Mathew Dacosta

Mathew Dacosta

Games programmer




About

I'm a games programmer, currently studying Computer Games Programming in my final year. I'm interested in engine and tools development and graphics systems.

I'm proficient in C++ and Java and also familiar with C#. I've developed graphics systems using DirectX 11 and OpenGL, and have created small games with SDL and Unity.

I also have experience with frontend web development using Vue.js with JavaScript and TypeScript.

Current projects

Artist's impression of a visual scripting system

Scripting system and virtual machine runtime

For my final year project, I'm currently researching scripting language runtimes and their uses within games.

I aim to develop a virtual machine runtime to run bytecode programs across different platforms.

This will be complemented by a compiler for an existing language, which can be used by other developers to build high-level behaviours.



Advanced 3D graphics engine

This is a university assignment to implement more advanced graphics techniques, including deferred shading and post-processing effects.

Later stages of the project will include procedurally-generated terrain and skeletal animations.

Demonstration of parallax mapping in action

Past projects

Simple 3D graphics engine in DirectX 11

This was a university assignment to implement basic graphics techniques, including Phong shading, texturing and simple object transformations. It was my first experience using the D3D shader pipeline.

I extended this project with additional features including controllable objects, multiple cameras, billboard sprite effects and hierarchical object animation, and also developed a Perlin noise-based procedural terrain system.



SDL Mario Bros

A 2D game inspired by the original Mario Bros game. This was created as part of a university assignment.

I built a 2D game engine with a scene manager using C++ and SDL. The engine features simple physics and collisions, and incorporates various SDL utilities to render text and play sound effects.

The game loads tile-based levels from a text file. It features sprite animations based on the player state and 2-player co-op multiplayer.

Screenshot of SDL Mario Bros


Tricky Goals

Swing your hammer to hit as many balls into the goal as possible, but avoid the bombs!

Tricky Goals was created in Unity as part of a four-day beginners' game jam.

This was my first experience using Unity. I implemented keyboard-based movement for the hammer, and used Unity's physics system to create different collision responses when striking with different parts of the hammer.

Contact

You can follow me for updates on my projects or get in touch on Twitter, GitHub or LinkedIn.

I also showcase my graphics and game projects over on Vimeo.