App store submission
- Oculus Start membership
- Grant/funding enquiries
- Marketing & community channels
Other Released Game Projects
- Nell: The Tiny Mage (VR, demo/prototype, 2020)
Solo creator - Robot Coins VR (VR, game jam, 2021)
Programmer - Eternal Equinox (VR, game jam, 2021)
3D Artist - Sock Hunter (PC, game jam, 2021)
3D Character Art/Animation
Other things I’ve done
- Completed Bachelor of Business – Marketing (2018)
- Self-taught Photoshop, Premiere, Illustrator
- Self-taught HTML/CSS/PHP (1999-2010)
- Self-taught Unity/C# (2017-present)
- Co-organising local Melbourne VR Meetups (2019-2021)
- Volunteered at Global Game Jam (2019), Melbourne Esports Open (2018 & 2019) and The BIG Lan (2020)
- Hosted a VR podcast named Virtually Playable (2019)
- Visited San Francisco for Oculus Connect 6 (2019)
- Played around with Minecraft mods & Team Fortress 2 mapping
- Previously studied & dropped out of Science, Multimedia, Surveying, Creative Writing, and Civil Engineering.
Biography
- Live in Queensland, Australia
- I lived in Vietnam for a year with my partner, and speak some Vietnamese
- Favourite games past & present: Command & Conquer, Mario, Zelda, Guild Wars, Portal 2, Team Fortress 2, League of Legends, Overwatch, Valorant
- Interested in fantasy novels, history, languages.