Laochra Murray

My Path to Game Dev

From a young age I thought games were amazing, and I spent much time coming up with new ideas for them. Eventually, in 2016 I made my first ever game project, as part of a student GameMaker competition, and ever since it felt like a future I could work towards. I've been developing my skills with design and coding since then, and making little projects for fun.

In 2018 I completed AIE's cert III courses that touched on art, design, and code. That experience really helped me find what I enjoyed doing in games. From 2022 to 2023 I further studied design with AIE's Design Diplomas, where I decided to make the leap to programming and solidified my passion as a programmer with an eye for design. In 2024 I concluded my official study with an Advanced Diploma in programming.

Personal Hobbies

To this day I still love to participate in game jams and small projects just for fun, but even when I'm not I'm usually doing something creative. I love world-building, tabletop systems design, creating fun and interesting characters and madeup mystical species, and drawing.

As a Game Developer

I have a passion for games from both a design and technical perspective. I love learning about new skills, techniques, and methodologies, and always like to take something from every new experience. Many of the projects on my portfolio exist because of pushing myself to learn new things and going outside my comfort zone. The biggest of which was undertaking the development of a custom engine as a way to improve my tool programming skills, and learn how graphics works.

Going Forward

I've worked out I want to specialise more into gameplay systems, and tools programming, as I really enjoy the creativity they require when working within constraints. I love working with people of varied disciplines and being able to deliver something that will benefit the team and/or the game being made. I'd love the opportunity to work within a custom engine again, but am equally comfortable using Unity, or learning another off the shelf C++ / C# engine.

Soft Skills

Hard Working
Driven
Reliable

Good Communicator
Loves Learning
Always Looking to Improve

Development

5+ Years

Gameplay Programming
Mechanics Design

3 Years

Tool Programming
Systems Design

1 Year

Engine Development
Graphics Programming

Tools and Programs

5+ Years

Unity
Git

2 Years

Hack n Plan
Trello

1 Year

Renderdoc
Custom Engine

Languages

5+ Years

C#
CSS
HTML

2 Years

C++
Python