Dun Mao

Dun Mao

Innovative Game Developer

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About Me

Hi everyone~ Welcome to My Portfolio. My name is Dun Mao, or "M" for short, an independent game developer and a serious gamer. I began my career as a developer when I founded our Game Development Society in high school. Our aim was to create the game that has never been seen. Therefore creativity is most important element in my games. Not only I focus on the gameplay to make my games enjoyable, but also the philosophy behind the game to keep them inspiring.

I'm particularly enthusiastic about Virtual Reality technology. Not only will it revolutionize the gaming experience, but also it could be used in the field of education, medicine, physics... The potential is boundless and We're at the dawn of a new generation. Rather than wait and be a witness, I want to be part of the future.

Right now I'm looking for a job in a game company that has interest in VR development. I'm currently working part-time for a VR research project team to gain experience. I believe this would give me a head start.

Here you can find details about some of the projects I've been working on. Feel free to try some demos and see the source code. Either you want to kindly offer me a job, or looking for a collabrateur for your awesome project, or seeking more information about myself, or just want to discuss games with me, please don't heasite to contact me by E-mail or Facebook.

Latest Projects

VR Game - S.O.D.

A 3D motion capture game powered by Unreal Engine 4 and VR devices

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Seekers Of Damocles is a on-going project developed by a team of Indie game developer and artists using Unreal Engine. It is a motion capture sword fight simulation game powered by HTC Vive and has released the second demo.

For years we've been dreaming to wield a lightsaber or fight dragons with a legendary sword. Although it's difficult to accomplish this in the real world, but in virtual reality, everything is possible. Especially with the Hydra controller which is a magnetic field tracker capable of tracking the position and orientation of the user's hand.With the powerful UE4 implementing the Vive into VR environment has never been easier.

So here we precent the S.O.D., a real sword fighting game I used to play with my friends using harmless foam weapons. This game aims to recreate the realistic experience of sword fighting combine with fantasy combat elements. In this game attack is more than just pressing buttons. You can slash in whatever direction you want, block and parry enemy's attack, all with dynamic Haptic feedbacks. With UE4's destructible mesh we can create a highly interactive game with intuitive control system. There are dozens of weapons to choose from and tons of Sword Skill Combo moves inspired by real-world Sword Martial Arts. The game is highly active with challenging AIs. And there's more to come. We also implemented severial new methords to deal with VR sickness

The framework of the game has so much potential, it can be easily turned into any kind of VR action games. Therefore I'm thinking about open the core gameplay code after the game is released. So that people can create VR Monster Hunter, VR Devil May Cry, VR God of War and other amazing games with fully immersive gameplay experience

Seekers Of Damocles

VR Game - BurstSquash

VR Hyper Speed Arcade Squash Game

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BurstSquash was developed in 48 hours during a local charity Game Jame: 1Up Jam using Unreal Engine 4 with full Blueprint. The game has Haptic feedback and Stereophonic sound which create an amazing immersive gaming experience. The game is a challenge and experiment to see if its possible to create a high quality VR game in a short time. The result is very successful.

The Game design is inspired by Japanese anime Accel World, which features the ability to slow down time. We implemented this idea to the high speed squash game and achieved a special balance. The game is fun to play both using and not using the time slow ability. It's highly sporty and encourage the player to move more actively. It's a gaming experience that can only be found in Virtual Reality.

Download on Itch
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VR Concussion Test

As one of the potential application of Virtual Reality technology, VR is expected to be widly used in the field of medicine. In this project, I designed a Unity program to perform balancing tests using Oculus Rift and Wii Fit balance board. The project was aimed to develop a practical system for sports teams(e.i. rugby, football, basketball) to use when their player got an head injury. The system is cheap, reliable and easy to use. It provides helpful advice to the team coach whether to keep the player on the field or call for medical treatment.

The test was to measure the user's balancing skill by showing them a virtual tilting room. The test subject was asked to stand on a Wii balance board so that we can measure his center of gravity by using the pressure sensors on the corners of the balance board. To make the system more affordable, instead of a 2000£ pressure plate, we used a 20£ Wii Fit board, because the reading is still accurate enough for the test. Integrating it into Unity was a real chanllege, because it's a non-regular controller. Nevertheless, I handled it pretty well.

Also I got a change to apply some UX/UI design knowledge I learned from my HCI course. The UI design for VR is pretty different from the normal 2D or even 3D games. There's a lot of unexplored design space in this field. It's really important to get feedbacks from the real user. As the actual user who's going to use my program to perform the experiment, my teammates provided many helpful advice to improve the design. The program now is ready for test and even novice user can handle it by using a external file to change parameter settings. The next step would be to include the kinect for body tracking and to build the program on mobile platform for VR Headset.

View on GitHub

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ACT Game - Baobab

An fast-paced 2D game developed using Unity with two of my friends. The game design was inspired by the peculiar plant Baobab decribed in the famous book The Little Prince.

In this game, you're acting as a robot trying to provent the rapid growing Baobab trees from swamping the planet. As a robot, the player can change its body parts and use different kinds of weapon. The game has a variety of items and weapons for at your disposal. Pick them up and fight some amazing Enemies.

The game's art is original and was solely done by my friend ZY. I'm responsible for the gameplay mechanism and animation. The game is scheduled to release on PC, Android and IOS once it's been completed.

View on GitHub

Bluetooth Wristband - Digiband

This is a hardware side project I did in my final year of college. The name Digiband is the combination of Digimon and Smartband. Digimon is one of my favourite anime series, and I own some virtual pet device that can raise Digimons when I was little. It was really fun to play. And nowadays there're many smartband prodect that tracking your activity, helping you to lose weight. The idea is to use Virtual Pet as a stimuli to encourage people to get more exercise wearing smartbands.

The Digiband combines a Pedometer, a Virtual Pet and a Digital Watch all into a single wearable wristband. It can count how many steps you take everyday and during which your Digimon will advanture in its virtual world. It can fight enemy, find treasure, become stronger and evolve. There're over 70 different kinds fo Digimon and 8 adventure maps. The battle system is pretty fascinating for such a small device. It's a real-time rpg and you have to exercise to power your Digimon.

The core of this device is a Bluetooth4.0 chip, connected to a gyroscope and a LED screen. All powered by a rechargeable lithium battery. However due to manufacturing cost I couldn't turn it into a marketable product. But it's still very fun to play with the prototype.

View on GitHub

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Deduction Game - When We Cry

This is the first game I've ever made on Unity, it's a chess-like board inspired by one of my favourite detective story called " When They Cry". The background for this game is 16 people trapped on an island and mysterious murders happened. In order to survive, they have to find out who's the murderer.

In this 2-players game, one player act as the detective and the other act as the criminal. The criminal has 4 accomplices chosen among the 16 pieces, and his goal is to use these accomplices to kill all the other pieces. The goal for the detective is obviously to figure out which pieces are accomplices of the murderer. The detective can move all the pieces according to his will. The criminal however has the ability to divide the chessboard into separate "Rooms". A murder happens when there're more murderers than innocent people in one room. A good detective can find out lots of clues by investigating the condition of murders happened. That's how the detective gather information and eventually comes up with a deduction.

This game is well-balanced, it's difficult for both players. A serious game would easily take more than a hour. And compare with other detective games, this one successfully introduced real logic into it. There's no guessing or using intuition, you can always fined an answer by deploying rigorous reasoning. If you're a detective story fan, you should definitely try it, it's a nice workout for your brain.

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Other Projects

VR RAC Game - Unreal Racer Free on itch

VR Racing game developed using Unity within 48 hours.

Although recently I'm focusing on UE4 development but it doesn't mean I've forgot how to use Unity. To prove my skill in Unity and also to catch up with the Unity's update, I challenged myself to make a VR racing game in 48 hours. I've used a lot of free assets to reduce the scope, such as all the 3D models and the mechanical system of the car. What I'm focusing on is implement the VR gameplay to simulate real driving experience. The game also comes with two camera view option(hopefully this can reduce some motion sickness issues) and calibration so that you can play it no matter how your VR device has been set up.

View on itch.io

FTG Game - How to become a Gentleman Open Source

In most of my other projects I played the role of a programmer. So in this project I decided to step out of my comfort zone and try to be an artist. So I kept the game design as simple as possible and let others do the programming. Instead I was responsible for the artworks. Including UI design, animation and texture. Limited by both time and equipment, I wasn't able to make a lot of assests, but it turns out to be fine. The game was designed for a Christmas event, it's fun to play with friends.

View on GitHub

ARPG Game - Shadow SwordOpen Source

This is a game made for school's Game Jam Event. It's been made by two people in less than a week. It can give you a general idea on my work efficiency.

The game was desigened base on an very interesting idea. Although it looks like a traditional dungeon game, the goal is to escape from the dungeon, but it's pitch black and the player only has a limited view distance. However darkness and light are the key factor of the game system. The weapon player use is called Shadow Sword, which would glow in the dark and become much more powerful. When a monster is killed, a bonefire is lit and illuminate the surrendings.

View on GitHub

Work Experience

Software Engineer - University of Birmingham (2015 - Present)

Integrated Oculus Rift, Wii Balance Board and Unity.

Developed the system for data collection and analyzation.

Assistant Software Engineer - Shanghai Zealion Innovation Corporation (2014 - 2015)

Provided Technical Solutions to Big Companies such as HSBC and Estée Lauder.

Assisted in developing Android App for commercial purpose.

UI Designer Internship - Shanghai Hi-Tech Control System Co.,Ltd (2014 - 2014)

Designed Human Machine Interface and programmed PLC for servo motor control system..