Joseph Dasilva

The first project I worked on at Ubisoft's Red Storm Entertainment, developed in Unity for the Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest 3. Over the course of ~2.5 years, I prototyped, developed, documented, and shipped gameplay features related to player locomotion, interactive cinematics, combat, and unique VR activities.

Gameplay Features Worked On

• Animus Pulse + Scout

• Pickpocketing

• Weapon Caches

• Gondola

• Dice Game

• Breakable Planks

• Cuttable Ropes

• Hanging Traps

• Isu Fragments (Collectibles)

• Edible Props

• Musical Instruments

Things I'm Proud Of

• Independently pitching and prototyping Edible Props and Musical Instruments as "quick win" features based on player feedback from User Research. My proposal was praised by the Creative Director and Lead Producer for adding enjoyment to the game while carefully considering production impact.

• Being selected as 1 of 3 representatives (alongside the Creative and Technical Directors) to lead a closed-door press event in San Francisco one month before release, where I personally assisted an IGN reviewer with the game. I was commended for my helpful and passionate attitude.

• Modularizing gameplay mechanics (specifically the Gondola, Dice Game, and Pickpocketing) so designers could "plug-and-play" them into levels with minimal assistance required. This expanded one-off interactions into game-wide features.

XDefiant was my first project using Snowdrop, Ubisoft's proprietary C++ engine that's similar to Unreal Engine. I spent ~4 months working on the "VS Bots" game mode, meant as a more casual game mode and first-time experience flow for players. I dug into legacy C++ code, improved server-client replication, and resolved issues with the player bot AI behavior.

Features Worked On

• "VS Bots" PvE Game Mode

Things I'm Proud Of

• Independently discovering and fixing a major server-leak issue. While monitoring server debug logs, I noticed that PvE servers persisted long after the last player exited the game. This was caused by the legacy match-exit code not distinguishing between server-controlled (Player Bot) and client-controlled players. I fixed this before release, preventing a massive waste of cloud resources.

• Implementing same-team lobby backfilling with player bots, which allows players to play the "VS Bots" game mode even when player count is low. This was also used for setting up the FTUE (First-Time User Experience) onboarding game modes.

• Improving client replication of server-controlled player bot actions by debugging legacy C++ systems for animation states and agent abilities. Now the bots climb (not run up!) ladders, and you can see when the bot has an ultimate ability activated.

• Finding and fixing an issue where bots had unlimited grenades. Everyone kept saying "Oh wow, the AI really likes using grenades!" Turns out it's because it was hardcoded to be an infinite-ammo weapon that they could spam over, and over, and over... (thank you, old debug code that never got removed)

Fun fact: Mythic Quest, the real TV show about a fictional game studio making fictional games, features footage of real games custom-made for the show! While working on Season 4, I explored the feasibility of showrunner ideas through rapid prototyping, provided showrunners with multiple iterations of scenes, collaborated with producers to set deliverable expectations, and found solutions that balanced showrunner feedback with technical constraints.

Scenes Worked On

• Episode 1: "Boundaries" - Cozy Galaxy scenes

• Episode 2: "1000%" - Playpen/Condo Games scenes

• Episode 3: "Breakthrough" - Cozy Galaxy scenes

• Episode 5: "Second Skeleton" - Nursery FPS, Void, Cozy Galaxy scenes

Things I'm Proud Of

• Delivering the "Nursery FPS" scene, a high-fidelity 1-minute sequence rendered in Unreal Engine 5, designed to look like it was filmed in VR. I was responsible for defining the project goals and technical pipelines for a team of 15+ animators, artists, and technical designers.

• Reducing manual revision time for the "Condo Games" scenes by building a playable simulator that let showrunners finalize character outfits, animations, and positions in real-time.

• Developing inventory, building, and NPC dialogue features for the "Cozy Galaxy" scenes. They're (intentionally) highly reminiscent of Animal Crossing, one of my favorite games!

• Encouraging open, meaningful communication with the members of our "Nursery FPS" team. This allowed me to stay updated with their progress, provide technical assistance, delegate tasks based on individual expertise and interest, and adapt quickly to unexpected showrunner requests.

An ambitious 29-minute episode of television, spun-off from Mythic Quest. I improved and created the tools used to film the episode, focusing on eliminating the pain points faced by cinematic designers and the rendering process.

Things I'm Proud Of

• Improving the camera "Capture Tool" by adding automated batch rendering, scene in/out times, export quality options, and lag detection. These additions turned an extensive rendering process, originally requiring constant supervision, into a single "fire and forget" action.

• Developing a "Character Recorder Tool" to capture live gameplay (character animations, camera movements, ability VFX) directly as timeline animations. This meant our cinematic designers could quickly create combat sequences by playing the game, as opposed to manually animating them.